20 years

[Shellhead]

There's a Blockbuster no more than a block from where I'm seated and at least two other video stores within another block's walk. That's not counting the video rack in the comic shop I'm sitting in or the African grocery story with racks full of Nollywood movies on DVD.

I live near the center of the 16th largest metro area in the United States, but there doesn't seem to be a video rental store within 10 miles of my home. As recently as two years ago, there were several. These days, my best options for the movie rental experience are:

1. Walk or drive a mile to the public library and borrow older DVDs or rent new DVDs. ($0.50 per movie per day, on the newer releases only)
2. Walk a couple of blocks to the grocery store and choose from the extremely limited selection at RedBox. ($1 per movie per day)
3. Drive four miles to a pawn shop that has a large selection of mediocre movies on sale. ($2 per movie purchased)

Or I could stream or download a movie and watch it on my 13" computer monitor.

I think comics need to eventually go to digital to survive. If they can cut out the printing and distribution costs, comic publishers can sell more comics at a more reasonable price. That might get them back to a level of distribution where they can sell advertising slots again, which makes a big difference in terms of profitability and maybe even sales price. I personally have a strong preference for trades and even single issues, but it isn't hard to envision kids growing up accustomed to reading things on portable devices like iPads. If I had a lot more money, I wouldn't mind having both physical comics and digital comics of the same issues, so I have the comfortable reading experience and also the digital convenience.

[Slam_Bradley]

I'm going to say that the dedicated video store is going the way of the dodo. The two-county area in which I live has a population of about 42,000 and zero video stores for about the last two years. None of the grocery stores that used to rent videos still do so. There are probably a dozen Red Boxes (or knock-offs), but that's it.

[Donald M.]

I live near the center of the 16th largest metro area in the United States, but there doesn't seem to be a video rental store within 10 miles of my home. As recently as two years ago, there were several. These days, my best options for the movie rental experience are:

Your experiences are much the same as mine. Boston's a fairly sizable city too and a few years ago video stores were fairly common. Now, there's one a few blocks from me but I live near a fairly "artsy" neighborhood and it's one that specializes in independent and cult movies. After that, you have to go a good way to find another. RedBox is ubiquitous and fairly priced but, as you said, limited in selection. Every Dollar/Discount store has a rack of DVDs for $5 or less, populated by uniformly mediocre fare. GameStop has recently attempted to expand its retail pawn shop model by branching off into dvds and blurays with its chain of MovieStop stores. I don't know how the entire chain is doing (I can guess.) but the one actual MovieStop store I know of recently shut down after limping along for about a year, though to be fair it was in a really crappy location.

The video store is on its way out. Netflix and Cable/Satellite on demand services are killing them. I don't think anyone's really going to miss them.

[ChadH]

We do still have a Blockbuster Video nearby. Up until 3-4 years ago there had been 3 other video stores within a 5 mile radius. I find myself hoping that they will continue to remain open, though I can't really say why. Fear of change I suppose.

[Nick Soapdish]

Likewise. I think that there is only one video store left in the Tallahassee area and I suspect that it's only hanging on because it added a coffee shop. Even the anime/comic shop sold off all of their anime and switched to just comics.

[Libaax]

OH right... So publishers like Marvel, DC, Penguin Group, Random House and other big name publishers are too poor? This is news to me. Can you show me where you got this information?

There are many small press publishers who can afford ebook releases only because they are much cheaper to produce.

Marvel,DC,Random House and the big book publishers digital is not their main readership,sales. Its just a bonus to sell the trendy digital fans.

They would lose billions of dollars if they only sold their comics,books in ebooks.

Hardcover book cost almost 20 dollars, paperback books cost 8-10 dollars. You know the numbers for single issues and 20-30 dollars for trade paperbacks. Alot of money to lose.

Print is still king, meal ticket for the big publishers.

I dislike small publishers when they publish a book by a fav author and they are too small because that means only cheap kindle book. No paperback. Thats digital book sales, for the small timers in publishing.

[Shawn Hopkins]

Amazon now sells more e-books than print books. And there's a section on the iPad store for top grossing apps. The top-grossing app is Comixology. I don't think it's just a trendy thing or a fad.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

There are many small press publishers who can afford ebook releases only because they are much cheaper to produce.

Marvel,DC,Random House and the big book publishers digital is not their main readership,sales. Its just a bonus to sell the trendy digital fans.

They would lose billions of dollars if they only sold their comics,books in ebooks.

Hardcover book cost almost 20 dollars, paperback books cost 8-10 dollars. You know the numbers for single issues and 20-30 dollars for trade paperbacks. Alot of money to lose.

Print is still king, meal ticket for the big publishers.

I dislike small publishers when they publish a book by a fav author and they are too small because that means only cheap kindle book. No paperback. Thats digital book sales, for the small timers in publishing.

I'm not arguing that small publishers don't use ebooks as a main source of income. Heck, look at the indie gaming scene, they thrive and live through digital distribution.

What I'm arguing is needlers comment that only poor and small publishers use digital and the big guys don't.

Also, digital may have been trendy once but now it has become a medium to look out for.

[Johnny P. Sartre]

http://www.comicsalliance.com/2012/0...ales-increase/
Here is an interesting article bout digital and print

[mikekerrIII]

Digital distribution cost will continue to drop due to tech at least for a few more decades. Print distuibution costs will continue to rise do to simple inflation of the commodities consumed. The costs for digital preparation should be a bit lower since you have to get the pages into digital form to print them anyway. Contents cost have no reason to change at all.