Patrick O'Shea: Changes coming to Daily American comics pages

Patrick O'Shea, The Daily American
·2 min read

Comics in newspapers are a time-honored tradition.

And we know you love them. We have some changes coming, and we think they will enhance our offerings and your reader experience with our pages.

Patrick O'Shea
Patrick O'Shea

We are transitioning our comics pages across the USA TODAY Network to best serve you, our audience.

After surveying and listening to our loyal readers, we have decided to refresh our comics offering with an updated package that incorporates beloved favorites, including Hagar and Dennis the Menace. But we will continue to offer some of your existing favorites, including Family Circus and Blondie.

Our new comics offerings will be rolled out starting in Oct. 2 editions.

Here's how the changes will impact the Somerset Daily American. The changes represent one fewer comic on Sunday and the same number of offerings during the week:

  • The comics running each day, including Saturday, will be Blondie, Zits, Beetle Bailey, Family Circus, Hagar and Dennis the Menace.

  • During the week, we will no longer run Animal Crackers, Bound & Gagged, Brewster Rock It Space Guy, Dick Tracy, Gasoline Alley and the Middletons.

  • On Sunday, we will no longer run Garfield, B.C., Carpe Diem, For Better or Worse and Wizard of Id.

We understand change can be disruptive, and you may be missing some of your favorites. People can be resistant to change — as Spencer Johnson put it in his 1998 book, “they don’t like to have their cheese moved” — and some fans of the strips that are going away aren’t going to be pleased. But please give the new offerings a chance.

Comic offerings have historically evolved to reflect the culture and tastes of the times. As a trusted source of local news and content in communities across the country, the USA Today Network continuously evaluates our content and how to best serve our audiences.

If your favorite is no longer in print or you want to try some other offerings, you can go to dailyamerican.com/comics to find them.

Subscription rates are not changing at this time. Delivering the highest quality product to our subscribers is always our first priority. This change allows us to further invest in the local journalism on which our readers rely and trust.

In addition to the Daily American, Patrick O'Shea is editor of the Beaver County Times and Ellwood City Ledger. He promises laughs are still included in our revamped comics pages. Please check them out and let him know what you think about your new favorites. He can be contacted at poshea@timesonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: O'Shea: Changes coming to Daily American comics pages