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RIP Floppies? - 'Marvel Phasing Out Retail Comic Distribution to Focus on Digital'
bralinator
Posts: 5,967
Marvel is endeavoring to focus almost exclusively on digital distribution to maximize revenue. In the past few months the company has pulled their comics from bookstores all over the world. You would be hard-pressed to find anything but the odd graphic novel in your favorite bookstore, such as Barnes and Noble.Read the full post here.
Marvel is finding that they are selling more comics online, than they are in the retail environment. Comixology is their main partner in the digital sphere and they have dedicated reading apps on every major platform. They have sold over 125,000,000 comics since 2009, most of them from Marvel.
Not sure I'm convinced this is happening, but that is basically what was reported. Would a move like this mean that we will have to ask our favorite artists to sign our iPad in the future? Any idea on what this would do to your favorite comic book store? I prefer to collect comics, not collect bytes.
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There is no word from any Marvel Exec or anyone with ties to the organization in the article. No official statement or anything. I think news like this would make the big news outlets.
While their numbers have probably jumped in digital sales, I think their base is in the comic book stores every Wednesday. I don't think they are that daft. Then again, Marvel is charging $200 for 512 pages of content.
I might believe this:
A) If Marvel weren't still in the practice of GIVING away digital codes with regular issues.
B) If Marvel hadn't just upped the ante, with the All-New Marvel Now! non-#1 "#1" issues, by also including free copies of entire TPBs with their regularly priced issues.
I have no doubt that digital revenue is a real thing for Marvel. But if something is really, really, really the mainstream distribution method of the future, you wouldn't still be having to desperately give away as many free copies as possible to try and hook people. Quoted for truth.
This is all because of the B&N pullout? Not like that's the first time Marvel has pulled out of newsstand markets in which they had to put up with returnability. Losing the B&N market in 2013 was a drop in the bucket compared to the huge newsstand market Marvel walked/ran away from in the late '90s. It's been said before, but when other magazines have higher coverprices, it just isn't feasible to stack $3-4 comics next to $5-10 magazines. Not when shelf space is at a premium.
The Multiple Platform Police don't make content creators choose and commit to a single platform. And successful companies are not in the habit of leaving money on the table. Keep buying the paper comics and they will still be there for you. Sure, the battered, picked over copies on the rack at a Barnes & Noble aren't there for you, but you probably weren't buying them there anyway. (If enough of you were, they would still be there.)
John Jackson Miller(Comichron) has an insightful response:
It is streamlining. The "death" of the monthly issue in physical form may eventually happen, but it isn't something that will happen tomorrow. As long as the companies can continue to make a reasonable profit in physical production, they will continue physical production.
Will they push digital? Darn tootin' they will, and heavily, because there is more profit to be had there.
The most confusing line of that post to me is, "Marvel is finding that they are selling more comics online, than they are in the retail environment." Assuming that "retail environment" is *only* brick and mortar, I'm still left wondering if I'm supposed to assume that "more comics online" is supposed to mean "digital comics," or if this is a terrible phrasing that implies that but, in fact, includes physical issue purchases from online sources like DCBS, TFAW, etc.
At any rate, bad blogger! Bad! Go over to that corner and think about what you've done.
Not sure I'm convinced this is happening, but that is basically what was reported. Would a move like this mean that we will have to ask our favorite artists to sign our iPad in the future? Any idea on what this would do to your favorite comic book store? I prefer to collect comics, not collect bytes.
This is wildly short on details, or any actual statements from Marvel or anyone in the industry. It seems unlikely to me. Other industries where there are digital sales (books, music, magazines, games, software) still have the physical copies, so I don't know why comics would be different.
"....how bookstores handle books, magazines, newspapers and comics. If they don’t sell before they become irrelevant they get cash back from the supplier from the inventory that is unsold. Comic shops on the other hand, are normally stuck with whatever inventory they purchase."
This, I believe is a problem. The physical distribution of comics does need to change if its going to be around in the future. But I don't buy that physical copies will be going away.
So Marvel's sudden move could be a wash; more profit with less sales.
M
And I agree -- I'd also drop Marvel (or any other comic company for that matter) if they went exclusively digital.
Someone explain to me why derpheads like this one put up stories they could check in 30 seconds. If you are wrong (and this guy is) it means NO ONE TRUSTS YOU ANY MORE! He's pretty much known in the industry he covers now as a moron, and he won't get anyone to return his calls. If he even makes any.
Seriously, look at how many people rely on things like The Daily Show for news.
I don't support websites like Bleeding Cool (won't follow any links that lead to it) for the same reason - if it's based on speculation and rumor, it doesn't deserve any respect or support, regardless of how often it's accurate but I also don't read the descriptions in Previews.
I would anticipate it following suit with MTV and VH1 at almost any point and simply becoming FN or FNN. I'll not disagree that the Daily Show is less about news and more about current events satire, but satire has, in the past, been shown to be a fairly effective tool for political change. More importantly, if it actually spurs someone to look something up or choose to not take talking heads as legitimate sources of truth, regardless of the color of their tie, it's done something good, which is likely far more than one can say of anyone at either MSNBC (which at least does not attempt to attach the word "news" to their name) or FoxNews.
Boon - remember all the Arab Spring footage from overseas that CNN and other major media outlets weren't covering or were filtering out? Yeah...I saw more than I cared to see and heard more than I cared to hear from sites where people with smartphones and blogs reported it in real time. Meanwhile, CNN talked about how to find Egypt on a map.
Bane - No accountability or adherence to ethics. As mentioned, blogging isn't hard-hitting journalism, anymore than the Daily Show, Fox News, CBS Sunday Morning, MSNBC, Brietbart, Drudge, etc. are. They're glorified Op-Eds masking themselves as fact-reporting. Murrow and Cronkite are rolling over in their graves.
As some comedian put it (think it was David Cross) - how sad is it that I need to go to the BBC website to find an honest look at what's going on in America?
I get a lot of my news these days from an app called Newsy, which aggregates all the new items from a variety of sources and tries to filter out the crap and opinions. It's not perfect, but it's certainly a step in the right direction.
goodereader.com/blog/commentary/self-publishers-should-not-be-called-authors
For the record I don't think you should click the link as this guy doesn't deserve the page views. I would also be disappointed to ever see the Michael Kozlowski by-line ever come up again in an article purporting to be news (or opinion).
looking at you, Dick Johnson.