Leonard Witt of the Public Journalism Network interviewed Clay Bennett, president of the Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, who spoke of how important an asset an editorial cartoonist can be for a newspaper.

Witt begins his article by stating that the number of full time staff cartoonists in the US has dropped significantly, from 200 to 80.

Witt asked Bennet "Why should I care about a cartoonist when the bean counters are also cutting beat reporters and investigative reporters?

Bennet responded: "these job losses are mainly due to financial and not journalistic decisions. The people who are making these decisions ... choose to serve their shareholders and not their readers. ... of all the journalists at a newspaper the editorial cartoonist is the most provocative. That may be the position's undoing. When accountants make decisions about who needs to go, its very easy to put the most controversial members of your staff at the top of that list ... But what they're not considering is a feature like editorial cartoons, which may lose you a few subscriptions, will bring in ten times that because of the nature of controversy."

When asked to elaborate on editorial cartoonists attracting 10 times more readers, Bennett said the following: "As for an editorial cartoon bringing in 10 times as many readers as the number it may lose a paper, again, that's just the nature of controversy. Whether readers love you, or hate you, they always want to see what you're up to … Controversy sells papers."

Witt asks Bennett whether he thinks that cartoonists might gravitate towards the internet given that their positions at newspapers, and indeed newspapers themselves, seem in danger of disappearance?

Bennet answered: "Circulation trends for all newspoapers have taken a dip, but I am not as gloomy about the future of ink on paper as everybody else seems to be because of local news ... The old saying is, "Think globally, act locally," and this is what will keep newspapers in business. ... Sure, cartoonists are flocking to the net. You know, the progress is slow, but every day cartoonists exploit more and more those things that are unique to the internet ...  Cartoonists are moving more and more to animated cartoons."

For the future, Bennett predicts that there will be more animated cartoons and that "Cartoonists will increasingly have to exploit what's unique about the internet."

Witt concluded the interview with the question: "Is the pocketbook mightier than the pen?"

Bennett's response was: "Emphatically NO. eventually newspapers are going to realize that their best weapon in the competitive journalistic war is the editorial cartoonist. It's going to make economic sense and journalistic sense."

Source: PJ Net, Black Ink Monday