After editorial cartoonist Ted Rall announced he had taken a staff job with Pando Daily, the cartooning community celebrated the new trend of hiring cartoonists. Unfortunately the old trend of laying-off cartoonists is still very much alive. ValleyWag broke the story that Ted had been fired less than a month on the job along with writer David Sirota.
According to the ValleyWag the reason wasn’t budgetary, but complaints from investors.
An anonymous source alerted Valleywag to the firings. Neither Rall nor Sirota would comment on why they were fired. But there was a consensus among sources that the decision was not related to budgetary concerns. “It was completely from Sarah Lacy. Paul was the executioner. Apparently it came from complaints from investors in Pando,” according to one Valleywag source. “Sarah basically said there was not enough tech and too much politics.”
But wait, the issue may not be quite as clear cut. Editor Paul Carr refutes the idea that investors had any say in the firings. You can read his email on the ValleyWag site.
I believe this is the final confirmation that the old business model of creating visual commentary for someone other than yourself is DEAD.
I wish I had been born 25 years earlier