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For a couple of years now, comics fans have had the option of getting new comics from Marvel and DC (and a variety of other publishers) digitally the same day they are released in print. While the Big Two were willing to make that leap, they were not willing to give any discount: When the comic is fresh, the digital edition costs the same as print. That’s $2.99 or $3.99 per comic. For those who are willing to wait a bit to save a buck, though, DC has had a policy of dropping the price by a dollar 30 days after the release date. Until now. DC is now delaying the price drop for two months, as Kiel Phegley of Comic Book Resources learned when he followed up on a tip from a reader. Here’s what an apparently nameless DC Entertainment spokesperson told CBR “Digital comics is still a very young business and as such we are constantly evaluating the best business models and pricing strategies. Moving forward, all same-day digital books released on May 1 or later will drop in price by $1 two months after the initial release date. We will continue to offer an extensive back catalog of titles at a discounted rate, and all of our digital-first titles are available for $.99 per weekly issue. Unlike many of our competitors, we still offer a policy of discounting across our entire line.” A little defensive toward the end, no? In fact, delaying the discount may make perfect sense for DC, if not their readers. Let’s talk about comiXology, the main digital outlet for single-issue superhero comics. When I spoke to comiXology CEO David Steinberger in January 2012, I asked him specifically if comics get any sort of sales bump when the price goes down. His reply: “Not as much as much as you might expect, but sure.” That’s a rather anemic response. Later that year, comiXology inaugurated a “Recently Reduced” section so readers could easily track those discounted comics. It seems to have disappeared. So, what can we conclude from this? That any sales bump those comics got when the price dropped wasn’t enough to cancel out the price difference. That’s just a guess, but since DC is in business to make money, I’d say it’s a good one. There’s an interesting debate about whether digital comics cost DC more than print in the comments to the CBR article, but that misses the point. (If you’re curious anyway, Jim Zubkavich lays out the costs of digital on his blog.) The question is not “How much does it cost DC to produce?” The question is “How much are customers willing to pay?” At the moment, the answer seems to be full price. Take a look at the image at the top of this post—it’s a screenshot of the best-selling comics on comiXology as of this writing. All are this week’s releases; all are full price (the two 99 cent comics are digital-first issues). And DC Entertainment president Diane Nelson just revealed that over 1 million DC comics are downloaded each month. Given the overwhelming acceptance of full-price digital comics by the core consumer, it makes sense for DC to kick the discount further down the road. It’s a bit tough on their readers, but it’s safe to say that if sales dropped off drastically, that decision would be revisited. DC Delays Price Drop on Its Digital Comics is a post from: E-Reader News |
Friday, June 7, 2013
DC Delays Price Drop on Its Digital Comics
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