op/ed: on digital pricing and the tide of inevitability

For years it seemed like "floppies versus trades" was the snake eating its tail of the comic industry - a circular debate, often based on false premises and assumptions, that nevertheless never seemed to run out of steam.  It's amazing to me how proprietary comic fans can be about format - to me the ready availability of collected editions presented an additional choice for consumers, and as a consumer I think more choice is a good thing.  That comes with the assumption, of course, that one format doesn't cannibalize another and render them both extinct.  And of course, every time a series got canceled for the past ten years, we could expect a cry of how it was killed by "waiting for the trade."  This was, in virtually every case, bullhockey - pretty much every canceled DC/ Marvel series that sold poorly in periodical format ALSO sold poorly collected, putting the lie to the notion that there was some huge market of tradewaiters who could have kept the series alive by purchasing the monthlies.  Silly argument - but there were plenty of folks on either "side" of the debate who weren't satisfied to just pick up the format they liked and ignore the other - they also felt the need to rail against any other format and/or wish it out of existence.

The floppies/ trades debate has, for the moment at least, taken a backseat as digital comics have become the new hot-button topic.  Digital comics have been around for awhile now, but only in the last two years have they emerged as anything other than a curiosity.  The release of the iPad in 2010 was a game-changer, because it was the first device that allowed digital comics to be read in a way approximating the way a physical book is read.  It's just the right size to view a full page - putting it in sharp contrast with the IMO woefully frustrating task of trying to read on a phone, a laptop, or a desktop computer.  Throw in the release of handy apps that make it easy to get the books and get them on the device, and all of a sudden this is a legit idea.

It's been a wild two years since then.  Marvel was the first major publisher to jump in feet first, rolling out its branded app at the time of the iPad's release.  Most of the other major publishers quickly followed suit, and even smaller publishers who lacked branded apps quickly began releasing digital comics through the comixology app.  DC was a little late to the game, relatively speaking, but when they arrived they brought along a bombshell - they began releasing Justice League: Generation Lost digitally on the same day it arrived in stores.  Marvel had tried this in a half-assed way with an Iron Man Annual, but broke it into three parts and generally screwed the whole thing up.  DC, and quickly thereafter Archie, were at the forefront of same-day-as-print releases.  (Note: I refuse to call them "day and date" because that is "stupid and dumb".)  Spurred further by DC's September 2011 relaunch, the trend toward same-day digital/ print releases has picked up even more steam, and once Marvel completes its transition sometime around Spring 2012, it's likely that 75-80% of the comics released each week will also be available digitally.

This is an exciting yet scary time, particularly for brick and mortar retailers.  Many of them are afraid that their customers will migrate to digital consumption, or at least that enough customers will migrate to evaporate their often-thin profit margins.  This is not an unreasonable fear, as any record store exec will be happy to tell you.  But at the same time, much of the retailer response seems to be thrashing about - perhaps a reflection of the varied voices doing the talking - but it seems to vacillate between swearing up and down that hardly anyone WANTS digital comics and predicting a migration large enough to destroy their businesses.  

The price point is where the battle lines increasingly are being drawn.  Most of the same-day releases, with the exception of Archie comics, are priced at the same point as the print versions.  Most publishers have adopted a strategy of maintaining price parity between digital and print for about four weeks, then dropping the digital price.  This standard appears to have evolved based on nothing other than the fact that it's how DC does it - presumably the idea is to hold price parity through most of the LCS' sell-through period.  Marvel has been the notable exception, refusing to drop prices on same-day books no matter how long they've been in print.  Thus Ultimate Comics Spider-Man #153 - which came out a year ago - is still priced at $3.99.  Their reasoning, apparently, is that brick and mortar stores don't discount books after a month, so neither should they.

A couple of things - one, Marvel's reasoning is asinine and stupid.  Retailers often DO discount unsold inventory - ever hear of a quarter or dollar bin?  And when they don't, it's because they PAID for the physical copy - each and every one, individually.  Digital comics aren't scarce in that way - once it's available, there's no marginal cost involved in each copy sold.  

Price parity is the proverbial bone thrown to the LCS, and really it's no surprise that Marvel, which is the company best-served by the existing infrastructure, is the most reluctant to embrace any other model.  But the reality is, the industry can't exploit and grow the digital market to its fullest potential by charging $2.99 and $3.99 for digital comics.  It can't do it for the same reason the industry doesn't grow selling $2.99 and $3.99 print comics - that's just too expensive to be of value to anyone other than a die-hard fan.  $3.99 for a 20-age comic is *insane*.  $3.99 for a digital comic is even *more* insane.  The fact that the content of the digital and print editions may be the same does not mean they are the same product.  Demonstrably they are not - one is a physical object that I can re-sell, lend out, spill coffee on - and the other is a file.  They are not the same thing, and the notion that they have to be priced identically is absurd.

The reality is that same-day digital, at a FREE price point, is already here.  Every comic published is available on the day it is purchased, for free, with no repercussions other than possibly a guilty conscience.  These free comics are easily transferable to an iPad or other tablet, and they are easier than the comixology releases to transfer or loan.  If download statistics at some of the more popular sites are to be believed, the "free" option is being selected en masse, sometimes by MORE people than actually pay for the book.  I've spent very little space here discussing illegal downloading - I don't condone it, I don't buy lots of the rationalizations for it, I have experimented with it myself, I think it's wrong but I think some of the over-the-top, fire-and-brimstone "you're a war criminal if you torrent!" proclamations take it too far.  But right or wrong, good or bad, this exists.  It is a real thing, and it's not going away.  And it should be obvious that having an issue downloaded tens of thousands of times is a drag on the sales of the legit edition, whatever rationalizations are offered to the contrary.

Some of the folks who download books illegally will never choose any option other than "free."  We know this.  But some will - the existence of iTunes, Amazon mp3s, the Kindle bookstore and the lot are testament to this.  The major publishers have an opportunity to co-opt/ win back some of that black market - but not at $3.99.  Not at $2.99.  That's a non-starter.  Failing to have a legal digital release that's simultaneous with print AND that's priced in a non-insane way = giving the market over to illegal downloads.  It is not a coincidence that the direct market saw a big drop in 2010 and the first half of 2011 - the iPad was a game-changer for legal AND illegal digital comics.  The options available to the major publishers are not "no digital comics" and "$3.99 digital comics."  The options are "free digital comics" and "digital comics on which we make money."  

Realistic pricing on digital comics - and simultaneous print/ digital releases - is not a choice for publishers to make.  These things are necessities if the publishers are to avoid watching their profits slowly (or not-so-slowly) evaporate into a sea of illegal downloads.  No responsible publisher can ignore the impact that torrenting is having on their business - and the only two ways to combat it are (1) try to shut it down, or (2) co-opt it to the extent possible.  re: (1) - good luck.  

So where does that leave the retailer, who sees the product s/he sells being offered in a convenient format, for a lower price, at or around the same time he gets it?  Well, y'know, I get why they're concerned.  Like I said, it's not an unreasonable fear.  I've personally migrated largely from print to digital, so I don't buy the current mantra that it's two separate audiences.  It may be to an extent, but there's absolutely overlap.  What you hope - what I hope - is that the availability of digital comics drive people into comic stores - that the widespread availability offered by digital makes new comic fans, some of whom value the experience of shopping in a specialty shop with a large selection.  That's the hope - but I'd have to concede, having pointed out above that digital comics are already available on a widespread basis - that so far this hasn't happened.  I don't know the answer, and I don't think anyone does.  

What I do know is this - the world has changed.  Not "is changing."  HAS changed.  Digital media is here and it's viable.  A new generation is growing up having never experienced a world without digital media.  CD's still outsell iTunes downloads - but neither of my kids has ever bought a CD.  They've both made purchases on iTunes.  A few years ago my oldest asked me how old I was when I got my first iPod.  She was amazed that my answer was "32".  Protecting copyright has become exponentially more difficult than it used to be - frankly it's become, for all intents and purposes, impossible.  Failing to co-opt the illegal digital market to the extent it can be done, solely for the purpose of maintaining price parity with a similar but not identical (print) product is bad business.

As an attorney I sometimes get hit with the Unreasonable Client.  This is the guy who comes to you with a problem, which may or may not be solvable, and then if you cannot solve it, he blames you not only for failing to solve the problem, but for the fact that the problem exists in the first place.  This is of course a logical fallacy, as the problem existed before he even knew you - but this matters little to the unreasonable client.  In some ways the digital/ print situation is analogous.  The major publishers did not create digital comics or the digital market.  The loss of customers from print to digital would happen regardless of anything DC, Marvel et al do.  If DC and Marvel try to "fix" that problem by offering a legal alternative, complete with pointers to your nearest LCS - well, maybe that'll work and maybe it won't.  But if it doesn't, the retailer is in no less a position than he was before there was a legal alternative.  Maybe DC and Marvel were ineffective at fixing the problem, but that doesn't mean they *created* the problem.  

I don't know if digital comics really are the panacea some seem to want to believe.  I heard the same thing about trade collections for years, and while I think the advent of trades has been great for the industry, it hasn't ushered in a new golden age or anything.  Digital may be similar.  I DO know that digital comics, like trades, represent a new alternative for the consumer.  I'm a consumer.  I like choice.  If people don't like digital comics, then they're perfectly free to, y'know, NOT buy them.  But some of the current pricing and release models (looking at YOU, Marvel) look like attempts to kill rather than grow the market, and that's silly.  

Get real, guys.  And do it quickly.