Both web comics and print could be changed forever. For example: an editor sees someone's comic strip online (after being told that the creator will license it for free to newspapers), follows it for a few months, and decides that they like it. Would that editor then just contact that creator directly without going through a sales person?
Bill said that years ago, is it finally coming true? Is this the end of the syndicates? Probably not. I think most papers will still look to the syndicates as a source of new strips. But this might change how they do business.Bill Watterson, [url=http://www.ucomics.com/calvinandhobbes/]Calvin and Hobbes[/url], wrote:...because syndicates offer the only real access to the nation's daily newspapers, they are in a superior bargaining position when it comes to negotiating contracts with new cartoonists, and they use their power to demand outrageous terms. Syndicates are sales agents: They're the middleman between the comic strip producer and the comic strip buyer. Syndicates do not create the product they sell, and they don't need or deserve long-term contracts and extensive rights to the strip in order to do there job. Their one-sided contracts turn cartoonists into adversaries, rather than partners. A few of the top cartoonist are beginning to turn the tables, and I think it's long overdue.