DC's Big 2012 Mktg Change - Price Increase on more books to $3.99 to come...

[Jordanstine]

EDIT:

John Rood & Bob Wayne interview regarding change - http://forums.comicbookresources.com...2#post14503492

Big marketing changes coming to DC in 2012.

http://www.newsarama.com/comics/rood...es-120106.html



With the beginning of a new year, change is bound to happen.

And for fans who follow the market share race between Marvel and DC, that change came Friday. While DC held the top spot each month since their much-publicized "New 52" relaunch in September, the newest numbers from December had Marvel reclaiming the top spot once again.

John Rood, the company's executive vice president of sales, marketing and business development, has always maintained that the market sales number doesn't matter. As he's been joining with DC's SVP of Sales Bob Wayne to talk with Newsarama each month, market share is not DC's goal.

- Marvel's win in December of the market share race might have been different if not for the way Diamond reports returnable comics.

- While the executives congratulated Marvel on the company's market share win, Wayne and Rood both were frequent to point out differences between DC and Marvel, maintaining that DC's approach is more admirable on things like digital/print combo packs, price points and the number of titles released.

- DC confirmed that they're seeing a phenomenon similar to Newsarama's feedback from retailers that high-selling titles are doing better than pre-September, but numbers for mid and low-tier titles are heading back to the post-September (before relaunch) level.

- DC announced that we will see higher price points and page counts this year for at least 2 more comics in Batman and Detective Comics. Both comics will go from 32 pages each to 40 pages, but will also be selling at $3.99. DC currently has Justice League, Action Comics, All-Star Western, and Men of War all at the $3.99 price point.

- Rood stated there was a good reason for the higher price and page change - a "Story Reason" which has yet to be announced.

- New "combo packs" (with both a print and digital version of the comic) are on the horizon for Green Lantern and Detective Comics, similar to those being offered for Justice League, Batman and Action Comics. The new Detective combo pack will be $4.99, while the new Green Lantern combo will be $3.99. Batman's combo pack will increase to $4.99.

- DC has no major digital announcements planned in 2012 that is comparable to the digital moves the company made in 2011.

- While Newsarama has been told in the past that the move to same-day digital drove the decisions behind the New 52 initiative, language from Rood indicates the priority in 2012 has shifted strongly back to the print market.

- DC is hinging some of its 2012 plans for how to shake up its print comics market on discussions at next month's ComicsPRO annual meeting, where they'll be revealing the results of the Nielson survey the company conducted last year.

Basically more books will see price increases, and there will be more focus on print rather than digital.

[timeismoney]

DC i seeing the Marvel comeback and is trying to cut it off i mean DC killed the top ten but still lost i find that hard to understand this is going to be a great comic year because Both Marvel and DC is fighting for the top spot and that hasn't happen in a long time long live comic this industry isn't going anywhere soon.

[Chiasm]

Who do they think they are? Marvel?

After 25 years of reading Marvel I dropped them entirely over $3.99. Does DC really think this newly converted fan is going to have a hard time dropping them over $3.99?

Not a wise move IMO because if I'm going to pay $3.99 for anything (I'm not) it would be for the books I grew up reading like X-men and Spiderman.

[MartinNL]

As long as we get the extra content (actual story pages) I'm fine with an extra dollar. As soon as it's done the Marvel way, like 20 pgs on some books for 3.99 they'll be dropped. However as long as Snyder's writing Batman I'd pay anything.

[TheKomgred]

I hope DC doesn't go over board crazy with their war against Marvel.

[josh straightedge]

$3.99 for 40 pages isn't bad. There are books out there that are this much and half as many pages.

[sethysquare]

From Snyder's tweets

Hey guys - know theres' a lot of talk about the backups in Batman and TEC - check the @DCComics blog on Monday for the scoop!

20 pages for 2.99 - $0.15 per page
28 pages for 3.99 - $0.14 per page

[Raye]

As long as we get the extra content (actual story pages) I'm fine with an extra dollar. As soon as it's done the Marvel way, like 20 pgs on some books for 3.99 they'll be dropped. However as long as Snyder's writing Batman I'd pay anything.

Pretty much this. The problem with Marvel's 3.99 books is that they are still 20 pages of story for that price. DC said quite clearly that the increase of price was being accompanied by in increase in content, so... that's fine.

[TheKomgred]

Pretty much this. The problem with Marvel's 3.99 books is that they are still 20 pages of story for that price. DC said quite clearly that the increase of price was being accompanied by in increase in content, so... that's fine.

Marvel is doing 3.99 comics with 20 pages of content? That's pretty ridiculous and a whole lot of adverts.

[sethysquare]

Marvel is doing 3.99 comics with 20 pages of content? That's pretty ridiculous and a whole lot of adverts.

Some of the #3.99 are 32 pages and not the standard 40 pages.

[timeismoney]

I hope DC doesn't go over board crazy with their war against Marvel.

The whole point is money and companies don,t care what we as fans think they will put on a good face an say they do but at the end of the day it's all about the amount of money they can bring in which is not completely wrong seeing as it take money to run a business take me i can never understand why Marvel has so many 3.99 books when their movies along can carry them but than you look at from a business standpoint and you see it,s to take make more money and from DC pointer view they will do what ever it takes to never get as far behind Marvel as they did before the new 52 and from a business standpoint their not wrong but from a fan standpoint it is complete BS there is a reason some people drop Marvel because they are not going to pay 3.99 so at the end of the day DC is going against their own strategy.

[club33az]

The whole point is money and companies do care what we as fans think they will put on a good face an say they do but at the end of the day it's all about the amount of money they can bring in which is not completely wrong seeing as it take money to run a business take me i can never understand why Marvel have so many 3.99 books when their movies along can carry them but than you look at from a business standpoint and you see it,s to take make more money and from DC pointer view they will do what ever it takes to never get as far behind Marvel as they did before the new 52 and from a business standpoint their not wrong but from a fan standpoint it is complete BS there is a reason some people drop Marvel because they are not going to pay 3.99 so at the end DC is going against their strategy.

Dude, one word: punctuation.

[TheKomgred]

The whole point is money and companies don,t care what we as fans think they will put on a good face an say they do but at the end of the day it's all about the amount of money they can bring in which is not completely wrong seeing as it take money to run a business take me i can never understand why Marvel has so many 3.99 books when their movies along can carry them but than you look at from a business standpoint and you see it,s to take make more money and from DC pointer view they will do what ever it takes to never get as far behind Marvel as they did before the new 52 and from a business standpoint their not wrong but from a fan standpoint it is complete BS there is a reason some people drop Marvel because they are not going to pay 3.99 so at the end DC is going against their strategy.

Well, at least DC stated that their 2.99 comics will be x pages long and that they are going to provide extra story pages for Batman. It makes sense since the court of owls will be a long arc.

[jade_nova]

I am a little shocked that books won't be $2.99 anymore but I can understand the price increase if there are going to be more pages. If a book includes a code for the digital copy does the price include the price for the digital copy.

[NinjaMic]

I'd gladly pay 3.99 for more Snyder