Important news story from online comics perspective!

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joezabel
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Post by joezabel »

The following news story is copied from comicon.com's SPLASH page.

I wanted to point it out because I think it represents a milestone-- it's a new method of 'selling eyeballs' that I think even Scott McCloud didn't anticipate.

Also, it says something to those who still have doubts that readers will be willing to read a longer comic on a computer screen. Half a million readers! 16.7 percent of their total circulation!

Maybe if they charged a modest subscription fee, and promoted their online comics more, they could really turn the web into a revenue center...

The story:

MARVEL TO ADD INTERNET AUDIENCE TO AD BASE!
FINDS 500,000 NEW READERS ON-LINE!
November 20: By utilizing new counting rules that include Internet readership, Marvel Comics will soon see a 16.7% increase in its certified circulation. Marvel's total circulation numbers will jump from 3 million to 3.5 million. The numbers will lead to higher advertising rates for the publisher.

Marvel is one of the first of two publishers that will begin reporting online readership figures through the Business of Performing Audits International. The other publisher is the SD TIMES.

The CHICAGO TRIBUNE is reporting: "For Marvel Comics, the publisher of popular comic books including X-Men and Spider Man, the BPA will count requested downloads for its material. The BPA will release figures for Marvel early next year. The BPA will count these figures separately from the traditional print publications but the publishers will have the option of combining the figures when selling to advertisers."

Marvel has been reformatting some of their most popular sold out titles as FLASH animations and posting them on-line for free downloading. The company embeds advertising into the downloads.

The CHICAGO TRIBUNE said: "Bill Jemas, Marvel president and chief operating officer, calls this "in context, full-page advertising," and "fairly unique" in the Internet space. Of the 1.3 million downloaded issues Marvel sends out each month, about 500,000 are to registered users. The online ads "have been very well-received by our advertisers," Jemas said.

Can Marvel's controversial "no overprint" policy, which severly restricts reorders on print versions of the books, be seen in a new light with this strategy? FULL STORY: CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Joe Zabel
Trespassers Online Comics
http://amazingmontage.tripod.com/trespassers
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Greg Stephens
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Post by Greg Stephens »

The online ads "have been very well-received by our advertisers," Jemas said.
Still no word on how it's been received by the readers...

Check out this alternate advertising model:

www.PyRads.com
Good morning! That's a nice tnetennba.
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