IDW Publishingâs parent company, IDW Media Holdings (IDW 0.00%â), held its first earnings call of this fiscal year in March. During the call, now-former IDW CEO Allan Grafman revealed which key initiatives the company will be taking to strengthen its publishing and entertainment businesses, modernize business operations to take advantage of digital platforms, and recruit creative talent. Since then, IDW Executive Chairman Davidi Jonas has replaced Grafman as CEO, delisted the company from the NYSE, and laid off over a third of all staff.
And itâs no wonder. IDWâs announced plans under Grafman were badâboth as a business strategy and as an indicator for the North American comic book industry. Below, weâre going to look at what IDW was and reportedly still is planning, why it spells trouble for the publisher, and how the company can still succeed despite this bleak and uncertain time in North American comic book history.
Earn passive income with Honeygain by sharing your unused internet bandwidth. Your privacy is protected and you get paid for the data shared. Install the app now and get a $3 starter gift!
This is what IDW is planning
IDWâs publishing division saw its overall 2022 revenue growth driven by non-direct market sales, sales of tabletop games, and retailer exclusives. But the company also noted declines in revenue from fewer published titles and digital sales.
As a result, IDW wants to adjust its approach to the market. The company sees digital platforms as a way to increase revenue by taking advantage of digital initiatives. To start, the company intends to migrate its online store to Shopifyâs platform. This reinvigoration of its eCommerce presence is meant to feed into IDWâs push to drive direct-to-consumer sales.
IDWâs digital content strategy hinges on making scanned versions of its comic books available for reading online, encouraging user-generated content, and creating motion comics.
Whether published on paper or digitally, IDW wants its comic book and graphic novel content to appeal to as broad an audience as possible. The intention is to develop such content further for television and streaming services. Itâs a key part of how the company believes it will attract creative talent and elevate its publishing and entertainment businesses.
Why it spells trouble for IDW
IDW Publishingâs revenue declines are multi-faceted. For instance, itâs likely that the âfewer published titlesâ Grafman referenced were titles tied to licenses of Hasbroâs G.I. Joe and Transformers brands. IDW lost those licenses late last year to Power Comics Inc. after a series of editorial and social media controversies.
Another concerning issue is that IDWâs decision to refocus from the direct market to online and bookstore sales clearly signals its lack of confidence in the direct marketâs ability to grow readership. This pivot away from the direct market is supported by the fact that IDWâs 2022 publishing revenue grew to $25.8 million from sales made outside of the direct market. That revenue growth came just one year after IDW dumped direct market titan Diamond Comic Distributors to chase wider distribution through Penguin Random House.
On the subject of IDWâs digital strategy, it lags behind the times with its failure to understand modern digital consumer habits. That failure is the key obstacle preventing readers from adopting the publishing arm's digital content. The company's go-to method of simply scanning comic book pages and presenting them as double-page spreads on a screen is outdated and doesnât take into account how readers actually consume digital comics. Even when displayed on a larger screen like that of a tablet, this type of presentation looks sloppy and inferior compared to that of digital comics from competitors like Webtoon.
Nowhere is IDW's struggle to grasp the basics of digital more evident than in their consideration of motion comics, which are neither in demand nor competitive in the current market. One only needs to look at the âBig Threeâ digital comic publishersâWebtoon, Tapas, and Bilibiliâto confirm the market's lack of interest. Not one of those platforms has a noticeable demand for motion comics or promotes motion comics in any way.
Thatâs because motion comics are the netbooks of comicsâa cumbersome hybrid that fails to deliver on the promise of either medium. Where netbooks were less powerful than laptops, not as portable as mobile devices, and less convenient than tablets, motion comics overly complicate the experience of reading a comic, arenât as seamless as watching a fully animated video, and lack the engagement of a visual novel. Despite these drawbacks, motion comics remain expensive to design and implement.
Regarding its offered content as a whole, IDW publishing has never had a problem with mass appeal. Their titles include or have included Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles, Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Sonic the Hedgehog. All of these titles have huge fanbases. But IDW has always had a difficult time connecting with the wider aspects of those fanbases.
While part of the companyâs inability to connect with fans has been visibility, other issues have turned readers both new and old away. Among the most serious of these issues are several years of poor editorial control, andâas shockingly simple as it is to remedyâa lack of a social media communications policy for employees and creators. Itâs these very problems thatâve already cost them two of their most profitable licenses, Transformers and G.I. Joe, and continues to see some of their most valuable licensed work openly mocked.
Supercharge your savings with a Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) in Canada. Grow your money tax-free and enjoy financial flexibility. Open your TFSA now and maximize your wealth!
To salvage success, embrace the change
IDW is a frustrating company to root for. As a publicly owned company, it shouldâve been on top of market trends, but it wasnâtâand IDWâs own shareholders werenât even bothering to hold the company accountable until recently. Instead, ever since IDW went public in 2015, the company has fought against adapting to change. Like most of its direct competitors in the North American comic book industry, this failure to adapt to an evolving market and shifting industry has led to IDW being left behind andâas much as some in the industry may not want to see the dreaded âM-wordââovertaken by print and digital manga.
Right now, thereâs very little that sets IDW apart from any of the handful of other indie publishers. Competitors like Image, Boom!, Avatar Press, AWA Studios, and many more all tout the same or similar creator-owned approach as IDW. Image (primarily through its Skybound imprint), Valiant, and AWA Studios have film and television divisions that provide creators with a pipeline to get their works onto big and small screens. Some, like Skybound, have indisputably met with more success than IDW.
It should be obvious by now that IDW isnât trying to keep up with the competition; after laying off more than a third of its staff, that phase of the companyâs operations has clearly passed. Instead, IDW is trying to find a way to compete at all. But to do that, the companyâs leadership needs to come to terms with the fact that the modern market has changed and that the publisher will need to borrow from the competition to make some uncomfortable, but profitable adjustments. With the recent replacement of Grafman, thereâs room for a wary hope that IDW will at least consider some modern business-saving advice below.
To be more inclusive, be more accommodating
IDW Publishing has its roots in genre fiction. In fact, the company got its start with 30 Days of Night, a horror comic book.
Like it or not, manga has revitalized North American readersâ interest in genre comics and has made them accessible through clear demographic categorization. Manga divides its comics into common reader demographics: shĹnen, which is targeted at teen boys; shĹjo, tailored for teen girls; seinen, targeted at young adult and adult men; josei, tailored for young adult and adult women; and finally kodomo-muke, which is geared toward young children.
Each demographic is then presented with manga in a range of genres with topics of interest and subject matter complexity most enjoyed by those demographics. Those genres include action, adventure, comedy, horror, romance, slice of life, and many, many more.
Some of IDWâs competitors have started to figure this out. Since they first began publishing in November 2018, AWA Studios has been including an age-related demographic label on the covers of its comics. This small change not only informs customers what kind of readers the comic is written for but also lets readers set their expectations appropriately.
Additionally, if IDW truly wants to continue attracting an audience beyond the core demographic of North American comicsâwhich remains overwhelmingly maleâthey could consider publishing text novelizations of their comics. There may be some limitations that prevent them from doing this with their licensed properties, but it shouldnât be an issue with their original or creator-owned series. IDW already has comic book scripts for their stories, so they might as well reuse them as guides for novelization.
Readers are ready for a modern trade format
IDW can improve their strategy to attract a broader audience by embracing a reader-friendly format. My previous article proposed condensing the current comic book format into a smaller package. In it, I hammered on the economic benefits of adopting a smaller, digest-sized trade paperback and graphic novel format. What I didnât do was touch on the readerâs perspective for why a smaller, denser format isnât just the future, itâs the present of comic books. Fortunately, such a perspective is simple to understandâa more compact comic book format is easier to handle and subsequently more enjoyable to read.
As a casual consumer of comics, one of the most frustrating things about my experience is how unwieldy comic books are in their traditional 6.625 Ă 10.25-inch format. When compared to manga tankĹbon and digital comics, traditional comics are more difficult to read, more troublesome to carry, and much more prone to damage.
Comic books can be a hassle to just pick up and read because of how floppy they are (hence the term âfloppiesâ). Compare that to a perfect-bound A5-sized digestâone of the most common sizes for manga tankĹbon in North Americaâwhich can be opened, flipped through, and read with one hand. Then there are vertically-formatted digital comics, which can be accessed, scrolled through, and read easily with just one hand. Thereâs no fidgeting with flimsy pages, no need to clear a space to lay the comic down, or accidentally damaging the pages with ease.
On top of their floppiness, comic books are difficult to carry around (and to a lesser extent, store) because of their awkward height and width. On the other hand, an A5-sized tankĹbon fits neatly into a messenger pack, a small laptop bag, or a purse. They also stand up easily and recognizably on a shelf. Meanwhile, the mobile devices that digital comics are most often consumed on come pre-built to tuck into a readerâs pocket at a momentâs notice.
Combined with the high paper grade of traditional comics, that size means these flimsy products are incredibly delicate overall. Single-issue comic pages are held together by just a pair of staples and can be easily torn from them. Those same pages are easily and noticeably creased when bent even a bit. TankĹbon paper isnât as vulnerable to being damaged partly because its smaller page area provides it with added resistance. And page damage simply isnât an issue for digital comics.
Interestingly, IDW used to issue trade paperbacks in a smaller, more compact format; I have a couple of them. At about 6 Ă 9 inches and 160-pages deep, they were much easier to handle than floppies and every bit as enjoyable to read. Maybe more so. Still, I found the even smaller 5.5 Ă 8-inch format of DCâs Teen Titans GO! Undead?! even more convenient. That shouldnât come as a surprise considering that the most popular book trim size is 5.25 Ă 8 inches.
Readers of all types have shown with their purchasing habits what their preferred format is. So thereâs no reason why IDWâand the wider industryâshouldnât readopt the smaller, denser format it once pioneered for its trade paperbacks and graphic novels.
Treat floppies like the collector items they are
Prioritizing a modern format doesnât mean that floppies must be abandoned. In fact, floppies can still be made available for the direct market by bundling them with trade paperback and graphic novel orders. This lets local comic shops transition their customers to the new format. Meanwhile, thereâs still a product for the niche segment of customers who prefer the antiquated, less-popular format.
Additionally, a sales scheme can allow shops to purchase individual chapters from each volume as traditional floppies by ordering a certain number of trade and graphic novel volumes. Since bookstores already donât bother to order floppies, theyâre unlikely to exercise this optionâwhich in turn creates a de facto exclusive for local comic shops.
When going digital, design FOR digital
IDW Publishingâs current approach to digital comics is an awful experience from the readerâs perspective. Scanning a print comic book page and throwing it up on a website as an image just doesnât cut it as a digital comic strategy in the modern ageâeven for illicit âcomic book pirateâ websites. IDWâs product development team must embrace a native digital approach by considering how digital comics are read. Most digital content is being consumed on mobile devices which most often display that content vertically (âportraitâ mode). The most popular digital comic content is consumed in the same way. Therefore, IDWâs digital comic panels should be organized into a layout thatâs meant to be scrolled through vertically. Speech and thought bubbles, text boxes, and editorâs notes should all conform to this vertical flow.
Failure to take advantage of these constraints will just hobble creatorsââand so IDWâsâability to capitalize on the unique artistic and storytelling opportunities offered by digital platforms.
DC is one competitor thatâs learning the power of a properly designed digital comic. In August 2022, the comic book publisher began publishing Red Hood: Outlaws in partnership with Webtoon. To date, the comic has a whopping 4.9 million reads, with nearly 280,000 dedicated subscribers. Those are figures that havenât been seen in print comics since the 1990s. Fortunately for IDW, it doesnât look like DC has realized that theyâve figured out the formula for digital success, yet.
Invest in an animation studio
If a company has the talent and capability to create a motion comic, then they have half of the talent and capability to create fully-featured animation.
Investing in an animation studio would give IDW a greater share of control and revenue from media projects. Itâd also improve the creative pipeline since independent creators wanting to see their comics on screen would be more likely to sign with them than a competitor like Image. If IDW goes down this route, they would set themselves up for success by hiring writers, animators, and other professionals whoâve worked for Warner Bros. Animation (Killing Joke, Justice League Dark, Thundercats [2012]) and Powerhouse Animation Studios, Inc. (Castlevania, Masters of the Universe: Revelation).
If one needs an indication of the profitability of animation, DC Animated Movie Universe (DCAMU) films are rumoured to cost between US $2 million and $3.5 million. When aggregating total estimated domestic video sales according to film and box office revenue reporting website The Numbers, DCAMU movies grossed an average just shy of US $4.5 million per movie. Thatâs a 28% return on investment.
Frankly, Iâm confused as to why IDW doesnât already own a sizeable interest in an animation studio, especially since they recently partnered with animation studio Ănima to bring Brutal Nature to the screen.
Visual novels are a better alternative to motion comics
Another form of entertainment that shares development similarities with motion comics is visual novels. Visual novels are a category of interactive fiction that combines text-based narratives with illustrations but adds more interactivity than motion comics. By combining a greater degree of interactive storytelling with visual elements, visual novels offer a superior experience thatâs more immersive and engaging for readers. In this way, visual novels can be very similar to choose-your-own-adventure books but presented in a digital format, and produced on a fraction of the budget of a feature animation or video game.
If IDW is considering producing motion comics, then itâs likely more worthwhileâand fiscally prudentâto invest in visual novel development instead, as visual novels offer a complete range of storytelling opportunities and much broader appeal thanks to platforms like Steam.
A social media communications policy is badly needed
Lastly, IDW has had a lack of an enforceable employee social media policy for some time, and this has been one of its biggest issues. Employees and creators associated with IDW have openly antagonized customers and industry peers while acting as representatives of the company. One such incident contributed heavily to Hasbroâs termination of the license IDW had to publish comics about the toymakerâs G.I. Joe and Transformers brands. Another involves a current IDW employee who routinely disparages comic book professionalsâusually of Asian ethnicityâand derides customers very publicly across social media.
While I have no business demanding that private individuals change their personal beliefs, IDW employeesâ past social media activity reflects poorly on the company. This poor reflection has driven away licensors, and itâs likely driving away talent that could rescue a once-great comic book publisher from its downward spiral. A social media policy can help ensure that employees are aware of whatâs acceptable and not acceptable to post when acting as a representative of IDW Publishing. It can also limit harassment and discrimination in the comic book industry by providing guidelines for acceptable behavior and help prevent these issues from arising. Lastly, it can clarify whatâs expected of IDW employees when it comes to social media and prevent confusion or misunderstandings while cultivating a healthy company culture.