Disney buying Marvel? Pssh, that’s only the beginning — the Washington Post has reported on a “seismic shift” in the world of newspaper comic strips.
United Media, which owns Dilbert, Marmaduke, Pearls Before Swine, Get Fuzzy and more, is slated to outsource all of its comics content to Missouri-based company Universal UClick.
Tom Spurgeon over at the Comics Reporter has likened the move to “Marvel outsourcing all of its comic books to DC.” The Washington Post says that the outsourcing deal should be completed by June 1.
“A review of our operations — and the marketplace we serve — made it clear that we should seek greater efficiency by teaming up with one of the other remaining players,” Scripps president and chief executive officer Rich Boehne said in a statement. “In [Universal UClick parent company] Andrews McMeel we found the scale and skills to carry forward the comic properties we have nurtured for many years.”
While the Washington Post said there was no word as to layoffs just yet, Spurgeon believes there may be a greater long-term effect as far as the number of players in the newspaper strip landscape is concerned. What say you, Rama readers?
February 24th, 2011 at 11:46 am
Okay, I’ll admit it, I really don’t understand what this means?
Are you saying that all their properties are being sold to this other company lock stock ‘n barrel?
The bigger question for me is what does it mean for the individual creators of the strips? Are they owned outright by the syndicates (like inn old days) or do some of them have part/all ownership.
Basically, I am saying I don’t understand the business side of the syndicated comic strip world. Could you explain that, so I can ‘get’ this?
October 25th, 2011 at 3:55 pm
Thank you for any other excellent post. Where else may anyone get that type of information in such a perfect means of writing? I’ve a presentation next week, and I’m on the search for such info.