Jan-June 2011 ABC figures are in - disaster for The Dandy

JAS84

19-08-2011

DS has reported sales figures for Bauer and IPC magazines, but they're not the only ones to release their six-monthly sales figures today. Quoted from Comics UK:

Originally Posted by PaulTwist:
“The ABCs for the first half of the year have been published - and the biggest shock is this:

The Dandy : 7,448 ; -48.1%

Yes - the relaunched Dandy has lost almost half its readership. Upsetting news indeed. I know that I've bought more copies of The Dandy since the relaunch than I'd ever bought before. Maybe kids DON'T want a comic that's just a comic? Sad news if that's true.

The only magazine on the list that sells less than The Dandy is Times Educational Supplement Scotland.

Other titles relevant to this forum:

The Beano : 37,145 ; -20.4%
The BeanoMAX : 24,438 ; -15.9%

DC Thomson Children's Entertainment Package (Boys) : 69,031 ; -23.4%
DC Thomson Children's Entertainment Package (Girls) : 76,329 ; -29.3%
(dunno what these are)

Doctor Who Adventures Magazine : 50,013 ; -6.6%
Doctor Who Magazine : 30,682 ; -13.3%

The Simpsons Comics : 64,882 ; -20.7%
Simpsons Comics Presents : 44,728 ; -29.2%
(Although full of American reprints, it's hard to begrudge Simpsons Comics' popularity as the strips are so well-written)

Spectacular Spiderman : 28,003 ; -1.8%

Toxic : 40,503 ; -0.7% (Toxic OUTSELLS THE BEANO. Cripes!)

Full list: http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/story....code=47723&c=1

And please don't think I'm posting this to be negative. It breaks my heart that more people aren't buying The Dandy, and I hope it has a massive turnaround pretty damn quickly.”

That 48% drop in readers is a disaster for the Dandy, which had a major revamp last October. But sales have dropped across the board, so this is a dark day for the British comics industry.

frost

20-08-2011

Originally Posted by JAS84:
“That 48% drop in readers is a disaster for the Dandy, which had a major revamp last October. But sales have dropped across the board, so this is a dark day for the British comics industry.”

The only good thing about the revamp is how Desperate Dan is done now. I never liked it when I was young, but find this style great. Everything else about the comic sucks these days, crappy art, unfunny jokes, poor characters, I could go on...

tingramretro

20-08-2011

Originally Posted by JAS84:
“DS has reported sales figures for Bauer and IPC magazines, but they're not the only ones to release their six-monthly sales figures today. Quoted from Comics UK:
That 48% drop in readers is a disaster for the Dandy, which had a major revamp last October. But sales have dropped across the board, so this is a dark day for the British comics industry.”

The American comics industry isn't doing much better. I think we just have to accept that mainstream comics are dying...

Residents Fan

22-08-2011

Can't remember reading an issue of "The Dandy" since the mid-80s, but this is still
bad news for the UK comic industry.

CoolboyA

22-08-2011

I hardly bought comics when I was younger. I wouldn't dream of buying one thesedays.

The reason the comic/magazine business is going down the pan is because they are severely overpriced. £10 for an iPhone app magazine? £15 for some photography magazines? Even Nintendo's official magazine has gone up to £4.50 - it's just full of old news.

The internet has killed magazines and comics - and it's not a bad thing.

tingramretro

23-08-2011

Originally Posted by CoolboyA:
“I hardly bought comics when I was younger. I wouldn't dream of buying one thesedays.

The reason the comic/magazine business is going down the pan is because they are severely overpriced. £10 for an iPhone app magazine? £15 for some photography magazines? Even Nintendo's official magazine has gone up to £4.50 - it's just full of old news.

The internet has killed magazines and comics - and it's not a bad thing.”

Yes, it is-it's a very bad thing, because it means people are reading less. I would have thought that was obvious. As for the pricing issue; it's an economic necessity, sadly, dictated by the distributors. It costs so much now to actually get a magazine placed in the newsagents that it is impossible to to even break even without charging what probably seems to the consumer like a very high price. I have some experience of magazine publishing; if a magazine costs £4.99, the publisher's actual eventual profit on it will be about £1.00. That is what's killing magazines and comics.

JAS84

23-08-2011

Yeah, but Coolboy's point about Nintendo's magazine for example having old news that readers have already seen on the Internet is true. That's not a problem for comics (for which distribution, marketing and pricing is definitely the main problem like you said), but it is for some other magazine genres. Why buy a magazine when you can get it's content online for free?