As we noted a week ago today, this is the last edition of The Daily Felltoon Commentary and Newsletter - and our staff is a bit bittersweet over it.
We thoroughly enjoy each other's company as individuals, and our staff plans to keep working together in different ways - as well continuing our friendships - after we publish today's final edition. There will always be something different in our conversations now, a deeper ability to communicate rapidly yet thoroughly, developed after years of working together as a team.
Even as we paste up the final edition and head off into the sunset, we're sharing a unique feeling of pride and accomplishment in what we've accomplished over the last six years, through hard work and honest intent.
Before we go, we have to thank our loyal readers, including those in both politics and the media. Your suggestions, comments, and words of thanks and praise as we wrap up this endeavor have been greatly appreciated. Events like having had our work mentioned in the New York Times, even as Paul's always smart political cartoons would keep finding their way into places like Politico's and NPR's websites, reminded us that weren't creating some ineffectual publication, and the people we reached weren't just your average run-of-the-mill folks.
We're well aware that among some of our readers and colleagues in the national media our full edition has become a kind of midday cheat sheet checkoff. Instead of paging through piles of tweets, links, and e-mails, they'd simply check their list of stories they thought were important against our complete daily edition in their e-mailboxes, to make sure they hadn't missed a key story over the last twenty-four hours.
We've had a great of deal praise over the years for our commentaries too, which has humbled us from time to time - especially when that praise came from individuals for whom we have a great deal of respect. We also have to admit: We've learned more than we thought we would about how to write, draw, edit, publish, and work as a small publishing team in the digital age. When we began this online endeavor six years ago, it was for fun, promotion of our abilities, and we'd hoped a small bit of profit.
As we mentioned last week, Paul will continue to publish his cartoons at PaulFellCartoons.com, editorialcartoonists.com, and Artizans.com - so if you're worried about not getting your daily fix of visual commentary, we can assure you Paul will continue to draw as long as he's able.
We hope, more than anything, you'll continue to keep yourselves well-educated and well-informed about politics and the world around you. The world of media today isn't the same as it once was. Not too many years ago, you could pay nothing, yet read several newspapers or magazines at work, school, or the shop around the corner and keep both well-informed and well-educated.
Today, as more and more content moves completely online, it's harder to skate by without paying for at least some of your information and entertainment - and we actually think that's a better arrangement for both content creators like us and readers like you. As we've said for years, "Anything worth doing is worth doing well" - and that includes being both a consumer of media and being a well-informed citizen. So we hope you'll subscribe to at least one newspaper or news magazine, online or offline, if you don't already. We also recommend donating to media organizations like NPR or Free Speech TV, as well as your favorite radio show or alternative media organization.
High quality media creators can only create their work for you, if you help put a roof over their heads, clothes on their backs, and food in their stomachs. After all, creating high-quality media may look easy - but if it truly was easy, everyone could do it well. One look at some of the dreck in the media world today that calls itself "news" or "entertainment" should be enough proof that what we've done here at The Daily Felltoon for six years was not something anyone could do - and it certainly was not without significant value to many.
As we noted last week, going forward, we'll miss the chance to share each weekday's news with you in this format - but it's time for a change, for all of us.
Thanks for all your support and appreciation through the years.
- The Daily Felltoon Staff
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