Farming out your comics section?

Some papers chose not to run any comic strips, or puzzles, or anything 'fun', although it seems like an easy way to draw in readers -- Johnny may grab his friend in microeconomics and say "Read this strip!" or "What's 10-down?", but he'll never ask, "Did you see that review of the cafeteria?" It's up to you, though; it's your paper. If you aren't, though, you won't find this post very interesting.

There are thousands of comic strips out on the vast internet, whose creators would love the exposure of even a student newspaper. But are they valuable to your paper? Their value boils down to how much of a local paper you are trying to create. It's easy to convince an art student on campus to draw a comic, or even make one yourself (there are several comic strip generators online, even -- all you have to do is upload a photo or two). It's just as easy to get puzzles or humor columns.

It's not ridiculous to look outside your community for these things, though. You may be able to find a more dependable or humorous source online. Some will charge, some will be work for exposure alone. It all boils down to how much of your paper you want to come from students at your school.