Community Perspective
Readers provide input on funnies
Published Sunday, March 29, 2009
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Stumble It!I’ve received lots of comments about comics. Ask any editor across the country what single item in the paper will bring loads of feedback from readers, and the funnies are likely at or somewhere near the top of the list.
I asked for your thoughts on what comics the Daily News-Miner publishes that you like and that you don’t like. And I asked you to tell me what comics you like that we currently don’t have.
You’ve been letting me hear it, that’s for sure.
Wednesday was the deadline I set in my effort to sample readers’ desires — but surely you all know that I’ll take a call, letter, or e-mail anytime about the comics or anything else that’s in our paper.
So I’ve tallied them all up, and the winners are ...
Nope. I’m not going to tell who won and who lost, mostly because I don’t want to raise the hopes of supporters of such comics as ... oh, wait, I almost slipped there and mentioned a winning comic strip.
The reason I’m not going to tell, yet, is that I’ve still got work to do on this. I’ve got to contact the syndicates to see what their terms are and then try to deal with them. And we still want to have a good mix of comics on the page, so there’s lots of higher math and calculus yet to be done to figure out the right comics blend.
Don’t think, however, that the nearly 350 votes cast by about 80 readers won’t matter. They will. I already know of at least one new comic I’m pursuing based on reader input. And there likely will be more as I sift through things.
Now, because I’m a softy on this, go ahead and send me your comics requests if you didn’t make it by the deadline. I’ll try to work them into the decision-making, but time is running out. You can leave call me at 459-7585 or e-mail me at rboyce@newsminer.com.
Why the difference?
I received a query from a reader the other day regarding the comments that people leave on our Web site about stories. The reader asked me, as others sometimes do, about the different standard we apply to comments:
“I am curious about the editorial rationale used in allowing people to post unsigned community comments about a News-Miner article online while at the same time not allowing an unsigned item to be printed in the letters to the editor column. Surely there is very little discernible difference in these two sections of the newspaper and, most likely, more people see the online comments than the ones in print.”
It’s a great question.
Here’s the reply I sent to the reader:
“Ah, comments. Yes. That’s quite the topic — and one about which we are in seeming perpetual debate down here. There are a variety of views inside the News-Miner about the comments feature of our Web site. And I would add that the debate we continually find ourselves having here is similar to debates happening at newspapers across the country.
“As best I can tell, we allow people to post anonymous comments because, well, that’s the nature of the Web and the thinking is that readers of those comments know to take them with a grain of salt. Letters to the editor are held to a higher standard because readers expect that letters have gone through some sort of vetting — and they do. We check them for accuracy and we verify the identity of the author. Letters to the editor are intended to educate and stimulate; comments on Web stories generally have little more than entertainment value, if they have any value at all. There are exceptions to my assessment of the value of comments, of course, but in general I find them to be largely useless.
“Our Web site editor provided me, in response to your query, her view in the following e-mail: ‘Letters are presumably well-thought out, edited and verified. Writers are allowed only one per month. The Internet is an interactive medium. We encourage community participation in the comments section. … While we prefer that people use their real name when stating their opinions, anonymity is the standard on the Internet.’”
And, as I said in conclusion to the questioning reader, “I hope this helps.”
Rod Boyce is managing editor of the Daily News-Miner.
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
Can read comics on line, still will not pay to buy this paper.
jamie smith's 'nuggets' - support local artists!
also, keep the reader comments section here. if it promotes community involvement at any level, even just thought about our issues, it's an plus for our community spirit. newspapers need reader interest to keep going. local news articles and your reader's own voices engage your public on the issues.
a two-way dialogue is so much better for the citizens than being told how to feel about the things that matter in our town.
so often the only venue for the vox populi is city or borough meetings that might be inconvenient to attend in person.
letter to editors are held to a higher stds?
Seems 1/2 of them are complaints about gas and house prices.
If you think bananas cost to much don't buy bananas, its not rocket science and not worth a letter to the editor.
I think the comments are funny enough.
Keep Nuggets and Mutts--my two favorites
Keep Peanuts, dump Cathy, Garfeild, Dilbert, Born Loser. Get some more local stuff. Expand it by a page in the Sunday edition. Get hold of the guy who drew Calvin and Hobbes and force him back into circulation.
As for the comments page, it's good but needs a built in spell checker.
I thought the comment section was the funnies.
I thought the News-Miner itself was the funnies.
Agree with 'grouchyolman' - would like to see Calvin and Hobbes come back. I see 'reprints' occasionally that are 10 or 15 years old now and they are just as funny, poignant, sad, and touching now as they were when they were written...
Ditto on Calvin & Hobbes, Doug. But you've got to respect a cartoonist who quits at the top of his game instead of dragging it out for decades after he's run out of ideas. It was the best comic strip of the last half century, and it remains so because it stopped before it went stale.
Just keep running these legislative stories. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
definitely keep Calvin and Hobbes, and i agree with grouchyolman
I don't mind the comments being somewhat anonymous. A nickname like stovepipe (just a random example) is fine with me. HOWEVER, I would like the user registration to require you be an Alaska resident to post. This doesn't have to be displayed, just part of the requirement for registration.
I'm so tired of the uninformed nasty comments coming from liberals that don't even live here. Are you telling me that Obama groupies from Anytown, USA have so much time on their hands that they have to troll a local Fairbanks newspaper and blast our governor or flame us about our predator control?
On the funnies.. Tundra, Rose is Rose, BC, an Zits. =)
Keep Dilbert and Tundra.
Get some Pearls Before Swine, that's some funny, and edgy, stuff.
artie, it's only the funnies when you post. that being said, bring in Overboard.
ditch "funky winkerbean" <-- that isn't even a comic. it's a damn soap opera.
TAC,
You're right about stopping while you're "ahead of the game"; I can't help but wonder how long a grown man (or woman for that matter) could keep seeing the world through the prism of 6 or 7 year old. T-Rexs' in F-14s - that sounds like the boundless imagination of a kid...
Amen to Calvin and Hobbes. Bill Waterson was right to be greedy and controlling about his strip. He never sold the rights to the images either, so all those stickers you see on trucks with Calvin peeing on a chevy or kneeling at a cross are pirated images. That's why you can't find a Hobbes stuffed animal either.
Calvin and Hobbes was, and still is, the best comic ever produced.
I'm so tired of the uninformed nasty comments coming from liberals that don't even live here. Are you telling me that Obama groupies from Anytown, USA have so much time on their hands that they have to troll a local Fairbanks newspaper and blast our governor or flame us about our predator control?
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And definitely remove their comments if the are Red Sox fans..
I thought the comments WERE the funnies!
I miss Calviin and Hobbes. BTW, get rid of Prince Valiant, blech.
Does anyone read Prince Valiant???
I love Funky Winkerbean, Crankshaft, and Zits. Baby Blues, Hager, Hi & Lois, Garfield, and of course Tundra, are the ones I read. I personally hate Dilbert, Mutts, and Rymes With Orange, they should be dropped. The rest I can take or leave.
The Sunday paper should have the same things in it since Monday mornings it seems something is missing with several of them. (Funkt Winkerbean, Zits, Crankshaft) I go to Seattle Papers on line and find out things happen on Sunday but our paper leaves them out.
What happened to Mukluk N Honeysuckle, I really miss them. Bring them back.
Baby Blues is hilarious.
By the way...the liberals i know up here are from Alaska...generation after generation...the native people were here long before any white man stepped foot on this land! Calvin and Hobbs for sure!
Palin and Alaskan politics is the funnies!
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