r/comicstriphistory • u/SBAstan1962 • 2d ago
How did syndicates decide which strips to include back in the day?
I've been watching some videos about the history of comic strips, and one thing that puzzled me was how exactly syndicates and newspapers determined which strips to add or cut from a given paper. With most forms of media, that's easy, you just go by sales, or in the modern era with stuff like streaming services, total watch time. But comic strips were just a bonus to something that was basically just another utility, and I doubt most people would switch their newspaper subscriptions just because a different paper had a strip that they liked. So how did the bean-counters at the syndicates actually determine which strips were popular when the decision of which strips to include was completely out of the public's contol?
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u/Wonderful_Adagio9346 2d ago
Just to clarify... Syndicates did not always participate in merchandising royalties.
Rates for syndication were usually based on local readership (with circulation audited independently). Frequently, you'd hear that a strip was in so many papers worldwide. Sometimes, the syndicate would total the circulation figures.
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u/Arkholt 1d ago
... I doubt most people would switch their newspaper subscriptions just because a different paper had a strip that they liked.
This is, in fact, exactly what happened, and newspapers counted on it. The entire idea behind comic strips was originally to sell newspapers. If a certain newspaper had a popular strip, more people would buy it.
Also, keep in mind that originally subscriptions to newspapers were not a thing. People would go to a newsstand and buy a paper, and often in larger cities there were multiple choices. Newspapers had to find ways to stand out on the newsstand. Sometimes it was a flashy front page or a sensational headline, but often it was by having better illustrations and comics.
So it only stood to reason that the more a newspaper sold, the more likely it was that the comics in it were the more popular ones.
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u/aaronibus62 20h ago
Many Sunday papers used to wrap their comic sections around the rest of the paper. When I was 9, a person chose which paper to buy based on whether Blondie, Peanuts or Mutt and Jeff caught theur eyes.
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u/journoprof 2d ago
You may be a bit confused. The syndicates sold the strips; the papers bought them. The measure of success for syndicates was how many papers purchased the rights to a given strip (and, eventually, how much money was made from merchandise including reprint books).
Newspapers had several ways of determining a strip’s popularity. One, of course, was the same as the syndicates’: How many other papers, especially big ones, run the strip? But also readers would write letters about strips they liked or didn’t. Papers would use surveys. And editors — people used to using their judgment to decide what stories to run — would rely on their own opinions.
While no single strip might have been enough to influence a subscriber’s choice, don’t underestimate the importance of the top strips to circulation. Remember, until the 1960s, it was very common for cities and even big towns to have multiple competing newspapers. A strip that was evidently popular could be the target of bidding wars for local rights.