It's funny --- not funny ha-ha, but funny weird -- that papers will cut comic strips, but those same papers will use these canceled print comics to promote their own Web traffic.
Case in point: today's Oregonian front page, featuring Curtis and Zits, reminds readers that there are five dozen comics waiting for them if they put down their print newspaper and get on the Internet.
The Oregonian reduced its Sunday comics section in 2008 and initiated a poll earlier this year to chop ten more comic strips from its print edition.
According to the TCJ Web chat board, the response to the proposed comic strip cuts was overwhelmingly negative, so the editors kept them.
What is wrong with newspapers! I'm so tired of talking about it - but seriously - giving away content FOR FREE online, and then complain about readership of the actual paper dwindling? Who's the marketing director? They're slicing their own throats.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked on (a couple) newspapers, the newsstand price seemed to be what covered their print and distribution costs; advertising supposedly paid overhead and profits.
ReplyDeleteAre the papers just putting content online... or are they putting it next to paid advertising? It's hard to believe none of the publishers have thought this out... I hope.