These services buy dozens of columns and other text material, including BPI music charts and Tribune Media Services TV listings. A growing number of cartoonists and columnists have inserted their e-mail addresses into their newspaper features,a move that gives them plenty of nearly instantaneous reader feedback. When a syndicate sells features to a commercial online service, it either receives a flat fee or a sum based on the amount of time computer users access the service. Then, the revenue is split between the the syndicate and creator often on the same 50-50 basis used to divide the money that newspapers pay for syndicated features. Not surprisingly, a number of syndicates now include an electronic rights clause in their contracts with columnists and cartoonist.
Online services are by no means the only cyberspace locales featuring syndicated material.
There's the Internet's rapidly expanding World Wide Web, where various sites offer materials such as cartoons, background information about artists, photos and feedback areas. Last month United Media started a Web site that spot lights the work of comic creators and 10 editorial cartoonists. And a group of cutting-edge, alternative cartoonists have a Web site called Tool User Comics. Web pages can be accessed for free, so syndicates are not going to earn money that couple of those interviewed noted computer users may eventually be charged for logging on to Web sites. And the potential to sell merchandise and ad space also exists.