However, it gets worse for DC Comics, as he writes, “DC had a pretty bad year, with their lowest sales since 2004 – down 25% from 2022 in the bookstore market – even with their highest ever number of titles in the total list. In 2023 they had only 14 titles in the Top 750; in 2013, ten years ago, they had 130. That is a huge and troubling drop – but maybe laying off nearly your entire sales and marketing team is not a great strategy for growth? If someone had been been making a concerted effort to dismantle DC Comics, they couldn’t have been more surgical – luckily, DC still has talented execs like Marie Javins, Jim Lee, Annie de Pies and the rest of the staff who have thwarted those plans. And from what we’re hearing, 2024 will see some more moves to reverse this concerning trend.”
I wouldn't hold my breath.
There's only like 200-ish 'comic shops' in the US. (maybe less now)
If the big 2 were serious about making money, they would have sales reps call the shops and glean demographic info. They aren't serious businesses though. They have been in the movie/Netflix pitch model for too long, or the even lazier 'we sell ads in our comic book shaped pamphlets' model.
Forgetting that they need to get pamphlets into houses for the ads to hold their value.
Bad management. Weak editors. Activist writers. No coming back from this.
I wish you were wrong but I can’t argue with what you are saying. The comic books stores in my area seem to sell more tabletop and manga and with the comics they do sell, the majority is back issue