Comics Infrastructure News Updates

* the comics business news and analysis site Quad Graphics has become the second biggest printing concern in North America after purchasing the company formerly known as Quebecor. That deal should close this summer. Quebecor was basically too big to fail, and doubly so in the context of it being a core, successful Canadian company, so I think most people thought this kind of outcome was inevitable.

* Heidi MacDonald caught that Diamond will now fulfill orders that don't meet sales minimums and then will enforce their policies by canceling orders on subsequent, related items. This make sense, I guess. If some of your customers want that material it doesn't seem right to deny it to them, although I suppose there will have to be some sort of communication regarding whether or not the shops will still want a #1 issue in a series that Diamond has decided once orders are in not to carry past that issue #1. My guess is that this will be seen as a small victory on the side of small press publishers that want greater access to that marketplace -- it is indeed more access to that marketplace, you could argue that a sell-out of those copies could be fuel to take back to Diamond to get them to reinstate you, and in many cases it's stand-alone material that's being offered. Mostly, though, it just seems like something they're doing for retailers rather than publishers.
 
posted 8:00 am PST | Permalink
 

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