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Jan 27 2024 5:44pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "Love is a Football Field!" from Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #347: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/01/27/comics-love-is-a-football-field/

Jan 25 2024 4:30pm
Tuxedo Mark: My review of "One Shot Worth a Million" from World of Archie Jumbo Comics Digest #136: https://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com/2024/01/25/comics-one-shot-worth-a-million/

Nobody here anymore?

Started by botolo, November 29, 2021, 12:32:46 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Tuxedo Mark

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 12, 2022, 08:45:31 PMUnless I mis-read the opening paragraphs of Hibbs' article, the NPD BookScan is tracking book sales in general... of which the Graphic Novel, Collected Edition, Trade Paperback, or whatever you want to call them is a subset. I point this out because it seems to me that the NPD BookScan is not tracking periodical sales at all. That means it tells us nothing about how Archie digests are selling in the bookstores. So all we're really getting out of this is that ACP's best-selling trade collection didn't do better that 3k in bookstores.

Hmm, yeah, that's probably right. Digests probably aren't represented. Then again, on my last trip to a Books-A-Million, I don't recall seeing any digests or standard floppy comics at all, just collected editions and manga. Honestly, even on Amazon, I don't see physical editions of new floppies or digests for sale - except maybe at a markup.

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 12, 2022, 08:45:31 PMCome to think of it, I'm not really sure what the definition of "bookstores" is from NPD BookScan's POV. Are we talking just the physical brick & mortar stores, or are they including online booksellers? How about online sellers like Amazon where book sales only make up a small fraction of their total sales?

Hibbs says "These reflect actual sales made through bookstores that report to NPD, which includes Amazon."
BV-kiss-small
Riverdale Reviewed
http://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com
Every episode of "Riverdale", "The New Archies", and "Archie's Weird Mysteries" reviewed.
My digital wish list
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/14FS742SI1R5I

DeCarlo Rules

#31
The Archie digests probably wouldn't even make a dent in NPD BookScan's listings if they were tracking periodicals, because then it would be in competition with mainstream magazines, not other comics.

Still, let's remember they have four ongoing digest titles plus a few other limited ones like Archie Showcase, Archie Milestones, Archie 80th Anniversary all going at the same time. And they're all low overhead because they only contain 5 or 10 pages of new material that they have to pay for, plus ACP has its own subscriptions and website direct sales in addition to the bookstores. Mike Pellerito claimed in one recent digest text page that people were subscribing to the digests in record numbers, whether that's true or just hype.

Tuxedo Mark

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 14, 2022, 02:13:47 PMMike Pellerito claimed in one recent digest text page that people were subscribing to the digests in record numbers, whether that's true or just hype.

Don't they print the circulation figures in the digests once per year? That could be something to check.
BV-kiss-small
Riverdale Reviewed
http://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com
Every episode of "Riverdale", "The New Archies", and "Archie's Weird Mysteries" reviewed.
My digital wish list
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/14FS742SI1R5I

DeCarlo Rules

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 14, 2022, 10:03:28 PM
Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 14, 2022, 02:13:47 PMMike Pellerito claimed in one recent digest text page that people were subscribing to the digests in record numbers, whether that's true or just hype.

Don't they print the circulation figures in the digests once per year? That could be something to check.

Do they? News to me. I can't recall seeing such a page anywhere in any digests I've read. I mean, a LONG time ago, the USPS had postal regulations that required comics to annually print a "Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation" in order to qualify for reduced mailing rates, but it's been decades since those postal regulations have been in effect.

Tuxedo Mark

Quote from: DeCarlo Rules on April 15, 2022, 03:43:54 PMDo they? News to me. I can't recall seeing such a page anywhere in any digests I've read. I mean, a LONG time ago, the USPS had postal regulations that required comics to annually print a "Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation" in order to qualify for reduced mailing rates, but it's been decades since those postal regulations have been in effect.

I was pretty sure someone on this forum (before the reset) posted circulation figures, so I did a keyword search for "circulation" through my archive of the threads that I'd happened to save from the old forum.

The following post was made by user Forsythe:

QuoteOur Vanishing America Teen-ager
« on: March 29, 2009, 01:37:30 AM »
QUOTE
I've thought of putting a list like this together for years, the recent discussions of last years sales data inspired me. The only number that really matters is the Total Paid Circulation, average numbers of copies over the preceeding 12 months. Single issue nearest to filing date means only that.

This is for the title Archie!

This info is from the publishers statement found in the comics. This info can be found usually in the April issue, sometimes March, sometimes May or June.

The filing date until 1996 was always Oct 1st, then it started moving around a little. Starting in 1995 they began to mention which issues this info covered, it stayed very consistant Oct-Sept, so the 2008 numbers were for the Oct 2007 - Sept 2008 issues. The earliest statement that included the actual numbers is from the April 1961 issue . The total print run numbers didn't start until 1963, but here goes

Total Paid Circulation is the first number, the total print run is the second number

1960 - 500,200
1961 - 458,039
1962 - 457,689
1963 - 471,166 - 847,177
1964 - 484,704 - 852,794
1965 - 467,552 - 850,115
1966 - 491,691 - 857,136
1967 - 484,648 - 869,130
1968 - 566,587 - 910,507
1969 - 515,536 - 886,643
1970 - 482,945 - 853,590
1971 - 482,101 - 884,292
1972 - 390,408 - 810,400
1973 - 345,087 - 748,465
1974 - 272,272 - 528,601
1975 - 199,918 - 453,574
1976 - 181,827 - 423,959
1977 - 155,252 - 360,831
1978 - 137,620 - 346,308
1979 - 121,530 - 303,952
1980 -   89,409 - 266,468
1981 -   87,302 - 244,478
1982 -   67,693 - 212,613
1983 -   69,697 - 169,624
1984 -   64,781 - 158,298
1985 -   63,143 - 157,750
1986 -   67,059 - 178,673
1987 -   66,176 - 194,181
1988 -   74,223 - 200,363
1989 -   67,423 - 188,864
1990 -   56,855 - 179,586
1991 -   45,960 - 150,515
1992 -   47,530 - 167,245
1993 -   44,547 - 152,085
1994 -   46,033 - 153,534
1995 -   43,885 - 142,193
1996 -   43,298 - 129,795
1997 -   41,134 - 130,481
1998 -   35,801 - 112,065
1999 -   29,361 -   93,621
2000 -   27,551 -   83,356
2001 -   24,285 -   67,590
2002 -   21,456 -   63,302
2003 -   19,945 -   53,330
2004 -   18,137 -   49,451
2005 -   18,020 -   54,589
2006 -   18,765 -   52,492
2007 -   25,305 -   53,647
2008 -   13,259 -   36,774

pretty scary!

:o
BV-kiss-small
Riverdale Reviewed
http://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com
Every episode of "Riverdale", "The New Archies", and "Archie's Weird Mysteries" reviewed.
My digital wish list
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/14FS742SI1R5I

Tuxedo Mark

Oh, and here's a post regarding Archie Comics' sales figures for 2012 (the last year for which this site had made a post for that information, it seems).
BV-kiss-small
Riverdale Reviewed
http://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com
Every episode of "Riverdale", "The New Archies", and "Archie's Weird Mysteries" reviewed.
My digital wish list
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/14FS742SI1R5I

Fernando Ruiz

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 15, 2022, 10:54:45 PMOh, and here's a post regarding Archie Comics' sales figures for 2012 (the last year for which this site had made a post for that information, it seems).

Johanna Draper Carlson!! I'd forgotten about her! They despised her up at the Office! Where has she been? Does she still report on Archie's sales?





Tuxedo Mark

Quote from: Fernando Ruiz on April 18, 2022, 12:12:21 AMJohanna Draper Carlson!! I'd forgotten about her! They despised her up at the Office! Where has she been? Does she still report on Archie's sales?

She's still very active on that site. However, there doesn't seem to be much, if any, recent coverage of anything Archie.

Why was she despised at the office?
BV-kiss-small
Riverdale Reviewed
http://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com
Every episode of "Riverdale", "The New Archies", and "Archie's Weird Mysteries" reviewed.
My digital wish list
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/14FS742SI1R5I

DeCarlo Rules

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 15, 2022, 10:54:45 PMOh, and here's a post regarding Archie Comics' sales figures for 2012 (the last year for which this site had made a post for that information, it seems).

Seriously. I haven't seen them in the digests since I began getting digests on a regular basis in 2014. And yeah, I would be both curious and concerned about the digest sales currently... but despite that I still haven't noticed any statements of ownership, circulation, and management. So maybe I should have said "a decade" and not "decades" -- those 2012 Archie Comics sales seem to be the last discussed on comicsworthreading.com, and I'm thinking it's not a coincidence.

Fernando Ruiz

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on April 19, 2022, 12:26:43 PMWhy was she despised at the office?

Johanna Draper Carlson used to report regularly on Archie Comics' sales figures. I believe her posts appeared regularly on The Beat and I think Publisher's Weekly, but I'm not sure about that one. I'm pretty sure the source of her information were Archie's own Statement of Ownership pages. 

Along with the sales figures, which at this time, were in steady decline, Johanna offered commentary and even predictions which of course based on the bleak data were often not particularly optimistic. At Archie Comics, the most unpardonable sin was to speak about the company in negative light... even if what you are saying is true.

Johanna did make these posts fairly regularly. At the Office, she was often dismissed disdainfully as someone with an axe to grind against the company and her information deliberately incomplete and slanted to paint the company in the worst light possible. I never met her and had no idea if she did have any feelings towards the company one way or the other. I viewed her posts with mixed feelings because while I did believe her info was incomplete, I didn't think she was very far off from the truth either. I did admire her openness and what I regarded as her frank objectivity on the topic. To me, she was telling it as she saw it.








DeCarlo Rules

If she were that concerned about the very real phenomenon of dwindling sales at ACP, it's probably because she loved the company, or at least the characters, not because she had an ax to grind against it.

We usually take things for granted until it becomes apparent that we're in danger of losing them. Nobody bothers trying to save the animal species that aren't on the endangered list. So it's important for people to know that they're endangered.

The Death of Archie was really a wounded man's cry for help.

Jabroniville

Just adding to this one... I apparently left in *2017*. Ouch. That's too bad. I always think it was less time than it actually was. In this case, I had tired of a lot of the content being produced, and they'd been producing very little new content. Fernando Ruiz had just been largely turfed (I understand he returned and got a bit more work, but not THAT much) and only the solo "Archie" book by Waid was coming out. So I kind of just moved on from here.

The REAL killer, I will say, was the initial death/erasure of the old forum. I'm not blaming anyone in particular, but having the ENTIRETY of our post-count being destroyed just killed it for a lot of people. We had had a ton of very fun topics on here by that point, with all the Digests still in production and talks of all kinds of obscure characters (Crickett! Trula! Della!)... and there was a wonderful "Random Pictures" archive as well. And when the forum died, it took all of that with it. While we could sort of begin again... it really hurt not being able to look up those old topics.

And so I, personally, started to drift away. A handful of unpleasantness on the forums didn't help- I recall some new poster was bullying another, much younger/less-stable poster, and we had a certain argumentative individual a lot of you probably remember XD. 

I do miss coming to ArchieFans- I used to make this a regular haunt EVERY DAY. But I got older, got more responsibilities and new hobbies, and eventually the forum I missed coming to was the OLD one. 

But I'm still glad this one is still here.

Tuxedo Mark

Anyone else concerned that digest prices increased to $8.99 at the beginning of 2022 and $9.99 at the beginning of this year? I find it hard to believe that these would be attractive as impulse buys for parents to keep their kids entertained, particularly since they could just download the free samples from Amazon and get all of the new stories at no cost.

Based on the sales figures released through 2012 and the pattern of percentage increases and decreases in sales, I calculated the following projections for 2022 monthly digest sales:

Archie: 15,838
Betty and Veronica: 16,839
World of Archie: 4,146
World of Betty and Veronica: 9,029
BV-kiss-small
Riverdale Reviewed
http://riverdalereviewed.wordpress.com
Every episode of "Riverdale", "The New Archies", and "Archie's Weird Mysteries" reviewed.
My digital wish list
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/14FS742SI1R5I

Hanna Barbera Montana

Some sellers on Amazon have them priced at $10. 99 and $11.99.

steveinthecity

Quote from: Tuxedo Mark on March 03, 2023, 09:31:01 AMAnyone else concerned that digest prices increased to $8.99 at the beginning of 2022 and $9.99 at the beginning of this year? I find it hard to believe that these would be attractive as impulse buys for parents to keep their kids entertained, particularly since they could just download the free samples from Amazon and get all of the new stories at no cost.

Based on the sales figures released through 2012 and the pattern of percentage increases and decreases in sales, I calculated the following projections for 2022 monthly digest sales:

Archie: 15,838
Betty and Veronica: 16,839
World of Archie: 4,146
World of Betty and Veronica: 9,029
I was thinking about this recently when placing pre-orders.  The $9.99 Digest will still cost me $6.99 after discount, and that just doesn't seem worth it.  I haven't done any real study or drilled down the price per unit vs. inflation, etc., but the price point is off-putting to where I'm not really interested.  I don't see how the Digests can be any sort of impulse buy with such a high retail tag.
Comics!

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