My chat with Marvel

[Wood]

Hey John and Bob,

Had the chance to chat with John Turitzin, Marvel's EVP, today and thought you might like to hear what we talked about. I'm going to schedule a conference call with the rest of the senior management team in the next few weeks to drill down into all facets of the publishing business. Will keep you posted:

http://bullpenbulletinspodcast.com/foru ... pic=3853.0

[BobBretall]

A FASCINATING read.

Go read the above thread on the 11 O'Clock boards.

The moral of the story (at least the one I took away from it) was that any fan who does not like the $3.99 price point needs to STOP BUYING the $3.99 books......

[Wood]

A FASCINATING read.

Go read the above thread on the 11 O'Clock boards.

The moral of the story (at least the one I took away from it) was that any fan who does not like the $3.99 price point needs to STOP BUYING the $3.99 books......

Thanks Bob.

You know, I don't know why I haven't leveraged my position as a portfolio manager to get at some answers before, but color me motivated now that they're pushing price increases on us again. Hopefully I'll be able to have a nice, meaty followup where I can cover all angles ranging from trends in the returns in the book market, exclusive contracts, lock ups for guys like Bendis, variables in the costs particularly as it relates to use of European creators to lower total production, further clarity on Diamond and the "contingency plans" that Marvel may have in place, more insight into the digital initiative and whether they're planning for a day when digital + print on demand commoditizes the direct market, etc...

[JohnMayo]

A FASCINATING read.

Go read the above thread on the 11 O'Clock boards.

The moral of the story (at least the one I took away from it) was that any fan who does not like the $3.99 price point needs to STOP BUYING the $3.99 books......

Thanks Bob.

You know, I don't know why I haven't leveraged my position as a portfolio manager to get at some answers before, but color me motivated now that they're pushing price increases on us again. Hopefully I'll be able to have a nice, meaty followup where I can cover all angles ranging from trends in the returns in the book market, exclusive contracts, lock ups for guys like Bendis, variables in the costs particularly as it relates to use of European creators to lower total production, further clarity on Diamond and the "contingency plans" that Marvel may have in place, more insight into the digital initiative and whether they're planning for a day when digital + print on demand commoditizes the direct market, etc...

We'd be happy to have you on a special edition of the Mayo Report to discuss this stuff any time you'd like. For that matter, having you explain the quarterly reports for Marvel and other publishers could be interesting.

[HassanT]

Great job Wood.

Also, (not to put pressure on you) but a "special John Mayo and Wood team-up" on the comic book industry would be very cool.

[HassanT]

A FASCINATING read.

Go read the above thread on the 11 O'Clock boards.

The moral of the story (at least the one I took away from it) was that any fan who does not like the $3.99 price point needs to STOP BUYING the $3.99 books......

Yeah. Companies could care less what the message boards are saying as they are generally the loud minority. It is actual sales that they care about.

I still curious to see Marvel's reaction to DC's double feature. There are rumors that Marvel is also working on back-up stories. It is a little bit easier to pay $3.99 if you get more pages. However, I still think DC is doing it all wrong. They should just increase the number of pages in the main story. Yes, this probably means that it will be difficult to have one artist on a book, but that doesn't seem to happen a lot these days anyway.

[HassanT]

A FASCINATING read.

Go read the above thread on the 11 O'Clock boards.

The moral of the story (at least the one I took away from it) was that any fan who does not like the $3.99 price point needs to STOP BUYING the $3.99 books......

Thanks Bob.

You know, I don't know why I haven't leveraged my position as a portfolio manager to get at some answers before, but color me motivated now that they're pushing price increases on us again. Hopefully I'll be able to have a nice, meaty followup where I can cover all angles ranging from trends in the returns in the book market, exclusive contracts, lock ups for guys like Bendis, variables in the costs particularly as it relates to use of European creators to lower total production, further clarity on Diamond and the "contingency plans" that Marvel may have in place, more insight into the digital initiative and whether they're planning for a day when digital + print on demand commoditizes the direct market, etc...

Wood,

I (and others) would love to understand more about these exclusive contracts. A lot of readers assumed that these are huge contracts but are they really? Does it depend on the creator (which I assume it does)? And how are these contracts change over the decades? I believe that even back in the 70s there were staff writers and artists for both companies which is essentially what someone is that has an exclusive contract.

Hassan

[JohnMayo]

I want to applaud Jason for doing some great investigative reporting for comics.

While I think that some of the comics that Marvel prices at $3.99 are done so out of are real need (the poor selling ones like Big Hero 6, Marvel Apes, Franklin Richards which tend to do under 7,000 units), clearly the price hike on titles at the top of the list is a cash grab.

Jason's excellent reporting on this is exactly what was needed to clarify the situation.

I'm also very disappointed in Marvel for going this sort of price experimenting during the current economic climate and out of greed rather than need. While existing readers may accept the price hike, it makes it that much harder to get new readers into comics when they have to pay $3.99 for 22 pages of story.

[spid]

Great work Wood.

My guess is that Marvel sees their digital initiative as cheaper alternative to paying $3.99. The ultimate has to be to milk the print business as long as they can until digital comics take off. Then they do not have to worry about a 2nd party distributor going out of business. I would be interested to know if they would willing to adopt an Itunes model to let users download individual issues for $.99.

[mikemclarty]

Hey John and Bob,

Had the chance to chat with John Turitzin, Marvel's EVP, today and thought you might like to hear what we talked about. I'm going to schedule a conference call with the rest of the senior management team in the next few weeks to drill down into all facets of the publishing business. Will keep you posted:

http://bullpenbulletinspodcast.com/foru ... pic=3853.0

An Error Has Occurred!
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.

I'm blocked! Ack! Anyone have another link?

[Frank]

However the one of the marvel execs suggested that the business was a 'cash cow"

Frank

[Frank]

http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/confL ... id=2220415


and the person posting the original comment asked a question at the investor conference... about the price increase to $3.99 and Marvel basically said that they were testing the market. They were trying a higher price point to see if/how much the increase would effect sales. He seemed to imply that if sales suffered too much Marvel would return to the $2.99 price point. The movie business is the big moneymaker for them, but they do well in games and comics as well...

Frank

[BobBretall]

An Error Has Occurred!
The topic or board you are looking for appears to be either missing or off limits to you.

I'm blocked! Ack! Anyone have another link?

Same thing is happening for me.

Perhaps this was more inflammatory than anticipated, seems like the 11 O'Clock board zapped the thread.....

[Wood]

Hey All,

Just an FYI. The Robot 6 guys picked up my thread and posted it on CBR, and while that in and of itself wasn't bothersome, the way they went about it was:

1) They referred to me as "Someone who refers to himself as 'Wood'" rather than taking two seconds to see that I'm Jason Wood, one of the hosts of the show

2) They got the name of our show wrong

3) The quote a truncated portion of my opening post without asking

4) They clearly didn't read the majority of the thread

So rather than give them the satisfaction I pulled the thread. I've made my point, and I've let everyone know that the information is there to hear for yourself on the Marvel Investor Relations thread. Beyond that, I want no part of being some kind of blogger's 'scoop.'

Peace,

Wood

[JohnMayo]

FYI, Jonah over at CBR asked Joe Quesada about the comments John Turitzin made about price at Marvel:

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page ... e&id=21573