Coronavirus knocks out direct market - Diamond stops deliveries

[cranger]

They are releasing them for the next few weeks at least. Note that they all have a series title. Man of Tomorrow, Gotham Nights, Agent of Peace, Deep Dives. Those would be unnecessary if they were one offs as the story title is also on the cover. These are minis at least, like Titans: Burning Rage and Batman Universe.

I know what they are, they are the new material from the Walmart magazines (which have also been available to direct market retailers). The releases of those books is not some mystery.

[Ascended]

There seems to be this giant misunderstanding that every print reader is just some collector or speculator that will buy anything regardless. That's not the case. A lot of people just don't like the digital format. Going digital-first would lead to a lot of people just giving up on comics in general.

At this point, and maybe I'm saying this just because I'm cranky and bored so don't hold it against me tomorrow, but I'm struggling to care about what's best for the direct market.

That market still matters; it's where most of us get our books (myself included, even the stuff I trade wait) and it's still the primary source of revenue for publishers. But if we continue to cater to the needs and desires of the direct market to the detriment of developing new audiences in different markets, then nobody wins.

When everything got shut down, DC announced they were going digital first. Seemed smart; they still have bills to pay, they still have product to sell. Digital audiences tend to not be print audiences so it wasn't even gonna hurt retailers. And this would've served at least one of DC's audiences, even if the Wednesday Warriors were outta luck until our shops reopen. It was also a chance for DC to try building up the digital audience; plenty of editors and administrators right now who could have spent their days working from home on online word of mouth marketing and trying to bring new readers into the digital fold.

Instead, DC changed their plans because they didn't want to piss off retailers. So now, DC has lost money, digital readers have lost product they didn't have to lose, and retailers and Wednesday Warriors are no better off than they were. Absolutely nothing was gained by giving in to the concerns of the direct market. And I wonder how many digital readers got pissed off because their books were delayed without good reason? Not a good way to expand your readership.

Retailers want to save their businesses. I get that, and don't blame them for it. Nobody wants to see shops close and people out of work. But catering to the retailers at the expense of everyone else is not only short sighted, but could potentially become a serious problem down the road when the direct market dies and publishers haven't invested in other distribution models enough to make up the difference.

As for spoilers.....that's just BS. Not all of us hit the shop Wednesday morning, we got jobs and comics have to wait for weekends. Some of us don't even hit the shop every week. We've survived spoilers anyway, so digital first doesn't change anything. And if it does? I don't care. I'm tired of the direct market getting in the way of publishers expanding into new distributions because retailers are afraid of losing customers they never had in the first place.

[Digifiend]

I know what they are, they are the new material from the Walmart magazines (which have also been available to direct market retailers). The releases of those books is not some mystery.

I wasn't talking about the actual content - and by the way, after issue 2, the Digital Firsts will overtake the Giants - I was talking about the format. Pointing out that they're minis, as opposed to one-shots.

[Digifiend]

People in this thread's Marvel equivalent have been bashing DC for getting new distributors. Anyone who can't see that Diamond cannot be relied on and competition is needed needs to get with the program.

[iron chimp]

People in this thread's Marvel equivalent have been bashing DC for getting new distributors. Anyone who can't see that Diamond cannot be relied on and competition is needed needs to get with the program.

There you used to be 4 or 5 distributors in the 80s but they are all went bust or consolidated. Comics were lucky to even have one distributor after the crash in 90s.

Digital distro is a monopoly and newstand distro of magazines and newspapers is a slowly dying industry.

Diamonds been a rock solid force in the industry for decades - all people have to do is chill and wait for this to pass - all diamond are doing is trying to keep their employees safe.

Comic shops and diamond have been the one industry that bucked the publishing trend - keeping a huge network of independent family businesses running across the country - and keeping sales constant for 20 years in the face of rampant piracy and digital comics and huge growth in trades which are normally sold outside comic shop.

Cant for the life of me see why people are down on shops and diamond. Been the biggest publishing success in the whole industry.

[Gaastra]

Someone posted this in the marvel topic and i'll repost it here for them.

Diamond is now starting to "punish" dc comics.

https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diam...her-dc-comics/

[iron chimp]

Who on earth is going to deal with dcbs or midtown as a distributor. You cannot be both the sole distributor and uber discount retailer at the same time. Utterly stupid decision by DC - dcbs wants everyone elses business and everyone else wants dcbs gone so youre signing youre own bankruptcy going with them over diamond. Diamond will win and DC will have zero credibility in shops afterwards and shops will push marvel and indie books. Wouldnt surprise me if marvel and other publishers did big offers or retail incentives or worked with the shops in other ways to make life for dc very hard after this. Totally shot themselves in the foot.

They will get zero working relationship with diamond too - all their books will just be shoveled out the door whilst previews hypes marvel and others work.

[Ascended]

Comic shops and diamond have been the one industry that bucked the publishing trend - keeping a huge network of independent family businesses running across the country - and keeping sales constant for 20 years in the face of rampant piracy and digital comics and huge growth in trades which are normally sold outside comic shop.

Cant for the life of me see why people are down on shops and diamond. Been the biggest publishing success in the whole industry.

....I assume you mean 20 years distributing consistently, without missing a month, right? Because sales haven't been constant, they've been in decline since forever.

And we're not (most of us anyway) down on our LCS or Diamond so much as we just recognize that this system is failing, has been failing for many, many years, and publishers, if they want to continue publishing, need to develop alternatives.

I've been going to the same LCS for something like a dozen+ years. Those people get christmas cookies, we've gotten our kids together for playdates. They're friends, and I don't want to see them lose their jobs and business. But the decline of the direct market isn't likely to change without straight up divine intervention. And I'd rather comics not die with them.

[Vampire Savior]

This is awesome!

Hopefully they all kill each other. When the whole system comes a-tumblin' down, it will create all kinds of opportunities for ingenuitive comic creators who weren't getting anything out of it. Then a true new comic age can begin. Heh, one can hope at least

[blackbolt396]

This thread proves some comic buyers are stuck in the past and refuse to go forward , superhero comics are dying and maybe it’s time to let them go. And notice I said superheroes.

[Noodle]

That market still matters; it's where most of us get our books (myself included, even the stuff I trade wait) and it's still the primary source of revenue for publishers. But if we continue to cater to the needs and desires of the direct market to the detriment of developing new audiences in different markets, then nobody wins.

You can cater to the direct market without alienating the digital one. What DC is doing now with digital-first series is what they should have done from the get-go. A series of books that are not necessarily continuity-heavy that can be read on it's own. Spoilers won't matter to print readers when they eventually get collected because it's not continuity-heavy. Digital readers have something new to read while print is on hold. It's win-win.

DC just decided to dance around the issue and it became "too little too late" when they finally pulled the trigger.

When everything got shut down, DC announced they were going digital first. Seemed smart; they still have bills to pay, they still have product to sell. Digital audiences tend to not be print audiences so it wasn't even gonna hurt retailers. And this would've served at least one of DC's audiences, even if the Wednesday Warriors were outta luck until our shops reopen. It was also a chance for DC to try building up the digital audience; plenty of editors and administrators right now who could have spent their days working from home on online word of mouth marketing and trying to bring new readers into the digital fold.

Instead, DC changed their plans because they didn't want to piss off retailers. So now, DC has lost money, digital readers have lost product they didn't have to lose, and retailers and Wednesday Warriors are no better off than they were. Absolutely nothing was gained by giving in to the concerns of the direct market. And I wonder how many digital readers got pissed off because their books were delayed without good reason? Not a good way to expand your readership.

Take Empire with Marvel. This is their big summer event, and was scheduled to come out while all this lockdown stuff is going on (I know apparent interest in it is low, but it's the best example to use as Death Metal wasn't scheduled to be released yet, so bare with me). Say that still came out only as digital-only. It's a summer event, so it's going to be continuity-heavy. It was also going to double ship. So by the time retailers open back up, you're looking at 4+ (almost half the series) issues already out and spoiled for you. Why would you buy that in print? Why would you care at that point? You've now lost a large chunk of your print readers which, again, are the bulk of your sales.

It doesn't make sense for them to continue their ongoing series in digital with no print in sight for months. You're appeasing an extremely small fraction of your customer base at the expense of the larger ones in hope of bringing in new readership (something both companies have tried for years to do with little success). Again, that's a large gamble. Not exactly a good business decision at a time when everyone is losing money and unemployment is up extremely.

Retailers want to save their businesses. I get that, and don't blame them for it. Nobody wants to see shops close and people out of work. But catering to the retailers at the expense of everyone else is not only short sighted, but could potentially become a serious problem down the road when the direct market dies and publishers haven't invested in other distribution models enough to make up the difference.

If the direct market dies, it's their own fault for how poorly they managed it. This whole ordeal has shown how flawed the current format is. I would run out of fingers before I finished counting the amount of issues I've heard my local shops state they've had with Diamond. The entire thing needs an overhaul. But this isn't all about the retailers. This is about the customers that prefer print over digital (the majority). It's just tied together because, due to how badly managed the direct market is, you can only get physical through them.

As for spoilers.....that's just BS. Not all of us hit the shop Wednesday morning, we got jobs and comics have to wait for weekends. Some of us don't even hit the shop every week. We've survived spoilers anyway, so digital first doesn't change anything. And if it does? I don't care. I'm tired of the direct market getting in the way of publishers expanding into new distributions because retailers are afraid of losing customers they never had in the first place.

There's a large difference between avoiding spoilers for about a week until you get to the comic shop and waiting 2+ months over multiple issues until you're even allowed to get your physical copy.

And what happens when print comes back? Do you suspend digital books until print gets caught up? Digital readers won't like that either. Do you drop all the print books at once? Not may people can afford to drop that kind of money at once to get their books (especially now). Do you continue having digital be months ahead of print? You may not care for spoilers, but you aren't the entire market.

This entire situation sucks for both sides and the comic companies have handled it horribly.

[Ascended]

This is awesome!

Hopefully they all kill each other. When the whole system comes a-tumblin' down, it will create all kinds of opportunities for ingenuitive comic creators who weren't getting anything out of it. Then a true new comic age can begin. Heh, one can hope at least

I appreciate the "burn it all down!" mentality, but I'd really rather have a more stable replacement strategy in place first.

You can cater to the direct market without alienating the digital one. What DC is doing now with digital-first series is what they should have done from the get-go. A series of books that are not necessarily continuity-heavy that can be read on it's own. Spoilers won't matter to print readers when they eventually get collected because it's not continuity-heavy. Digital readers have something new to read while print is on hold. It's win-win.

We did have stand alone stuff from the start, like with Batman 66 and Injustice. But I agree; the digital audience isn't the print audience and, from what I know of webcomics and who reads them, DC would be better off creating specific content for digital that'll appeal to those readers instead of copy-pasting print production systems and sensibilities. As seems to be the case so often, DC had the right idea but halfassed it.

It doesn't make sense for them to continue their ongoing series in digital with no print in sight for months. You're appeasing an extremely small fraction of your customer base at the expense of the larger ones in hope of bringing in new readership (something both companies have tried for years to do with little success). Again, that's a large gamble. Not exactly a good business decision at a time when everyone is losing money and unemployment is up extremely.

You're assuming that this will negatively impact print readers and retailers. We're talking about different audiences, so it's not like the LCS is going to lose anything on the face of it; most people reading digital don't go to shops anyway. And most print readers seem unlikely to switch to digital. This isn't a actual, quantifiable problem so much as this is just fear of being replaced.

The only potential issue here is spoilers. But so what? If the story is good and worth reading, you'll buy it even if you've heard how it ends because it's a story worth reading. If the story isn't good and you were only going to read it to see what the impact would be, then that's a whole different pile of problems and you probably shouldn't be rewarding publishers for crappy content in the first place.

But this is what I'm talking about. Other distribution models are being held back for the benefit of a dying market. Every time DC has tried to break into new formats, retailers and Diamond have thrown a fit, afraid of losing readers they never had in the first place, and it's hobbled publisher's efforts.

So no, I don't care about spoilers. I don't care if digital readers get their books first, because the last thing publishers should be doing is pissing off those new demographics and halfassing their attempts to reach new markets. Publishers should be chasing those new markets as hard as they can, investing heavily and building up strong consumer bases, not buckling under pressure from a dying market.

I'd like to see publishers call Diamond's bluff. Go ahead, stop stocking DC on the shelf. See how long you can last with no Batman to sell. I don't want businesses closing, but I'm tired of seeing the industry being held hostage by a market that, at best will just stumble on barely generating respectable profit, and at worst die completely. Keeping retailers and Diamond happy is only good for the short-term, but will prove to be dangerous in the long run if publishers don't start getting serious about building their brand in other markets.

If the direct market dies, it's their own fault for how poorly they managed it.

Of course. But that's as true as it is worthless. "You should've tried harder" can be applied to virtually anyone doing anything. If you didn't do it perfectly, then this critique can apply. And yes, publishers could have done soooo much more to make the direct market work. Absolutely. But there's two points you're not taking into account. First; due to the nature of this model the burden of advertising largely falls on the LCS and retailers. DC can market and advertise their product until their budget cracks, but if the LCS doesn't advertise, then people won't know where to get the comics they see DC advertising. Second, this model was flawed from the start. It was designed to be insular, it was never built to be a growth market, and discounting some miracle happening, the direct market was always going to shrink as established fans left and eventually die. Publishers could have done more, and the market has already lasted longer than a lot of people thought it would, but publishers had a crap system to work with in the first place.

This entire situation sucks for both sides and the comic companies have handled it horribly.

Very much in agreement with you there.

[iron chimp]

....I assume you mean 20 years distributing consistently, without missing a month, right? Because sales haven't been constant, they've been in decline since forever.

And we're not (most of us anyway) down on our LCS or Diamond so much as we just recognize that this system is failing, has been failing for many, many years, and publishers, if they want to continue publishing, need to develop alternatives.

.

Sales figures totally contradict everything youve just said.

[Ascended]

Sales figures totally contradict everything youve just said.

So the direct market has actually been gaining readers and sales consistently for the last two decades? I'm not talking about short term bumps, or even the few years of growth we got out of the New52.

I did a quick check at comichron and yeah, there's been gains here and there. Overall trajectory still looks pretty lackluster. Pretty much each spike, far as I can see, coincides with a Event and the gains don't last long.

It's not a healthy market.

[iron chimp]

This is awesome!

Hopefully they all kill each other. When the whole system comes a-tumblin' down, it will create all kinds of opportunities for ingenuitive comic creators who weren't getting anything out of it. Then a true new comic age can begin. Heh, one can hope at least

Lets see....

You can buy from lcs
You can buy ogns from publishers not stocked in lcs at bookstore or online
You can buy from kickstarter
You can buy from independent digital distro
You can buy from comixology
You can buy small press direct from the artist
You can buy small press direct from the publisher
You can now buy from the whole world of comics.

Youre literally living in the most free market for comics ever but you want to see 1000s of people lose their jobs.

Go get some of the 100s and 100s of small press books direct from artists or publishers outside diamond...

Oh yeah thats right... hand wont go in pocket.... because its just talk...