Image copyright UFS for now.
United Feature Syndicate and the PEANUTS gang are parting ways after 60 years effective February 2011.
Michael Cavna, writing for The Washington Post's Comic Riffs blog, has the story:
"As Comic Riffs reported in April, United's parent, E.W. Scripps Co. had reached a deal to sell its United Media Licensing business -- including "Peanuts" -- to Iconix Brand Group for $175-million. And this past summer, Scripps sold the Peanuts property to Peanuts Worldwide LLC.
"'We at United Feature Syndicate have been involved in negotiations with Peanuts Worldwide for the right to continue to syndicate and distribute the Peanuts comic strip to newspapers,' the syndicate said in its announcement. 'Unfortunately, we were not able to come to mutually agreeable terms, and as a result, United Feature Syndicate will no longer distribute the 'Peanuts' comic strip to newspapers, effective February 26, 2011.'"
And the other shoe drops:
ReplyDeletehttp://dailycartoonist.com/index.php/2010/09/09/peanuts-to-be-syndicated-by-universal/
And, since this means every editor at a paper carrying reruns of the strip will have to make the effort to order it from the new syndicate, this is an excellent time to drop them a letter and remind them that the word "news" in "newspaper" is supposed to have some meaning. They could always give away a book of Peanuts reprints to anyone who subscribes to the paper for a year in advance ...
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