Plus, the absence of industry pressure and censorship allows artists to be innovative and find their voice on-line. They don't have people telling them, you can or can't do this. And they really have to keep the quality up, or they'll lose the readership. Unlike syndicated world, where once you're in, you've got tenure. The plan is to move them to print media as they build a larger following.
Syndicates have development contracts and other tools to develop cartoonists.
The Web just gives you a better outlet to develop these upcoming talents. I can color it daily if I want to. Sometime animation can be added and used effectively. The presence of cartoon archives on-line has impacted how some comics are written, further distinguishing them from their newspaper counterparts. It's like going from writing albums to writing singles.