Going back to the days of the Yellow Kid, newspapers have used comic strips to attract readers. This was very important at the turn of the last century when America had a large number of immigrants whose English wasn't all that hot, and a very competitive environment with many newspapers competing for the audience. Both situations exist today, obviously, just substitute other media for the competing newspapers and recognize that America today is in the midst of a wave of immigration. Newspapers, of course, have long since forgotten the promotional quality of comic strips. It's hard to find today's Sunday "funnies" in the Journal Sentinel since the section is used to wrap advertising inserts and is virtually covered by a spadea (that wrap-around advertising section). It's a long way from the days when the comics were on the outside of the newspaper. Those were the days when attracting readers was seen as the way to build a revenue stream.
Fast-forward to today. King Features is launching an ad-driven comics portal (story about it is here), in cooperation with a number of newspapers, including the JS. It offers 60 comics in full color plus a 30-day archive.
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