When it comes to comics, your input is needed!

Breaking cat news sparks bigger conversations about comics

If you follow our daily comics page, there’s been an interesting conversation going on. Breaking Cat News has been focused on the decline of women cartoonists on the funny pages. But as a newspaper editor – and a lifetime reader of newspaper comic strips – I’m going to put my two cents in on the issue.

The first is that I love comics, and I love Breaking Cat News.

At the Sun, we’ve focused for years to keep a mix of comics on our pages and to bring fresh new comics to our readers- but this has become a financial challenge for newspapers to keep comics.

The reality is, comic strips are expensive.

It also costs money to pay our reporters to write stories – not to mention our pressroom teams, delivery teams, etc. And we have costs like ink and newsprint, the electric bill (and that, my friends, is a doozy!), internet, software, etc.

Every single day, we weigh how we spend every dollar that comes in to the Sun, and comics are part of that conversation.

We do not purchase comics directly from cartoonists, but instead through syndication services that represent those cartoonists. There’s a negotiation process between a newspaper and a syndication service, and sometimes, that process can be extremely challenging. And sometimes, the rates are simply too high for newspapers to afford.

If we’re being honest in this conversation about comics, we have to also include those syndication services and how they choose to sell those comic strips.

But in every conversation I’ve ever had about saving costs with comics, it was never a conversation of female vs male cartoonists.

Ultimately, it’s a balancing act of costs vs. what readers have said they want to see.

And frankly, when it comes to Breaking Cat News, it’s on our comics pages because I love it – and readers have shared that they do too.

And that’s what helps us maintain comics on the pages of the Sun. It’s knowing that readers enjoy them, giving us a reason to keep pushing to include them on our pages when we are faced with making hard decisions.

And so, with that, I’m asking you for your help, readers.

Take a look at our comics pages. Read them for a few days. Take some notes on what works and what doesn’t for you.

And then, take it a step further, and ask the kids in your life for their opinions, too – because I’d love to hear them.

Then, please, send your thoughts in to letters@ yumasun.com.

Do you still want to see the legacy comics like Peanuts? Do you enjoy the family focus of comics like Zits and Baby Blues, or the whimsy of Pearls Before Swine and Breaking Cat News?

Every bit of feedback I have helps me determine the future of our comics. Because ultimately, the comics are for our readers. We include them for you, because of you – and we need to know what you enjoy.

I greatly appreciate your help.