John Auchter, who draws editorial cartoons for the Grand Rapids Press (MI), has picked up a chain of papers to his client roster. Last month MLive Media Group consolidated print operations and hired John to do weekly cartoons to appear in The Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, and Saginaw News.
We writes:
The bad news is that this came about from a consolidation (not an expansion) of the company and many high-quality journalists and support staff had to move on or became contractors. But the good news is that the publisher and editor thought to reach out to an editorial cartoonist for an expanded role. They saw the value of the unique, Michigan-based commentary that I can provide and have made it part of their efforts to keep and (hopefully) attract readers. Also good news — I got a decent bump in pay.