new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Recession Watch, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 25 of 27
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: Recession Watch in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
Over at iFanboy, one of the former Wizard employees has given a tell-all exit interview
that’s pretty juicy. Here’s how the employees found out what was going down:
Former Wizard Employee: Actually its pretty screwed up what they did. They gave everyone off on Friday (very strange) then last night at 6:30 PM (right before kickoff [of the Jets/Steelers playoff game]) they called me and told me the magazines were no longer in publication. I was asked to go get my personal belongings and they told me the office was closed and moved to a different location and they would let us know when it was okay to get them. When I asked about severance or unemployment they shrugged me off and quickly dismissed me. So, I still have no idea what is happening in those regards.
Setting aside the heartache of the Jets/Steelers game, this former employee gives an even more screwed up account of how things were done, including am embargo from Marvel after
Wizard published a collection of Marvel comics — without Marvel’s permission.
When Marvel asked them about they simply refused the calls and never paid them a cent. Once I heard this I realized that these people did not give a shit about anyone or anything. I was never given any numbers on how the magazine was doing but I am sure they have been consistent in the sales as they are a very niche magazine.
According to this staffer,
Wizard owner Gareb Shamus has given up on GeekChicDaily, the daily newsletter formed
as a joint venture by Wizard and Peter Guber. Some employees remain on staff to run the new web magazine, but the new format hasn’t been decided on.
UPDATE: And a statement from Jerry Milani, Wizard’s PR rep:
Wizard Entertainment is ceasing publication of the print magazines Wizard and ToyFare. Wizard World, Inc. will begin production of the online publication “Wizard World” beginning in February. We feel this will allow us to reach an even wider audience in a format that is increasingly popular and more readily accessible.
Numerous reports this morning that the print version of Wizard magazine is shutting down, effective immediately, with all staff laid off and
assignments canceled. According to Bleeding Cool
,
ToyFare magazine will continue. And based on the number of tweets coming out of the Wizard World convention business, the Wizard World shows will also continue.
According to a press release just released from Gareb Shamus, Wizard will continue as an online “Wizard World” Magazine. In addition, the previous Wizard corporation is being replaced by Wizard World, a new public company, which is being traded as a penny stock.
In its 20-year run, Wizard Magazine defined an era, for good and ill. While bringing contemporary magazine techniques and graphics of the “Lad magazine” era was an innovation from the “mimeograph” era of comics fanzines, the publication’s Top Ten lists and price guides throughout the ’90s created a world where comics were collectibles based on hot, flashy artists who drew “good girls.” It was a juvenile, temporary phase for many people. At one time, Wizard sold more copies than any comic it covered but in recent years, despite several attempts to get a website going (including one over a decade ago) it just could not compete with the moment by moment breaking news of the internet.
In recent years, Wizard was mostly known for laying people off as it trimmed down to an ever more skeletal staff. The magazine itself started putting photos of celebs on the cover instead of art by former Image creators. The price guide was cut, leading to a slim, pamphlet-like magazine. That it is now going online only — although with what staff remains a mystery — is no shocker. The shock is that it took this long.
The remaining Wizard staff had been running a blog called Piemonkey
which was taken down last week for “
emergency site maintenance” according to their Twitter feed.
The Piemonkey Twitter feed had only 43 followers, perhaps a symbol of how far the Wizard brand had fallen as a newsbreaker.
As for the new venture, as a publicly traded stock, we look forward to reading the mandaory SEC filing for the company. However, that will have to wait a little bit — searching for GOEE.PK brings up something called “GoEnergy, Inc.”
Gareb Shamus, recently appointed President and CEO of public company Wizard World, Inc. (“Wizard World”) (OTC: GOEE.PK), today announced that the Comic Con Tour, which consists of pop culture conference events that provide high visibility marketing opportunities to pop culture brands and companies in multiple venues throughout the year, is now being produced by public company Wizard World. The Wizard World Comic Co
From what we’re hearing it’s going to be a rough year in the business end of comics–the herd will be thinned. And here’s one that’s lagging behind as the hyaenas circle: Russ Cochran
is one of the survivors of the pre direct market days as an independent publisher, specifically known for his extensive reprinting of the EC comics long before classic comics reprints were commonplace. His publishing company was purchased by Diamond in 1993, and formed the foundation of much of the Gemstone line of EC and Disney reprints. While Gemstone’s actual publishing has been shut down (
after running up hefty printing bills), Cochran continues to put out his own line of EC reprints, licensed through the Gaines Estates. However according to a recent mailer, even that modest business is in trouble:
I’m going to have to be completely honest with you now. My business, which has been in existence since 1971…that’s FORTY YEARS…is in financial trouble, and unless something changes soon, I will be closing my doors before 2011 is over.
I’ve already had to terminate my oldest employee, Chris Rock, who was with me for 35 years. Chris worked on all the EC projects with me, he went to NYC with me to photograph the EC art for the EC portfolios, and it was very difficult for me to tell him that he was being laid off. This leaves only two other employees, Angie Meyer and Judy Goodwin, and right now my monthly sales through my website, eBay, and Amazon are not enough to cover their salaries.
I’m hoping to get permission from the Gaines Estate to continue publishing the EC ARCHIVES series, but unless this comes soon, my publishing days will be ended. With no new products to offer you, all I can do is to offer special deals on the items I do have in inventory. I would rather sell them to you, my faithful customers, at a lower price than to wholesale them to dealers and booksellers.
There are indeed some good deals. If you were thinking of
buying some Cochran projects, now might be the time in addition to the EC books he also published well regarded volumes on classic musicians
Les Paul and Chet Atkins. Cochran also sells very rare comics art by Herriman, Caniff and others of that caliber, like the already-sold Charles Biro BOY page above.
Best headline ever!
In the proud tradition of Superman fighting landmines and other great didactic comics of the past, Marvel and the Mayor’s Office of NYC have teamed for a comic book teaching New Yorkers about resources available for their job hunts. “Spider-Man, You’re Hired” “features an unemployed Peter Parker starting his job search, is the Administration’s latest effort to connect out-of-work to New Yorkers to job training and placement services.”
Since Spidey works for a newspaper it’s very likely he’d be outsourced or downsized or whatever they’re calling it.
The program was announced this morning at a press conference at the new downtown Midtown Comics location. (Yes that is an oxymoron.)
Luckily this is the original Spider-Man, not the Ultimate one, or the story would be called “Spider-Man, You’re Dead!”
Over at iFanboy, Josh Flanagan continues this week’s succession of toilet metaphors for the monthly sales figures with “Q3 Comic Book Sales Are in the Crapper”. We don’t agree with Flanagan’s overall distress — there is no need to “cross fingers” that comics will get through this rough patch. Let’s get one things straight in all this mishegoss: Comics will continue on in some format either like or unlike the one we have today. Period. People have been proclaiming the death of comics for over 50 years and something new always comes along. The particular aspect of the present day comics industry that you or I are involved with may not make the jump but something else will. Them’s the breaks.
That aside, the article is interesting for the comments section, which doesn’t go for the knee-jerk complaint that big events are killing comics. The general crap economy and general malaise among many comics series are mentioned, and a new threat is raised: too many comics that were lauded on the internet. According to a theory espoused by several commenters, over the last two or three years, a whole class of must read books were promoted by internet reviewers — and a lot of people got on board, only to find they are now on “bored.” reader “QwayLewd” advances the theory:
I’ve cut way back, but it’s more to do with my personal stack problem. I went on a buying orgy the last 3-5 years, spurred on, to no small degree, by iFanboy and other online communities and podcasts. I sloooowwly realized the need to downshift because of that finite resource: my time. Have others experienced this? Is there a slow deflation of the comics bubble that resulted from the “new golden age” of the past several years.
Reader “AvengersAssemble” backs it up:
I completely agree! The internet reviews and online trade buying made it so simple to find a good jumping on point!
Some 2 years ago I read the one or other great-awesome-cheering review and instantly bought 3-4 trades to get in and catch up.
It was just during the last 1 1/2 years, I more and more realized, how crappy those titles have gotten /been-are at some times.
We really are onto something, aren’t we?
The user names suggest these were more mainstream books that got dropped from the Wednesday Habit than, say, Prison Pit. The whole “Wednesday Crowd/Internet chatroom” culture that was created with DC’s weekly soap opera 52 seems to have died down as normal books just don’t deliver that kick.
Hm, SO it turns out it was event comics after all, but not because they sucked. Because they were jut too damned good.
Wow, New York is getting even crappier.
News had been floating around for a bit, but a trip to their website confirmed that Giant Robot NY is closing next week. An offshoot of Giant Robot stores in LA and San Francisco, the East Village shop served as a gallery space for artists, cartoonists, as well as a place to snag books, toys and wondrous gizmos. It was also the herald of the wave of Asian cultural influence that swept over the US in the last decade.
On the Flog blog, Janice Headley remembers some comics-centric events at the space
We here at Fantagraphics are sad to see this wonderful shop and gallery go. Over the years, GRNY has hosted some great events featuring our artists, most recently, Paul Hornschemeier, during his tour with Jay Ryan. We’ve also been excited to have our artists featured in their exhibits, like the “Free Ice Cream Day” show back in 2007, which included original artwork from MOME artists like Anders Nilsen, Jeffrey Brown, and R. Kikuo Johnson.
Manager Mark has a message on the site reading in part:
So the cat’s out of the bag, the official announcement has been made, and GRNY will be closing at the end of the month. I’ve only been here for the final third of GRNY’s 6 year run, but I’m sad to see it go. It sounds corny and cliched to say, but NYC is a tough town. In recent years I’ve seen absolute institutions that I thought would be here forever shut their doors (CBGB comes to mind). The city changes more and more, and sometimes the only choice is to move on. GRNY leaves a legacy of nothing but good memories. Fresh out of college, I’d scour magazine stores like Tower Books (also gone from NYC) for cool magazines, which is where I first discovered Giant Robot. I studied Japanese in college largely due to a fascination with their pop culture, but that extended to Asian pop culture in general. GR was a super cool insight into West Coast culture through a sort of indy/Asian lens. It was a way to share common interests that transcended any sort of ethnicity, and I always dug it. I was excited to see GR open a store in NY (SF and LA seemed to have a real lock on great Asian pop culture outlets), and was there on the first day. Now I’ll be here on the last day, too. Feels kind of strange.
For our own part, we have many fond memories of GRNY openings and parties, one in particular where we met a young man with a waxed mustache playing an accordion outside, and it turned out to be
Nick Gazin. That kind of crazy shit never happens any more.
Actually it does, just not when we’re around.
Via PR, word that Midtown Comics will be opening a downtown branch in the Wall St. area very this fall. With two existing branches — Times Square and Grand Central — already serving the commuter crowd, this looks to cement Midtown’s place as one of the biggest retail accounts for Diamond:
Midtown Comics will open a state-of-the-art, spacious new comic book specialty shop in New York City’s historic financial district in downtown Manhattan in the Fall of 2010, which will be the third location for the company in NYC. This new haven for comic book aficionados will be on Fulton Street, near Broadway, within the vicinity of NYC landmarks that include Wall Street, the World Trade Center (Ground Zero), City Hall, Battery Park, and South Street Seaport. A grand opening is planned that will include a gala event and multiple creator signings.
Visitors will find the same exciting comic book store environment that they’ve come to expect from Midtown’s existing NYC locations, and tremendous attention to detail will be prevalent in every department, from comics to graphic novels, alternative press, action figures, collectibles, apparel, and so much more. Fans of super heroes, non-super heroes, alternative fare and young readers’ titles will all find a place they can call home here.
In the midst of such an unsettled economic climate, co-owner Gerry Gladston was asked if this is an appropriate time for expansion, and he remarked, “The comic book market is thriving in NYC, and we’ll once again fill a void in an area that is severely underserved. Comic books remain one of the greatest of American art forms, and the medium has recently reached new heights in mainstream acceptance and commercial success, and provides some of the most exciting source material for Hollywood. Each new blockbuster film like Iron Man 2 brings in a new wave of eager readers. The continuing success of our stores in Times Square, Grand Central, and online indicates that the time is indeed ripe to strike again, and we will continue our dedication to the art form with a plethora of creator appearances, discounts, sales, and, most importantly, the irreplaceable knowledge, customer service skills, and enthusiasm of our entire staff. We’re pumped to open Midtown downtown!” Stay tuned for more details on this grand opening, due in the Fall of 2010.
MIDTOWN COMICS opened its first store in 1997, and is now the industry’s leading retailer of comic books, graphic novels, and manga, with its online store as well as two landmark NYC locations in Times Square and Grand Central. More information available online at: http://www.midtowncomics.com
It’s Black Friday, people. Remember to be kind to the harried and overstressed retail employees.
Was talking to a good friend the other day, one I had worked with back in my magazine publishing days. (I worked at various publications, trade and consumer, for several years, including a long stint at Disney Adventures.) He reported that he and just about everyone I had worked with on staff have been laid off from their current jobs at various magazines. One of them just up and moved to Florida with the advice, “Go back to school and look for a new line of work.” He also said he had answered an online ad for a Art Director job and been told that there had been 550 applications for this single post.
It goes without saying that In This Economy, in every field, even people who are at the top of their game are now struggling, It hadn’t previously occurred to me, though, that an entire class of professions is being swept away, as surely as the people who used to set hot type no longer exist. Not necessarily creators, but the people who put things together, photo editors, page layout people.
Will they find new ways to make a living aggregating Twitter content, I wonder?
Art by N.C. Wyeth.
The Beat has learned that editor
Rob Simpson was recently laid off at Dark Horse. Simpson, an industry vet who formerly worked at DC, was the Senior Editor in charge of Dark Horse’s prose books line, which includes original novels, nonfiction, a series of Playboy Interview collections and various fantasy novels — including the recently launched
Neil Gaiman Presents series. Although Dark Horse would not comment directly, they did release this statement from owner
Mike Richardson:
In recent years, Dark Horse has dedicated a great deal of time and resources to move outside of the traditional comics medium with ventures into publishing prose novels. Due to the well known facts of the current state of the book market, and cutbacks at the chains for these types of books, we are placing these efforts on hold for the time being. This is in no way indicative of the health and vitality of any other division of our business, or the company overall.
Although any layoffs are looked at as part of the Great Recession during this time, comics are still getting off fairly lightly, at least on the creative side, with only a smattering of layoffs. It’s painful for anyone, but far less than the massive cuts other aspects of the entertainment industry have been experiencing. We hope this trend continues.
As for Simpson, he’s a real professional; we’re sure he’ll land on his feet even in this harsh time.
Tom Tomorrow reprints correspondence that indicates that things aren’t any better for alternative weekly comics than they were a few months ago.
To no one’s surprise the “temporary” Village Voice Media suspension of cartoons continues indefinitely. I haven’t been contacted myself, but one of my colleagues got this email:
I had said we would review syndicated cartoons after the first quarter, so wanted to get back to you.
Sadly, the results were disappointing, so we’re going to have to extend our moratorium on syndicated cartoons for at least another quarter.
Wish I had better news. I hope we can resume our relationship when things finally turn around.
Well, shit.
Rumors flew yesterday that Wizard had canceled Anime Insider, its J-culture-themed magazine, and Newsarama confirmed:
In an email to Newsarama, Gramling writes, “…after several years of producing Anime Insider magazine, Wizard Entertainment has decided to discontinue its publication. The last issue will be Anime Insider #67. We thank our dedicated staffers for all of their hard work, and we thank our readership for their loyal support.”
Johanna Draper Carlson rounds up other recent comics magazine expirations, including Comics Now! — the last issue came out in September, now officially canceled. Comic Foundry and Write Now! are also mentioned, although it should be noted, Comic Foundry ended because its creator just didn’t have time to do it anymore, not really because of economic factors.
Is Comics Comics still coming out? I forget.
Hello, Amazon! All six of the remaining Virgin Megastores in the US will be shutting down by summer:
After nearly two decades of rocking the music world with a mix of brash stunts and splashy CD releases, the remaining six Virgin Megastores in the United States will shut their doors this summer in another blow to recorded music.
The hipster shops received their branding from billionaire founder Sir Richard Branson and remained profitable, but the real estate firms that own the U.S. chain determined they could command higher rent from new tenants.
“I’ve been pushing back a little bit on the notion that this is just another casualty of the music industry,” said Simon Wright, the chief executive of Virgin Entertainment Group Inc.
The two stores in New York, at Times Square and Union Square, were both profitable, but not as profitable as the planned new tenants, a Forever 21 or
–gah — a CVS? Yet another case of greedy real estate developers chipping away at the fabric of life as it was once lived.
We can’t speak for the other US Virgin locations — San Francisco, Denver, Orlando, and Hollywood — but this means that in Manhattan, the only remaining big places to buy a CD or DVD will be B&N and Borders — and we wouldn’t count on the last named being around much longer either. By our reckoning, the last freestanding music store in Manhattan is Other Music on 4th Street, which got its start as a small, quirky indie alternative to then-giant Tower across the street. Turns out the quirky place is the one where riffling through the racks is possible.
While online shopping, piracy, and Netflix made leaving your house to gather electronic entertainment unfashionable, we still find all of this horrifically sad. Don’t misunderstand — we only buy a few physical CDs a year, but it was always exciting to go to the Virgin store and see all of the physical world of pop culture laid out in front of you, from giant posters for the latest American Idol grad, to the new Home Improvement boxed sets, to comics and books and…stuff. The actual proximity of clashing visions and ideas was — and is — exciting and inspiring, far more so than displays of more skanky clothes to meet guys in.
Maybe we’re just overoptimistic, or nuts, or something, but we totally see the best comics shops — like Forbidden Planet, just a few steps down from Union Square Virgin — as the new record stores, the cool place where you went once a week to get your fix, look “cool” and check out trends. The audiences are far smaller, to be sure, but in the current retail environment, size doesn’t really matter.
It’s youth cultural shift of a seismic proportion from even 15 years ago. But perhaps it helps explain why comics shops sales aren’t sliding quite as quickly as the rest of the economy.
The DFC is a less-than-a-year-old British comics weekly for kids, recently launched in a market where new comics products have an uphill battle. Backed by Random House UK, the magazine had gotten a warm reception and contributions from heavy hitters like Phillip Pullman, but now, The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log reports the subscription-only publication will be canceled at the end of the month unless a buyer is found — not very likely, all involve glumly agree. Joe Gordon writes:
Obviously this is a big blow - we were all really excited at the launch of a major new British comic (such a rare event these days) and as regular readers will know its proved to be popular with adults and with kids (as Molly showed in her reviews with her dad Richard). And of course it offered a major new vehicle for British comics talent - that’s going to hurt, losing both that outlet where their work could be seen and enjoyed as well as the obvious loss of potential earnings (and the worry is that if a buyer isn’t found and the DFC does cease after issue 43 it will put off others from trying to launch a new British regular comic even when the economy picks up).
Contributor
Sarah McIntyre has more at her LJ.
§ That story about how magazine/book distributor Anderson Media was trying to charge magazine publishers 7 cents an issue to distribute magazines is now playing out. Over the last few seeks, Anderson has closed its door and laid off employees. Now, several book publishers are trying to force it into bankruptcy:
In court papers filed in U.S. bankruptcy court in Manhattan, publishing companies Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Random House Inc and Simon & Schuster Inc said they are owed a combined $37.5 million.
Under U.S. law, creditors may begin an involuntary bankruptcy proceeding to force a debtor to confront the debts they are owed. The alleged debtor has about 20 days to object to the filing.
A phone number for the Knoxville, Tennessee-based company has been disconnected.
§ On a more positive note, the old adage that cheap entertainment thrives in a recession is
holding up as box office is up 16 percent over last year:
While much of the economy is teetering between bust and bailout, the movie industry has been startled by a box-office surge that has little precedent in the modern era. Suddenly it seems as if everyone is going to the movies, with ticket sales this year up 17.5 percent, to $1.7 billion, according to Media by Numbers, a box-office tracking company.
And it is not just because ticket prices are higher. Attendance has also jumped, by nearly 16 percent. If that pace continues through the year, it would amount to the biggest box-office surge in at least two decades.
Box office analyst
David Poland suggests that the surge is due more to the
great appeal of PAUL BLART, a premise whose implications we’re not entirely comfortable with but, okay.
There’s been a lot going on since Diamond’s new benchmark bombshell, with several alternative distribution sources cropping up, notably Ka-Blam and their Print-on-Demand ComicsMonkey. However, a much lower discount than retailers are used to might make this a less popular option.
A few more industry figures have commented, as well. Harris Comics’ Bon Alimagno writes about it on his LJ and Blog@ — it’s an interesting viewpoint from an established publisher which makes most of its money outside the direct market, but still has enough of a stake in that channel to be affected:
I’m not sure if it has sunk into the mind of the average comic shop goer what setting these rules mean. The new rules place a huge emphasis on initial sales, in a direct market largely resistant to anything different and new. A year from now it’s very likely what few non-superhero comic books you are used to seeing at your local comic book shop may disappear unless you frequent one that already features a wide ranging selection. The direct market is a vicious cycle: comic book shops are widely considered the best place to buy superhero comics, so most of the people who frequent these shops are people who read superhero comic books. Retailers who order comic books do so on a non-returnable basis. They have to place their bet on what comic will and won’t sell. If they bet wrong they are stuck with extra inventory that may never move. More often than not they’ll place their bet with a sure thing, something with a consistent track record or built-in fan base. Retailers then order mostly superhero books. Anyone looking for anything else will more often than not find a very limited selection appealing to their tastes, so they stop coming, leaving the store increasingly in the hands of superhero comic book readers.
Non-Big Four publishers will often find their books under ordered. In cases like that, they’ll hope that word of mouth and positive reviews stir interest in their titles and lead to reorders. Except now reorders are limited to sixty days, not that much time to grow an audience.
Creator James Owen also has some thoughts, which reflect his long time in the industry and shifting role:
I’ve had more than my fair share of disputes with Diamond over the years. Some were private, some were public, some were epic-level public - as I was one of the few publishers, along with Viz and Kitchen Sink, to sign exclusives with ‘the other side’, Capital City, during the Distribution Wars. But I want to point out - and I cannot stress this too strongly - the only times I had a conflict with Diamond was when they had dropped the ball on something they were actually obligated to do, and then tried to sweep it under the rug, or when the reps we were dealing with treated I or my colleagues in an unprofessional manner. Never because they weren’t doing something I simply wanted them to do, that they had no obligation to do. What this usually meant - and why I have a LOT of sympathy for all of the smaller publishers right now - was that one Diamond rep or another was sloppy and/or arrogantly dismissive of whatever issue I or my other small press friends were having. Books would be listed incorrectly - and options to remedy this were limited to a low-priority correction (read as: retailer packing papers), or a re-listing for the next month - which would devastate our projections and cash flow. Shipments would go astray, which might hold up payment - which could break a small press if it happened at the wrong time. Situations like those were anger-inducing because they were errors in the actual business Diamond was engaged in: solicitation and distribution of product.
Nothing about this is cut and dried — the other day, we mourned the loss of Kevin Huizenga’s OR ELSE, but Huizenga himself seems to be going towards the notion that little comics aren’t a viable option for cartoonists any more — and by modern alt-cartoonist standards, Huizenga is incredibly prolific. Sammy Harkham managed a slim 32 pages of material since 2006 in CRICKETS, and while excellence in any dose is always welcome, that definitely stretches the idea of “periodical.”
As readers, we’re more fond of the MOME model — a regular anthology of dependable quality that allows folks to stockpile material for eventual spine-out presentation. Is MOME a sales blockbuster? Probably not, although it doubtless sustains. The regular comics anthology has become an economic dead zone in the current superhero/Vertigo/WildStorm/Marvel marketplace and unless the Japanese model somehow catches on here, it seems likely to stay that way.
As Owen alludes, this isn’t a Diamond BAD/creator GOOD thing, or the reverse. The comics distribution system is much healthier than it has been, due to a steady supply of good product. We’re currently undergoing the worst worldwide economic crisis since the Great Depression — Diamond is just another leaf in the storm and we’re all going to have to find new ways of doing business.
Bonus: Owen draws a parrot!
Even as Reed Exhibitions was announcing a new comic show for Chicago, they were also announcing that Book Expo Canada, Canada’s biggest book show of the year, has been canceled after a slew of big exhibitors, including Random House, pulled out:
Reed will also not move forward with plans to start a new consumer-oriented event in the fall in Toronto. While BEC was faced with a growing number of publishers who said they were not planning to attend BEC this year, as recently as a few weeks ago Reed had still hoped to put on BEC and launch the Toronto event. Greg Topalian, senior v-p for Reed Exhibitions, said, however, that it has become clear that there is not enough interest in the Canadian publishing industry to make either event a successful stand-alone operation. Reed was willing to run a smaller traditional business-to-business fair and complement that with a consumer show, but, “at the end of the day, there wasn’t enough signups for either,” Topalian said. “We’ve worked for a number of years to find ways to change the show or to have it evolve, but when you get to the point where your customers say you aren’t valuable any more it’s time to move on.” He said that while he would never rule out trying to do some book-related events in Canada in future years, “as of today, there will be no events in 2009.” With the closure of BEC, Reed, parent company of PW, said it will now concentrate its energies on having BookExpo America serve the needs of the North America publishing and bookselling community.
However, a replacement is being
sought:
Less than 24 hours after Reed Exhibitions announced that it was closing BookExpo Canada and not starting a new consumer event, different parties in Canada began to explore the possibility of establishing a less expensive annual gathering that could meet the needs of the industry’s different constituencies. Susan Dayus, executive director of the Canadian Booksellers Association, said she was disappointed by the decision, adding that the association still believes “there is a need for a national gathering of booksellers, publishers, authors and others connected to the book industry.” She said the CBA is looking at the possibility of launching a new event this year. She noted that the association had always held its annual general meeting in conjunction with a convention and said the CBA will immediately begin exploring the feasibility of putting some sort of show together, but was uncertain what form it would take.
Meanwhile, Newsarama collected some thoughts on Reed’s other moves — moving New York Comic-Con to an early October date, and starting a show in downtown Chicago — from
industry observers:
“I think adding a con is a total to-be-determined,” replied McLauchlin. “It’s also a risky move, especially given the economic climate. We are living in a day and age where the U.S. economy can lose 60,000 jobs in a day. Parallel to job losses, many potential exhibitors have commensurately lowered marketing budgets. It’s happening everywhere. Take a look at sponsors flooding out of auto racing. Buick is ditching its sponsorship of Tiger Woods. The volume of media just sent to the Super Bowl was way down. It’s happening on a macro- level, and as above, so below. I’d guess that whatever budgets the Upper Decks or Sony PlayStations or 20th Century Foxes might have to throw at marketing for 2010—the stuff that might creep into the comics world—will be down as well. I think Reed adding a show will add some competition for the tightening marketing dollar.
“Moving a New York convention on the calendar won’t matter one whit. It’s effectively a zero sum. I think they’ve already moved this show around already anyhow, right?”
As for our own thoughts? Aside from the Passover problem, April was an ideal time for a big comics show in New York — spring renewal, blooming flowers, hope, and optimism. It was also the perfect time to kick off the summer movie slate. That said, early October in New York is pretty much the most perfect time of the year — crisp fall days, the tang of apple cider, pumpkin ale, the start of the crunch of leaves underfoot. However, it will come at the end of the summer movie cycle and just in time for Christmas movies, which may not be fan friendly as the summer crop.
But you know, we love New York any time of year. Could I leave you running merrily through the snow? Or on a wintry evening when you catch the fire’s glow?
§ Cartoonist Matt Bors sits down with Kevin Allman, editor of The Gambit, an independent alt-weekly out of New Orleans, to talk about the recent weekly comic holocaust. The result is sobering but informative:
The cutback in cartoons has less to do with the budget than it does with page counts going down. Let’s face it: you guys aren’t paid shit for what you do, and it’s got to be infuriating to feel like your measly $25 is the first place editors look to cut. We don’t. It’s a space issue.
§ Cartoonist MK Reed shakes her fist at doom with a resource-filled post that includes alternative distributors and other places where you can sell comics besides Diamond. Recommended.
§ Speaking of other channels, Rik Offenberger talks to Haven’s Lance Stahlberg about the other game in town:
NRAMA: If a publisher finds they can’t meet the new benchmarks, can you help?
LS: That’s exactly why we’re here. Part of our mission is to help bring independent comics to the market. We give deserving titles a chance when Diamond won’t. We still have a submission and approval process, and you may get taken on consignment, but we boast a wide range of titles that cater to many tastes. Every new book we offer is treated the same.
We’ve been in business for a year now since we acquired and re-branded Cold Cut. In that year we’ve more than tripled our warehouse space, our inventory, and our active orders. Haven is definitely a viable alternative distribution channel, especially for newer stores just getting into the market who haven’t been conditioned to think of Previews as their only source for product.
Haven is going to try to step into the breach for comics that can’t make Diamond’s numbers, and will even start taking advance orders, which is a huge step.
§ Richard Bruton has a big overview and commentary.
§ Even The New York Times covered Diamond’s move.
§ Red 5’s Brian Clevinger also looks at the picture, but shows fighting spirit:
Let me put it plainly.
The basic model of getting new independent comics into shops is dead. Oh, it’ll do fine for Marvel, DC, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, and maybe one or two others. But everyone else? Everyone out there working on a new project for publication right now? The old model no longer applies.
The good news is that this isn’t bad news.
• And then there’s MAD going quarterly. As the above shows, we still need MAD Magazine.
Mark Evanier points out that MAD is one of the most recognized brand names in comics and is unlikely to disappear:
Being a lover of its heritage, I’d be the first to trash Ficarra if the current MAD was unworthy of its name. It absolutely is not. But this kind of decline is very common in the periodical business. Playboy, this year, will only publish eleven issues and it isn’t because the public is losing its interest in gorgeous nude women. Even before we all began living on the Internet and doing 90% of our reading there, magazines were on the way out. And since everyone got a computer, it’s only become worse and worse. MAD has evolved to survive, adding color and advertising when that was necessary…but it can’t escape the fact that people just don’t read things on paper these days.
MAD will not go away. It’s too valuable a brand name to ever disappear. (National Lampoon is still around. It just hasn’t been a magazine since around 1988.) Today’s announcement probably translates as follows: “We need to keep the name alive and to keep key staffers and contributors in the family. But it’s losing money and we’re going to scale it back and minimize those losses while we figure out what to do with it.” Its new configuration is not a long-range plan…and maybe that long-range plan, whenever they arrive at it, will restore MAD to its former glory in some venue.
§ Contributor
Tom Richmond comments:
MAD’s real problem is one they cannot avoid… they are a magazine. Name me a single magazine, outside tabloid trash peddlers, that isn’t struggling badly right now. I suppose that’s all about content also, right? TV Guide used to sell over 20 million copies a WEEK, and now they sell about 3 million copies… I suppose the quality of their TV schedules has badly declined. Playboy used to sell over 7 million copies an issue and today they are at 3 million copies…. of course we all know the quality of naked women has decreased dramatically since the 70’s.
§ As does
Evan Dorkin:
This wasn’t just bad news because of our possibly losing a client or work, I feel really bad about the troubles the magazine, as well as the publishing world, is going through, and this just brought it home. I know that Diamond’s recently released policy changes will affect us more, SLG relies heavily on re-lists, and the small press will be crippled, further, by the new minimums, but the comic industry has always been, as Dan Vado put it, “built on jelly”, and I’ve been here for almost 20 years making minimal to moderate comic book money, so this comes as little surprise. But I wasn’t aware of how bad magazine distribution has become, and a venerable magazine like Mad, a comic but in some ways never thought of as a comic, well, seeing it take a gutshot like this shakes one up. Or at least me. There are people who live off their Mad income, we’re not one of those, and I can see this affecting a lot of freelancers who relied on 12 issues of material for their income. There’s going to be less room for folks like us, who came to the party late, and have less of a track record, but hopefully we’ll still pick up a gig here and there. I hope the new plan works out alright and Mad can stay on the shelves for a good while longer, there’s still a large fan base there, but publishing is just so squeezed. Jeez.
§ BTW, if you want to play along at home, you can see
MAD’s yearly circ at this chart. It’s a pretty typical picture of erosion, with the huge problems at newsstands in the late ’70s that led to the creation of the direct market clearly shown, but also some odd RISES in circ, including one from ‘06 to ‘07. But then an even bigger decline for ‘08.
Yesterday, cartoonist Tom Tomorrow revealed the dire news that his strip, This Modern World, and all other weekly cartoons were being canceled by Village Voice Media, publisher of the Village Voice, the LA Weekly, and 13 other newsweeklies.
This still leaves me with eighty-odd papers, as well as Salon and Credo, so it’s not a fatal blow. And believe me, I wasn’t so naive as to imagine I was going to get through this economic mess without taking some hits. Nonetheless it’s a serious chunk of major cities to lose in one fell swoop (don’t get me started on the joys of consolidation this morning). Anyway, if you live in one of those cities and think this is a bad decision, you might want to share those feelings with the local editor. Politely, it should go without saying. And keep in mind: it’s not just my cartoon, it’s all of them, so put in a kind word for my compatriots while you’re at it. The only thing any of us have going for us in a situation like this is reader support.
The Minnesota Independent confirmed the cuts. We’re too bummed to get dressed and run to the corner to get a copy of the Voice to see which other strips were running. Their comics page mentioned only Tomorrow and Mr. Fish, but there were others.
Today, Tomorrow has updated the situation and runs a quote from Derf who says it’s doom-time:
OK. This is it. We’ve reached the apocalyptic final struggle for the future of cartoons.
Village Voice Media is the largest group of weekly newspapers in the biz. It is suffering from the ills that have befallen the rest of the newspaper industry: dwindling revenues and withering readership. Their corporate response, which was delivered to me Monday, is to “suspend” all cartoons across the chain, said suspension to last at least through the rest of the first quarter, and quite possibly beyond. That’s right. NO more cartoons. None. This is very probably a fatal blow to me. Not only is it a significant income hit, but these are six of the largest and finest papers in the weekly industry. I’ve been in the pages of some of these publications for years. The Riverfront TImes was one of my first papers. I started run- ning there in 1991! This isn’t about me “sucking ” either. Since I won the Robert F. Kennedy Award in 2006, one of the highest honors bestowed on a cartoonist, I’ve been losing papers steadily. The reason cited is always budget cuts. Always.
Jen Sorensen was also cut from the
Voice, and puts it into
more economic context:
Now, cartoons are cheap content that keep a certain number of readers habitually picking up the paper week after week. Those readers might not take the time to write the editor if they disappear; they’ll just stop picking up the paper. Or they’ll write us to complain. I do understand that low ad revenue means low page counts, which means space is at a premium. (Space is a mysteriously complex issue even in “normal” times.) But it seems to me that the few crumbs — and I do mean crumbs — these papers save by axing cartoons is self-defeating. Heaven help us if the cost of cartoons makes or breaks the industry.
Emphasis mine. Derf and Tomorrow urge readers to write to their local alt. weekly editors and complain about the cartoon cuts. It would seem counterintuitive in an era when everyone just pops onto craigslist to get an apartment or a used dresser to cut original content that readers might actually, y’know, enjoy, but we’re living in an economy of nickels and dimes.
Somebody better figure out a way to make money off the Internet…pronto.
Only The New York Post seems to have picked up on this story, but it’s a biggie. Another major magazine distributor has joined Anderson News in raising its rates to distribute magazine copies to newsstands by 7 cents — regardless of whether the magazines sell or not, according to the post. Publishers have resisted, but now Source Interlink has also increased its fees. Together, the two distributors control half of the US magazine wholesale distribution network:
The remaining big distributors - Jimmy Pattison’s News Group, based in Atlanta and Vancouver, British Columbia, and New York-based Hudson News - have not sought a fee hike.
But if all magazine distributors follow suit, publishers worry it could sock them with an additional $1 billion a year in expenses at a time when they are contending with plunging advertising revenue and sagging newsstand sales.
Already, publishers predicted Anderson News’ price hike would cost them an additional $200 million a year.
“We’re in for it now,” said one worried publisher after he got the Source Interlink news. “It’s great to say, ‘Screw Anderson,’ but who are we going to get to replace them?”
Like Anderson News, Source Interlink claims it needs the fee hike to survive.
Ya gotta love the Post’s old skool reportage on this. Considering that magazines distribution is an old skool business with lots of ties to preople who might appear in Martin Scorsese movies, it’s appropriate. We’re not to hep to the background ourselves, but our guess is that if this is remotely true, and these rate hikes go into effect, the magazines publishing world is going to look a little like central Florida after a Category 4 hurricane.
The Beat has confirmed that DC Senior Editor Bob Schreck was laid off yesterday. Other layoffs, expected in the wake of Warner Brothers’ companywide 10 percent reduction, include Subcriptions Manager Christine Sawicki and several MAD Magazine personnel. The magazine-related layoffs certainly reflect the general crumbling of the entire magazine business.
As for Schreck, the layoff is more of a surprise since he is generally considered one of the top editors in the business. Starting at Comico, he also worked at Dark Horse, where he edited SIN CITY and MADMAN, then co-founded Oni Press (with Joe Nozemack) and then moved to DC where he worked on THE DARK KNIGHT STRIKES AGAIN, ALL-STAR SUPERMAN, and ALL-STAR BATMAN AND ROBIN THE BOY WONDER. He moved to Vertigo two years ago, where his office was developing several new graphic novel projects, including THE NOBODY by Jeff Lemire.
Schreck’s departure won’t take effect for several months. Given his track record and long list of friends in the business, it’s unlikely he’ll be gone for long.
The Beat has confirmed that Diamond laid off 13 employees yesterday, including the managing editor and designer for the recently canceled Diamond Dialog magazine. In addition to the layoffs, wages for management and other staff were reduced. According to a letter sent to staff by COO Chuck Parker, the cost cuts were a result of the generally poor economy and a four percent decline in sales in 2008.
While these layoffs are confirmed, rumblings of layoffs at DC are rampant this morning. We’ll have details as they emerge.
• On Monday, Rich Johnston reported that Top Cow has laid off two of its top people, VP of Sales and Marketing Mel Caylo and VP of Editorial Rob Levin. We’ve received the email from Levin confirming this…but he will be attending New York Comic-Con with Top Cow for those who might wish to talk to him regarding potential projects. Caylo and Levin are both well respected, so the cuts are becoming deeper.
• Much talk about Warner Bros.’s plans to cut 800 jobs, but based on what has been reported, it doesn’t seem that DC Comics will be directly affected.
Warner Bros. Entertainment is eliminating 800 jobs, or about 10% of its global workforce, becoming the latest media company to take drastic cost-cutting measures amid a deepening recession.
About 600 people will be laid off across all divisions of the studio’s operations, and 200 cuts will come from open positions not being filled.
Forbes reports on how the ASTRO BOY movie is squeaking through the tough times as Imagi Studios, the production company, searches for funding and so on:
Their boss, Douglas Glen, Imagi’s chief executive, had just come back from the American Film Market in Los Angeles, which was devastated by the gloom and doom spanning the globe. “If markets don’t return to some semblance of normalcy, it is going to be difficult to keep operations going,” an ashen-faced Glen told a visitor. Only two months before he had triumphantly secured $30 million in financing for his movie animation company. Then $20 million of it fell through.
Imagi wasn’t the only moviemaker in trouble–the whole industry was crippled by the credit crunch. In November at the Film Market “it was absolutely bleak,” says D. Jeffrey Andrick, managing director of Continental Entertainment Capital, a Beverly Hills company that serves as a merchant banker specializing in the movie industry. Continental brought to Citigroup (nyse: C - news - people )The Spirit, the $50 million-plus Frank Miller film that opened on Christmas Day. “It may have been the worst environment I’ve seen at the American Film Market.”
View Next 1 Posts
I would think being able to file for unemployment would be a given in this case.
I really wanted this post to include a an image of The Thing done in oils.
“I really wanted this post to include a an image of The Thing done in oils.”
I’m pretty sure some Wizards I got in the mid 90s came polybagged with trading cards with that exact thing.
Bot mostly Wolverine and Spider-Man done in oils.
Sounds like Marvel had grounds for a lawsuit here, if Wizard/Shamus did indeed reprint Marvel comics w/o their permission.
But w/the mag now being defunct, looks that idea is gone…
Even though “Wizard” magazine was never my cup of tea, and never something I read with any regularity, the loss of any comics-related publication — especially one that directly or indirectly provided jobs to comics industry folks — is a sad one.
Joe, since the company is not going under, any full time employees on staff would automatically be eligible for unemployment when they were layed off.
Which isn’t as good as a severance package would be, but that would depend on what contract they were working under.
For Shame-us! Wizard had a habit of treating Golden and Silver Age creators like garbage, and apparently now their own employees? The “karmic boomerang” strikes again. You get what you give, and now they get theirs. What a shame.
They were the first to print my press releases and promote my comic back in ‘93 yet they decided to venture down the wrong path. I am grateful for those from the 90s but the current crew? I haven’t been to a WW show in ten years and probably won’t for another.
Any potential Wizard had to turn the whole ship around seemed to evaporate once Pat McCallum, Brian Cunningham, and Joe Yanarella were let go.
Does this mean that someone decent will finally be taking over the Wizard World cons?
Anybody working there who is shocked by what’s happened and the way business was conducted can only have had their head in the sand for the last 3-5 years. If you were caught there at the end and expected otherwise then shame on you for not managing your career better. You simply weren’t paying attention.
Who stands around on a sinking ship with a crazy captain and then is shocked when he pulls out a gun?
Interesting to me is if we’ll ever figure out how much money was bled out of the magazine over the last year buying all those cons? The conspiracy theorist in me says this was the end goal from more than a year ago. Establish the brand elsewhere using the cash flow from the magazine, then shut down the magazine once its been starved to death.