Print syndication

Print syndication distributes news articles, columns, political cartoons, comic strips and other features to newspapers, magazines and websites.

According to historian Elmo Scott Watson, true print syndication began in 1841 with a two-page supplement produced by New York Sun publisher Moses Yale Beach and sold to a score of newspapers in the U.S.

By 1881, Associated Press correspondent Henry Villard was self-syndicating material to the Chicago Tribune, the Cincinnati Commercial, and the New York Herald.

A few years later, the New York Sun's Charles A. Dana formed a syndicate to sell the short stories of Bret Harte and Henry James.

It was the first successful company of its kind, turning the marketing of columns, book serials (by the likes of Rudyard Kipling and Arthur Conan Doyle), and eventually comic strips, into a large industry.

Prominent contemporary syndication services include: IFA-Amsterdam (International Feature Agency) provides news and lifestyle content to publications.