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Encore: The art and evolving role of editorial cartoons with longtime cartoonist Doug MacGregor

Doug MacGregor editorial cartoon in the News Press in 2010.
Doug MacGregor / Florida Gulf Coast University Archives & Special Collections at the school’s Wilson G. Bradshaw Library
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Doug MacGregor editorial cartoon in the News Press in 2010.

This episode originally broadcast on April 14, 2025.

An Editorial Cartoon is an illustration containing a commentary that usually relates to current events. According to the Herbert Block Foundation, there were approximately 2,000 editorial cartoonists employed at newspapers at the start of the 20th century. By the early 1980s, there were around 250. Current estimates put the number of full-time editorial cartoonists in the U.S. at just a few dozen.

Doug MacGregor has been an editorial cartoonist for more than 40 years. He got his professional start at the Norwich Bulletin in eastern Connecticut in 1980. He moved to Florida in 1988 and drew cartoons for the News Press in Fort Myers until 2011. Doug created five cartoons every week, year in and year out, for nearly a quarter century. These days he draws one a week for The Naples Press.

Doug MacGregor cartoon from the News Press in 1996.
Doug MacGregor / Florida Gulf Coast University Archives & Special Collections at the school’s Wilson G. Bradshaw Library
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Doug MacGregor cartoon from the News Press in 1996.

Doug donated a large collection of his original drawings (mostly pertaining to the local environment) to Florida Gulf Coast University’s “Archives & Special Collections” at the school’s Wilson G. Bradshaw Library and students have completed the process of digitizing them and the team at the Archives helps students use Doug’s work in their studies.

Emily Murray, Archives Coordinator at the Archives & Special Collections at the Wilson G. Bradshaw Library at Florida Gulf Coast University; and Doug MacGregor, cartoonist and author
Mike Kiniry / WGCU
Emily Murray, Archives Coordinator at the Archives & Special Collections at the Wilson G. Bradshaw Library at Florida Gulf Coast University; and Doug MacGregor, cartoonist and author

Guests:
Doug MacGregor, cartoonist and author
Emily Murray, Archives Coordinator at the Archives & Special Collections at the Wilson G. Bradshaw Library at Florida Gulf Coast University

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