Occupy Cartooning!
The following letter has just been sent to The New York Times. It has 60 signatories, including six Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonists who resent the Times policy on spec work and substandard pay rates.
The origin of this letter was organic. Editorial cartoonists were discussing what to do in response to the Times’ announcement that it plans to ask scores of cartoonists to submit cartoons on spec, paying only one lucky winner—and then only the below-market rate of $250. The effective pay rate works out to a few cents per hour on average. Is this a newspaper, or the Triangle Waistshirt factory?
I suggested that the AAEC send out a letter along the following lines. One cartoonist after another began saying “I’ll sign that,” and here we are–sending out the letter that I drafted. Please note that this is not an official AAEC communiqué but rather an expression of the individual sentiments of the 60 signatories.
We hope that this will help to educate educators about the pernicious practice of spec work and phony “contests.”
Very truly yours,
Ted Rall
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TEXT OF LETTER FOLLOWS:
Ms. Aviva Michaelov
Art Direction, Graphic and Web Design
The Sunday Review
New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York NY 10018
Dear Aviva:
While we appreciate and applaud your move to add more cartoons to the Sunday Review, we are concerned about your announced submission (no pun intended) policy and payment.
The current proposal has the effect of putting scores of cartoonists to work every week. But only one will have a (small) chance to be published. Like an old-fashioned “shape up” of longshoremen, this is demoralizing and will likely lead to a diminished number and quality of submissions over time. This works neither for the cartoonists nor for The Times. We suggest that you either commission cartoonists whose work you like directly, or return to the previous approach of running syndicated material which do not require additional work on the part of editorial cartoonists who are struggling mightily in the current economic environment.
Furthermore, the proposed payment is extremely low given the low chances of publication, the requirement that an artist clear his or her Friday schedule, and–most of all–the huge circulation of The New York Times, the largest newspaper in the United States. Although The New York Times in the past has paid only $50 for a reprint of syndicated cartoons, the market standard for a reprint for a newspaper of your size is $250. You are offering this $250 now for original content. An original cartoon for The Times should pay closer to $1500 to $2000. And the rate should be even higher if you maintain the New Yorker-style submission policy, to which many cartoonists have long objected and boycotted.
It is not necessary to reinvent the wheel here. There are long-established norms for submission and payment for cartoons in the newspaper industry that have functioned well and would work well for you going forward. We hope you will consider them.
Signed February 9, 2012 by the following cartoonists:
Kirk Anderson
Nick Anderson, Houston Chronicle*
Robert Ariail, Herald-Journal (Spartanburg, SC)
Steve Artley
John Auchter, MLive Media Group
Pat Bagley, Salt Lake City Tribune
Richard Bartholomew, Artizans Syndicate
Nate Beeler, The Washington Examiner
Charles Beyl, Sunday News (Lancaster, PA)
John Branch, North America Syndicate
Steve Breen, San Diego Union-Tribune*
Daryl Cagle, msnbc.com
Tim Campbell, Current Publishing
Cameron Cardow (CAM), Ottawa Citizen
J.D. Crowe, Mobile (AL) Press-Register
Matt Davies, Tribune Media Services*
John Deering, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Brian Duffy, King Features Syndicate
Tim Eagan, Deep Cover
Bob Englehart, Hartford Courant
Paul Fell
David Fitzsimmons, Arizona Daily Star
Garrincha, El Nuevo Herald
Bob Gorrell, Creators Syndicate
Phil Hands, Wisconsin State Journal
Roger Harvell
Joe Heller, Green Bay (WI) Press-Gazette
Jack Higgins, Chicago Sun-Times
Keith Knight, The K Chronicles/The Knight Life
Jeff Koterba, Omaha World-Herald
Jay Lamm, The Franklin Times
Chan Lowe, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Jimmy Margulies, The Record (NJ)
R.J. Matson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Rick McKee, Augusta Chronicle (GA)
Stephanie McMillan, Universal Press Syndicate
Mike Keefe, Denver Post*
Angelo Lopez, Philippines Today
Jim Morin, Miami Herald
Jack Ohman, The Oregonian
Jeff Parker, Florida Today
Joel Pett, Lexington Herald-Leader*
Mike Peters, Dayton Daily News*
Milt Priggee
Ted Rall, Universal Press Syndicate
Rob Rogers, Pittburgh Post-Gazette
V. C. Rogers, The Independent Weekly (Durham, NC)
Marshall Ramsey, Jackson (MS) Clarion-Ledger
Jen Sorensen, Slowpoke
Scott Stantis, Chicago Tribune
Ed Stein
Tom Stiglich, Journal-Register Newspapers
Dana Summers, Orlando Sentinel
Dan Wasserman, Boston Globe
Signe Wilkinson, Philadelphia Daily News*
Karl Wimer, Denver Business Journal
Matt Wuerker, The Politico
Adam Zyglis, Buffalo News
*Asterisk indicates winner of the Pulitzer Prize in editorial cartooning
9 Comments.
I’m geniunely curious Ted, how long does it take you to draw a cartoon?
Hey Hey Ho Ho The Cheap Ass Times Has Got To Go!!
Ted, you published your phone number. Not sure if you meant to do that,but I would suspect not.
@Whimsical
It makes no difference how long it takes Ted to draw a cartoon, as long as he submits his cartoon before the deadline. Hope that helps.
@Susan-
The man is claiming that a $250 payment works out to “a few cents an hour”. What can I say, that makes me very curious as to how many hours go into a cartoon.
If he doesn’t want to tell me, he doesn’t have to tell me of course. But that’s his call.
Whimsy, I think he’s including the time it takes other cartoonists to draw the ones that don’t win as well.
NYT charges $15/month for web access, they can afford to pay cartoonists more than this.
@Russell
I certainly hope that’s not his argument. Cause while I agree the Times both can and should pay more- unless the times retains the rights to ALL cartoons received (which the letter does NOT state), that’s a ridiculous argument.
“The Times wanted the cartoons to be exclusive to them; the cartoons could not be reprinted elsewhere.”
http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20120210/OPINION/202100312/The-New-York-Times-political-cartoon-kerfuffle
@Rusell
Ah, well, then the ridiculousness is on the part of the Times, and I’m all for the wholesale boycott of the idea that the letter calls for. My bad.
(That said, I dont find the idea intrinsically ridiculous- they just need to drop the exclusivity clause for the losing cartoons and up the prize)