Digital Comic Resources: Make comiXology's MArvel

[CBR News]

This week, comiXology locks up Marvel in an exclusive digital deal, two smaller publishers talk about their digital revenues and indy creators strike out on their own.


Full article here.

[Iangould]

There are two big stories here:

1. Diamond is preparing to launch its competitor to Comixology. Locking in Marvel to Comixology is a big advantage for them in the upcoming competition. (Although Diamond is so late to the game I'm not sure how much real competition there will be.)

2. IDW is getting excited because digital now makes up 10% of their revenue (no indication of what percentage of their profit it makesu p but its probably higher). Firstly, that indicated how marginal digital has been up to this point. IF digital continues to grow at 100%+ per year as it apparently did last year in a few years it might be as important to publishers as the direct market.

The other point to note there is that digital reportedly grew 150% and direct market sales reportedly grew 25% so there's no evidence to support the theory that digital sales cannibalize sales of printed comics. (We see examples of that in store but we see as many or more examples of people coming in looking for, say, the Arkham City graphic novel because of the game or looking for Axe Cop trades because they've enjoyed the webcomic. The net effect is pretty small but probably leads to an increase in total sales.)

[Shawn Hopkins]

The way I understand it the Diamond Digital program will be a partnership with iVerse? They'll definitely need to do some work on that, then, the iVerse Comics+ experience isn't nearly as satisfying as what you get with Comixology. I also know they already don't have any Marvel singles, and I didn't see any DC singles the last time I looked but I might have missed them. I don't think Diamond Digital will do well without Marvel and DC.