[Kirathis]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBlueMarvel

True enough. But do you think the slow death of print media might be the bigger hurdle? How do you inspire a generation of potential readers, who were weaned on digital media, to suddenly shift gears and start collecting printed comics?

You don't. You adapt. Unfortunately, until publisher perceived notions of piracy change, they will not draw new readers. Younger generations are digitally focused. It's a fact of life. Until a system is in place that offers a fair (read less than print due to no cost of materials, shipping, etc) price and free usage to download and keep your digital issues or use them in a preferred digital reader they are not going to see an upswing. Marvel and DC have learned nothing from the years upon years of knowledge garnered by digital music. Instead they have taken the same stance the music industry did previously. They lock down their digital content or charge a price that is perceived as unfair for said content and people rebel by going outside the system or simply not bothering at all. There will always be people that will pirate content. It is another fact of life. Until they realize that and stop punishing those who go through the proper means, they will not grown their business.

Then there are the readers like me. I grew up with physical comics but would MUCH prefer to move to a digital system as I have lost all interest in the collection aspect and just want to read the stories. Plus I am running out of room for physical issues. Those problems have kept me (and many others based on reading posts around the web) from making the jump to digital and continuing to buy their products. I currently buy using Previews orders from Midtown. The discount is less than I would pay for either physical or digital at release and in the case of Marvel, I still get a digital code. However, if I could do the same Previews ordering through Comixology, get a discount for agreeing 3 months in advance to buy the issues and save archives of my comics to my hard drive that I can then read in another reader should I choose, I would make the jump right away. As it stands, I am considering stopping again because of the mentioned issues.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBlueMarvel

I guess, I took what you said as meaning: Marvel increases the number of titles to get more people buying books over-all, even if those people are buying fewer titles per person. The reasoning behind all of this being that greater numbers of casual readers will potentially trump the 'value-add' of modest populations of voracious-long-term fans. My take is that because this new gen of readers is more apt to consume digital media (and torrent it at that..."if it's free, it's for me" attitude), there aren't many tricks or gimmicks you can use to combat the macro-issue of the medium dying as a whole. No matter how well intentioned the shift toward greater representation may be (as an African-American and representative of the "broader audience," I'm all for diversity), if it feels schlocky, it's only going to drive away what little loyal-base there is left...A tough scenario to be in for publishers.

They need to get away from these big universe spanning arcs or team cross-over that used to drive sales back in the day. Sure they might be great stories but they also tend to force anyone who wants to get the whole story to buy issues they really do not want. With modern casual readers, that just does not work. Make titles more self-contained such as Avengers related, Spider-Man related, X-Men related, Marvel Cosmic, etc and forego the cross-overs. I still cannot tell you what happened with The Black Vortex event from nearly 6 months ago since I refused to buy the X-Men titles that tied in with the Guardians of the Galaxy titles. I will just wait for them to show up on Marvel Unlimited.

Sorry for the long semi-hijack post....