Recently--by which I mean today--The Los Angeles Times has dropped "Sally Forth" from its comics pages with apparently little heads-up for its readers.
I appreciate the precarious position newspapers find themselves these days and realize very well that this may have been a budget decision. That said, I was always proud to have "Sally Forth" run in the LA Times and wonder if a change of heart on the part of the editors is at all possible.
Fortunately, it seems I'm not the only one who wants to see the Forth family return. Several Times readers have written in to express their surprise and dismay over the paper's decision and I greatly appreciate them taking the time to express their love of the strip and the disproval of its disappearance.
Care to add your voice and hopefully let me continue to mildly entertain the people of the greater Los Angeles area? Then by all means please go here.
Thank you very much for any and all support. Comic strips are nothing without their fans and I very much am thankful for the time you take out of your day to read my little ramblings. It sincerely means the world to me.
Ces
Well, you know, newspapers have to have room for reruns of For better or worse. Oh farley! You were so cute when you weren't dead!
ReplyDeleteActually, FBOFW was the other strip dropped.
ReplyDeleteIf they cancel Mary Worth, Gloria Allred is going to step in.
ReplyDeleteWhile it definitely sucks that the LA Times has dropped the strip, it is worth noting that Los Angeles has more or less dropped the LA Times.
Bummer. I'll never read that rag again. Actually, I've never really read it, but I definitely won't again.
ReplyDeleteUgarles: The L.A. Times dropped "Mary Worth" a few years back, along with a number of other strips, when they went from (basically) three pages of comics to two. The only old-school "soap opera" strip they still run is "Rex Morgan, M.D."
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, their circulation decline hasn't been significantly worse than any other paper in the country -- so they're still the largest-circulation newspaper that prints syndicated comics...and, besides the prestige and money that comes with being in the #1 paper, its continued appearance in the Times is the best way to get an actual "Sally Forth: The Movie" made someday. ("Over the Hedge" is the best example of that phenomenon, although the Times dropped it well before the movie was actually released -- might have even been part of the same cutback that saw "Mary Worth" go away.)
Several people have already posted on the LA Times site what I was thinking:
ReplyDeleteEver since FBOW went into its retro mode the Times has been trying out comics and making a big thing of soliciting reader comments. And as someone commented, it's interesting that the Times's press release didn't mention which strips actually won the reader poll.
As someone who lost interest in foob years ago, it's no more of a loss than Blondie would be. But I think it's very telling that they choose to drop Sally Forth just as the Forth's marriage was getting ... interesting.
Actually, Jim, the L.A. Times' declines in circulation nearly always exceed the industry average when the numbers are counted, and usually its circulation drops are among the steepest in the country. The general decline in newsprint does not explain why the people of Los Angeles have turned so sharply against their near-monopoly newspaper.
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ReplyDeletePrint circulation is indeed down for the LAT, but the Web site's traffic is up 73 percent during the past year, according to the Feb. 16 issue of Time magazine.
ReplyDeleteMeredith Artley deserves 100% of the credit for that 73% increase. I presume the 2/16 issue of Tiempo cited that figure in support of an argument that papers should charge for their online content? (I love hearing the greatest hits of 1994 again.)
ReplyDeleteThis is wrong. I'm calling the Times tomorrow and talking to Sherry Stern Monday.
ReplyDeleteIf I look at the news hole available on the comics page, I think I can see a place for a strip or two more.
ReplyDeleteComic strips are one of the few elements of a newspaper which are not readily available at any news aggregator. I haven't dug around for "Sally Forth", so it might be out there somewhere. That's not the way I like reading my comics, however.
I'm a 23+ year reader of the LA Times. They retain a little talent - Steve Lopez, David Lazarus - and some good comics along with their other reporting. Oh, and David Colker too. And I suppose we have to pay for Susan Spano's trip abroad to keep a bit of color in the travel section...
But what the heck are they thinking when they dumb down my newspaper? The Pasadena Star News has already shrunk itself to one news section plus a sports section most days. Your strip, 9 Chickweed Lane, Get Fuzzy, Lio', and the zebra/croc one made my mornings. If I have to lose you, I may as well cancel the daily/Sunday subscription and keep the NY Times weekender special.
BTW, I heard you on a podcast once and thought you were a funny, charming, insightful guy. We need more of what you create in the world.