Brief Notes On a Friday Morning

* Even though the headline includes the term "micropayments," and a lot of the links have used some variation of "talk about micropayments" it seems to me this interview between Henry Jenkins and Todd Allen is more about the status of various on-line payment schemes including but not limited to micropayments. The first question and answer is about merchandising, not micropayments, and in terms of micropayments about the only thing I see here that's new is that Allen gets to be the first guy to officially bury the Bitpass/Bus Token model.

It's a good survey article, though. I disagree with some of the theorizing -- for instance, I think comics shops as a whole became collector-specific rather than medium-specific years ago for a significant number of comics readers -- but it's bouncily conducted and the subject matter is important and the piece should be read.

* A related question that comes up in that interview, and kind of grates on me when I read it there and elsewhere: Can someone explain to me exactly how merchandising is a publishing revenue stream for webcomics? I'm probably being stupid, but it seems to me that merchandising is a revenue stream distinct from the comics, and that what you're actually talking about is the ability to target advertise your merchandising business through your strip, which is a slightly different discussion. I mean, merchandising is the primary revenue stream for many top-end comic strips and American mainstream comics, too, if you look at the final balance sheet. I just don't think of them as publishing revenues. And while I'm happy for anyone who finds any way to fund their creative endeavors, what's different about webcomics that we should see merchandising this way?

* Is it my imagination or is there a lot of unpleasantness out there right now? Since when does someone taking a new job invite a refrendum by the Comic Book Reader Workplace Ethics Committee? I once quit a job by faxing my previous employers from the new office. I'll likely never work there again, but it's not like anyone else on the planet has a legitimate interest in whether or not those guys are still mad at me. Sheesh.

* I suspect without being able to prove it that Teshkeel Media receiving a new round of funding has more to do with the unique nature of a media company targeting Arab-speaking countries and the desire by a generation of Middle Eastern businessmen to diversify the kinds of businesses and even the kinds of banks that the region offers, than it might indicate support for Teshkeel's output thus far.

John Burgess Replies To This Item

* It's interesting how many people that chose to participate on this thread aren't reading comics on a weekly basis anymore.

* I don't know any way you can read this Platinum press release where it isn't obvious that this million dollars will be spent on ways to get the company fit enough to raise even more money, not significantly on anything having to do with comics -- on-line or in print. I like imagining a million bucks being spent on an already-functioning web site, though.
 
posted 2:06 am PST | Permalink
 

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