There used to be an axiom among newspaper editors that the last thing in the world they wanted to do was to make changes to the comics page, because they knew cutting a single comic could result in a flurry of angry calls and letters from upset listeners.
A corollary to that is that editors believed every call and letter represented at least 10 times that many readers who were ticked off but couldn’t be bothered with calling or writing.
So what did The Buffalo News do a couple of weeks ago? The paper cut 25 daily strips in one day, going from 33 to 10 (while adding two new ones). The Sunday comics section went from 28 features (including puzzles and the like) to 18.
Welcome to Buffalo, new Editor-in-Chief Sheila Rayam! It’s probably the first thing that Rayam, who joined The News in August, will be known for.
It clearly wasn’t her decision, though, although she was the one who announced the changes back on Sept. 13.
The changes seem to have been made across the entire Lee Enterprises newspaper chain. Lee bought The News from billionaire Warren Buffett in 2020.
In one fell swoop, Lee cut comics — including apparently all King Features comics — at its papers across the country, and it owns 77 dailies in 26 states. You can read all about it HERE. It’s all part of Lee’s cookie-cutter approach to newspapers, and no doubt it saves a lot of money on syndication costs.
That means no Mutts, no Zits, no Amazing Spider-man, no Funky Winkerbean oand Crankshaft, no Sally Forth. For fans of vintage comics, that means no Prince Valiant, Blondie or Dennis the Menace. King Features has launched a Facebook sponsored ad campaign encouraging disgruntled readers to contact their papers to demand restoration of their comics.
The changes mean that the Sunday section, reduced from six pages to four, now carries the logo of Andrews McMeel Universal — King Features’ biggest rival — on its front page. But even some of the best Andrews McMeel Universal comics (Dilbert and Get Fuzzy) are gone.
So what is the big deal about comics? After all, it’s just comics, right?
Well, what are the things that the paper edition can give you that the digital version of the newspaper can’t replicate? Comics would be at the top of the list.
The News (and other Lee newspapers, I’m sure) are telling subscribers that they can find their comics — and more — online.
Realistically, I can’t find any comics on my iPhone Buffalo News app. And besides, who wants to read comics on a phone? Even on today’s larger screens, they’re still too small.
On the website, you have to click on the index drop arrow, then on Gusto, before you can find the comics. And then, it takes you to the Andrews McMeel Universal online website (GoComics), so still no King Features.
Add to that the facts that:
- It doesn’t help newsstand buyers of the paper.
- Most of the home delivery subscribers are older and probably still get the paper edition because they don’t want to have to deal with an online paper.
- Let’s be honest … It’s just not as much fun to read comics on a screen. And GoComics isn’t exactly easy to navigate unless you have a subscription to that service (I have had a subscription for sometime; it’s $20 a year).
The bigger meaning of all of this is that The Buffalo News, and its fellow Lee newspapers, is taking away one more reason to subscribe. And that’s along with changing the puzzles and reducing the advice columns that used to be on the same pages.
They had already been pushing the envelope for years by drastically increasing the cost of the paper. Everyday home delivery increased from somewhere around $330 a year just a few years ago to $576 a couple of years ago.
Last spring I received a bill for over $900, but I was able to go online and renew at the $576. A bargain, I guess?
Now I’ve been hearing rumors that the store price is about to go up from $4.50 to $5 for Sundays and $2.50 to $3 for dailies. Who knows what the subscription price will be?
I teach journalism. I spent 27 years in newspapers. I bleed ink. But I’m not sure I can afford the kind of prices The News seems to be ready to ask.
It’s as if The News is trying to see how much subscribers will take before they give up. Smaller paper? Reduced high school coverage (have you noticed how there’s next to no high school results on the scoreboard? The sports clerks were eliminated last year)? Reduced layers of copy editing (have you noticed way more typos?)? Local government coverage shunted off to the weekly newspapers such as the Hamburg Sun?
If it seems like management is trying to see what it will take to kill the print edition of The News, it’s probably because that’s exactly what’s happening.
Previous editor Mike Connelly made that obvious years ago. He wrote in a memo to the staff in 2018 that if the paper could get 83,000 digital subscribers paying $10 a month, it would be able to cover the costs of the newsroom. Connelly, and now Rayam, have embraced the “digital-first” philosophy wholeheartedly.
“Digital-first” means print becomes an afterthought, a nuisance.
Now The News has announced the sale of its newsroom and its plans to move its editorial offices to Larkinville.
One of its sources of income has been its printing business, and it still will own the presses. But who knows how long that will last? That real estate is in a prime location.
Meanwhile, Rayam’s piece announcing the comics changes, listed 77 comments when I last checked. All were negative on the changes.
I’m forced to wonder if they had hoped nobody would comment. Then they would have known people had stopped caring. The News is still working on that, but I don’t think they’ll like the results when they get there.