Interesting info over in the comments section of this blog about what was really important in the old media days:
I would submit that historically what most consumers wanted, in markets where there was more than one newspaper, was their favorite comic strips. I realize this is an unfamiliar concept to many people since newspapers have broken this important bond a long time ago for a variety of idiotic reasons, but I would like to cite a few examples.
Back in the 50′s when the Washington Post bought out the Washington Herald which was a Joe McCarthy supporting newspaper, they kept the majority of their readers because they brought over all of their comics.
…apparently Gertrude Stein used to complain that she had to buy two copies of the International Herald Tribune because Picasso and his lover at the time both demanded to be the first one to read a strip called ‘The Katzenjammer Kids”.
c
From the original post comments:
Allan: Absolutely true. Comic strips would boost a newspaper’s circulation and editors were keen to have the best strips in town. There were instances where a newspaper would have to reverse the decision to drop a strip when readers deserted in droves.
Mind you, every fan of the Katzenjammer Kids had to read two newspapers as, following legal action, the strip’s creator, Rudolph Dirks, went off and created The Captain and the Kids, using the same characters, for a rival syndicate. The Katzenjammer Kids was continued by other hands and the two strips competed for decades.
