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.
#1 issues and variant covers are propping up their sales. If this continues for another 5 years, they are going to hit a competency crisis where no one working there will know how to make a good comic anymore.
Stop hiring women who write shitty YA novels. In fact, stop hiring women for at least 10 years. 99% of western women are deeply out of touch with being able to make a marketable product.
I thought they hit that point at least five years ago.