Over at the Huffington Post, Archie co-CEO Jon Goldwater explains why his company is, in his words, “the most progressive comic book publisher out there”:
I saw firsthand what happened to the music industry when they didn’t embrace digital, and I wanted to make sure that didn’t happen to Archie. Unlike most direct market-centric comic companies, Archie has always been about being available. On the newsstand. In comic shops. In bookstores. So it made sense to translate that philosophy to digital, both in availability in timing. Despite what some other companies may claim, we were the first to go day-and-date digital, which means our titles are available to digital consumers the same day they hit stores. We also believe in a different pricing model for digital than print.We were one of the first companies to aggressively put out collections and expanded product out there digitally. Our Archie Comics app, which is powered by the team at iVerse, has been downloaded close to 4 million times, and our comics are routinely among the most downloaded titles. Just last year in San Diego, we announced plans to launch the first-ever digital superhero universe with our Red Circle Comics app. The app will be a newsstand app via Apple. The shorthand we use is “Netflix for comics.” Each week, a subscriber will get six pages of our flagship title, NEW CRUSADERS, plus access to our continually-growing archive of Crusaders comics dating back to the Golden Age of comics.
In addition to that, we were the first company to make Spanish-language editions of our titles available to our Spanish-speaking readers, and we’ve just launched a Facebook app – in partnership with our friends at Graphicly – to sell Archie comics to our Facebook fans. Currently, we have over 116,000 fans on our main Archie page, growing significantly each day.
Digital is important for a number of reasons. Mainly, we’re always looking for ways to expand and grow the business. Archie is a global icon and one of the most recognizable brands anywhere. It’d be foolish to just limit ourselves to our existing distribution channels. We want Archie to be available to everyone everywhere. We want to create a one-stop shop — an Archie “superstore” that’ll serve everyone’s needs. That’s the goal. Digital is part of that over-arching plan.
When you factor in things like Kevin Keller being the first gay male lead for an ongoing solo series from a non-underground publisher – demonstrating that it’s not only in distribution that Archie is forward thinking – then it starts to seem like a much more convincing argument, doesn’t it…?
February 17th, 2012 at 11:44 am
a buddy of mine and i were discussing this very thing just a month ago. factor in them actually putting their comics where kids are at and can see them and pester their parents for some (ie, supermarket checkouts) and they’re miles ahead.
February 17th, 2012 at 12:08 pm
Plus they’re one of the most women-friendly product lines out there. I’ve been reading more of their stuff lately, and it’s never been better in quality. If you like the Archie style goofy high school hijinks, it’s easy to love what they’re doing these days.
February 17th, 2012 at 4:49 pm
Wait… they still publish Archie comics??
February 17th, 2012 at 10:23 pm
Could not agree more with this post. Starting with the “realistic” style stories, the “Archie Marries” story arcs and the resulting series (which is ridiculously awesome), and the heavy promotion of Kevin, and even the recent experiment with DC and numerous guest stars (Obama AND Palin in the same issue), there is no other top 10 publisher that has taken more chances than Archie. And I could be wrong about this, but I believe that since the beginning of the New 52, Sonic is one of the top two or three titles currently being published (behind titles like Hellraiser and Savage Dragon).
And I think its working; I’ve heard once you figure in supermarket and department store sales, Archie sells more copies per issue than either DC or Marvel.
February 18th, 2012 at 6:06 pm
“Archie is a global icon and one of the most recognizable brands anywhere”
Could’ve fooled me, I knew the name because Joey in Friends mentioned it a lot but had no idea what it was until started reading US comic sites.
I bet 99.999…. % of the UK have never heard of it. Neither have I ever seem it on sale in several of the European countries I’ve lived in.
February 19th, 2012 at 10:52 am
Erm…Kevin Keller is not the “first gay male lead for an ongoing solo series from a non-underground publisher ”
Midnighter has an ongoing series from Wildstorm from 2006-2008
May 8th, 2012 at 12:48 am
And I think its working; I’ve heard once you figure in supermarket and department store sales, Archie sells more copies per issue than either DC or Marvel.
boston limousines