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DC Gone Digital

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Yoc:
Yeah, I caught your drift on keeping the price point John.

And I like both your ideas.  I see a parallel to the birth of Cd's vs LPs.  Purists still want the lp and can even find it if they want to pay a premium.  Why not digital and a premium paper.  Give the digital product out cheaper or perhaps as a gift card like you suggested (I like the idea a lot actually, the card could be sold anywhere and given inside a birthday card or something) OR if you are a mad collector you can buy the much more expensive printed version by mail order or via your comic shop which now must be a lot more impressive since they had to seriously look at their own business model and evolve or die.
I get the feeling though DC hopes the iPads, etc really take off and we all buy each issue like an 'app'.  It might work even and lose the need for any actual store but that's for sure a kiss of death to LCS.

johndesmarais:

--- Quote from: Roygbiv666 on September 03, 2011, 11:22:17 AM ---I do find it interesting that DC's game plan doesn't seem to address what every nerd on the interwebs says are the problems with the comics industry. Instead, they focussed on new #1s, high collars, and changes to continuity. Did they even try to address the issue of comic availability (in remaining mom and pop shops, 7-11 type stores, Wal-Mart, etc.) and the basic concept of supply and demand - if they can get demand up, they can get the prices down? No. Or maybe they did and it just didn't work.

How much does allocating about 2 square feet for a spinner rack in a store cost the store in order to recoup it with sales.

Also, take a lesson from drug dealers (at the least the kinds I know about, the ones on "Law & Order" and "CSI", and ... "Barney Miller"): get the kids hooked with free samples and make them a customer for life.

No, those high collars and no undies will really save the market.

--- End quote ---

The problem comic publishers face with putting product in places like 7-Eleven and Wal-Mart is the deal the distributors who have the contracts to services those types of stores saddle them with.  Unlike Diamond, these periodical distributors will demand return rights on unsold merchandise - which is a cost that a comic publisher just isn't able to absorb.  And, as comic publishers (as compared to other magazine publishers) lack the clout to force these periodical distributors to change there terms, they can't really do anything about.  So, while you will occasionally see comics in stores like those, they will never be the major outlet that they once were in the days before comic specialty stores.

narfstar:
Larger distribution means higher ad costs. Product placement can even beat advertising. Or ads that are fun. Get the price down to a price that would go completely to the store and let the ads pay for the publication. This is what is essentially done with newspapers. Look how much paper you get for fifty cents. That money goes to the shop the ads pay the real price.

Yoc:
Going points Narf and I like it in some ways but with product placement you also find advertisers starting to demand actual story content control as well.  'Have three costume changes and a new Batmobile in the next movie and we'll see more toys.'

John C:
But Yoc...Rom.  Dazzler.  Masters of the Universe.  The Super-Mobile.  Secret Wars.  I'm no fan of that sort of thing, but it has ruled the roost before in various ways.  Comics were written around either a specific product concept or re-engineered to make them more "toyetic," as they say.

However, I'm not sure ad-supported comics are the way to go, given that newspaper and magazine publishers are crying poverty.  Not that it can't work, but it obviously doesn't work the way it has for the past fifty years or so.  It probably needs a serious re-think.

Although, I guess, if we're doing the "buy the card to access the comic," advertising can be a little more blatant and extensive, rather than just a page sitting in the book.  And if they're something like the old Hostess ads (that is, a brief quickie cartoon starring the hero of the comic), people might actually pay attention to them.

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