CagleCartoonist Jeff Koterba, who has drawn for The Omaha World-Herald in Nebraska for 31 years, was laid off today. There was a time when editorial cartoonists worked for newspapers and syndicated their cartoons to get their work seen outside of their home town; those days are almost gone, as jobs for cartoonists have been decimated at troubled newspapers.
The Lee Enterprises chain has been making painful cutbacks for some time now. Three more CagleCartoonists still have jobs with Lee Enterprises and tell me they haven’t heard anything about cartoonist cutbacks at their own papers. I wish them all luck.
Jeff is my pal and one of our most popular cartoonists; he’s a regular on our weekly Top Ten most reprinted cartoons list. I’m happy to report that Jeff will continue to draw cartoons for CagleCartoons.
Jeff wrote a book and gave a great Ted Talk about living and working as a cartoonist with Tourette Syndrome.
Our reader supported site, Cagle.com, still needs you! Journalism is threatened with the pandemic that has shuttered newspaper advertisers. Some pundits predict that a large percentage of newspapers won’t survive the pandemic economic slump, and as newspapers sink, so do editorial cartoonists who depend on newspapers, and along with them, our Cagle.com site, that our small, sinking syndicate largely supports, along with our fans.
The world needs political cartoonists more now than ever. Please consider supporting Cagle.com and visit Cagle.com/heroes. We need you! Don’t let the cartoons die!
