Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Hastings – The First National Comic Store Chain In US?

From Bleeding Cool, and the mind of Rich Johnston, and reported better than never by this blog:
Hastings is a national media store, selling books, DVDs, games, music, that sort of thing. Of late, the word is that its music sales have suffered most significantly, as digital downloading takes the lion’s share.

But I was told that in response, the company was moving into comics. Big time. Already stocking graphic novels as part of their book mix, they had approached publishers and distributors nationally talking about increasing their comic books selection. Including selling brand new comics distributed by Diamond as well as stocking back issues in depth. In almost 130 stores nationwide.


While I think this might have a good short term effect on comics (how many of the largest comic store "chains" have 147 stores?) I am still not entirely sold on the long term viability of Hasting entering into the "friendly local comic store" market. They chose to start selling comics because the marketplace for music sales moved to a diret market digital model, rather than attempt to keep up with the digital evolution of sales in that market, what should we expect them to do with the inevitabe move for the comic industry into the digital domain as well?

While I applaud Hastings for selling comic books (even though it will never impact me in this part of the country) I wonder how much forward thinking went into this decision, rather than it being a stop-gap method to bolster profits. Does Hastings' target audience care about the sales of monthly comics? Are comic buyers even a large enough of a demographic to make the sales bump that Hastings is looking for with this move? I guess time will tell. I will be hopefully optimistic that it will come out for the best

Saturday, June 19, 2010

DDOJ, Inc. Announces Acquisiton of Majority Share in Indie Press Revolution

June 19th, 2010- New York City, NY: DOJ Inc. is proud to announce that they have closed a deal to acquire a majority share of Indie Press Revolution, the industry's leading direct-sales network of high-quality small press game publishers, and will be taking over administrative operations of the company beginning July 1st, 2010. The minority shareholders have all approved the sale and will be retaining their ownership shares in the company.

"I'm delighted to be taking over a sales organization with the brand strength and reputation for quality that IPR has built over the last several years," says Darren Watts, President of DOJ Inc. "IPR has a very strong business model and has done an outstanding job representing its client creator-publishers, and we intend to carry forward with the same philosophy in order to bring great new games to the public from the cutting edge of game design."

"I'm excited to be working with Darren, Jason, and the rest of the DOJ team," said Ryan Macklin, General Manager of IPR, who will be remaining in that position. "They have an excitement about IPR that I relish, and I'm looking forward to the future they'll bring to this company."

"DOJ Logistics has already been providing IPR and its publishers complete shipping and warehousing services since August 2008," said DOJ Logistics Director Jason Walters, "so both the publishers and the customers of IPR should receive the same fine service they've come to expect."

"DOJ Inc has been providing IPR great service and over the years we have developed a close relationship with the warehouse staff. I can't think of any better partner for IPR to help the business grow and thrive in the years to come," said Brennan Taylor, owner of Galileo Games and outgoing President of IPR. Mr. Taylor is retaining a minority share in IPR, as well as remaining a client publisher, and will be assisting DOJ in the transition.

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ABOUT INDIE PRESS REVOLUTION

Indie Press Revolution is a consolidation house and direct-sales network of quality small press game publishers, dedicated to establishing a community in which creator-publishers can flourish and share their ideas and visions together in a cooperative environment. IPR sells exclusively to retailers and the public through their website, at www.indiepressrevolution.com. They currently represent over ninety outstanding independent small publishers, including such industry standouts as Cubicle 7 Entertainment, Evil Hat Productions, Arc Dream Press, Pelgrane Press, and Galileo Games, to name only a few.

ABOUT DOJ INC.

DOJ Inc. are the owners of Hero Games, publishers of Champions and other roleplaying games using the award-winning Hero System, and of DOJ Logistics, providing warehousing and shipping services to the tabletop gaming industry.

MEDIA CONTACT
Darren Watts
darren (at) herogames (dot) com.