Chronic Murmuring

Disappearance of comics from the newstands

While I think most who follow the comic book industry have known this for some time, it's only recently come to my attention that there occured a shift in the distribution of comics to customers over the last twenty years. Comics are not often found in newstands, grocery stores, or other periodical outlets. Distribution has targeted collector shops, instead.

The effects of how comics are distributed to customers, in the end, could be one of the more significant determinants of what type of stories and characters comic books contain. By distributing primarily to collector shops, the customer base is narrowed down to a certain type of customer. The target audience becomes collectors, and places some barriers before the young person who does not already have a vested interest in comic books. As such, it becomes more difficult to bring in new blood, which in turn could affect both sales and profits, but also, the kind of material offered in comic books. If the loyal, more intensely committed readers have certain tastes for, let's say, super hero comics, then comic book publishing companies may be limited in what they can offer people.

So why did they leave the newstands anyway? The reasons appear to be economic, from what I can gather. One reason may have to do with decreased demand for comic books by newstand retailers. Limited shelf space and increases in the relative prices of other periodicals would make the relatively less expensive comic book less attractive to a newstand retailer. Why fill his shelves with the latest from Action Comics, when Action Comics has the same physical dimensions as Rolling Stone or Maxim, yet which sells for half of Rolling Stone or Maxim? Hence, increases in relative prices of other periodicals could be one of the reasons collector shops emerged to distribute comic books to readers. Despite the fact that this necessarily limited the reach of publishers in their attempts to draw in new readership, it may have been unavoidable given the profit-maximizing motives of newstand retailers.

Another possible explanation is that changes in retail pricing structures made comic books less desirable to newstand retailers. From what I can gather, comic shops must purchase comic books from the distributor. What they do not sell, they must move into their own, personal inventory. Neither the distributor nor the publishing company will take excess inventory back from the shops. This, apparently, is another reason why newstands began to stop carrying comics. I believe that magazine publishing companies, and other periodicals, will take nonsold periodicals back at no cost to the newstand. Thus, it becomes even less desirable for newstands to sell comics, if in fact contracturally they are obliged to eat the costs of excess inventory.

Another interesting trend in comic book sales is that, at one point, a bestseller could have sold as many as 100,000 copies. Yet, that level of sales has not been repeated in a long time. Why? Why don't comics sell the way they used to? I have a few ideas - rather obvious ideas, but nonetheless ideas. Perhaps comic books are an inferior good. Inferior goods are goods which, as our incomes increase, we purchase fewer and fewer. A classic example of this might be Roman noodles - a product that is busily keeping alive most male college undergraduates today. As these young men graduate, and move into jobs, they usually consume less and less of these goods. Possibly, comic books are an inferior good as well. Children's disposable income has grown over the last twenty years as household earnings have grown. As such, children can afford better toys - video games, role playing games, etc. Secondly, advances in market segmentation and demographic-specific products have resulted in more products aimed at children, many of which are close substitutes for one another. Possibly, video games have replaced comic books for being one of the chief forms of entertainment for children, and the increased popularity of trading cards has done the same for "collecting" interests in children. Likewise, there's been a substantial increase in the popularity of Japanese animation, or "Manga," which like represents competition for children's limited space for entertainment.

Still, I am starting to see more newstands carrying comics again. Borders, for instance, carries comic books, as well as trade paperbacks and graphic novels. They carry roughly fifty different titles at the Borders nearest to me, and they do not discourage "grazing" among patrons who read, but do not purchase, books, magazines, and comic books. A local newstand in downtown Athens also carries approximately thirty to thirty-five different titles. I asked the owner why he carried so many titles, and he said that it wasn't costly to do so, since the distributor took back whatever didn't sell. So, possibly more attempts are being made to strike unique contractural "deals" with newstands to increase demand by exposing non-collectors to the product.

Posted by scott at December 13, 2003 02:06 PM | TrackBack