This week issue 300 of the Comics Journal, the last regular edition before a relaunch as a larger bi-annual magazine, was online for free. For a day. Then it got unceremoniously yanked from the net. Joe covered it here when it went online and here when it went AWOL.
Well, now that Dirk’s had a chance to calm down a touch, here’s the reason why:
“Before we begin, let’s take a moment and end some of the speculation surrounding The Comics Journal’s plans for the Web, shall we?
* We pulled TCJ #300 offline largely due to retailer concerns over not having been given adequate warning about said plans before ordering the issue. It was a fair point, and one that we hadn’t properly considered.
* The issue will again be made available online in late December, after retailers have been given time to sell the print edition.
* All future editions of The Comics Journal will be freely available online, in their entirety.
Our apologies for the learning-curve wipeout. We’d love to assure you that it won’t happen again, but you know as well as we do that it probably will…“
So there we go. Hopefully that’s that. Hopefully we’ll see the Comics Journal back online, free and readily available in 2010. And hopefully we’ll see that this free model can generate sales of the print edition. It may be infuriating and even nasty at times, it may not be your idea (or mine) of what magazines about comics should be about, but it does what it does so very well. Long may it continue.
November 21st, 2009 at 11:34 am
I’ll categorically state here and now – it will not create offline sales. I love the Journal – I’ll continue to buy it hard copy as long as it comes out. But they are taking a magazine that was, for most, a dip in and out experience anyhow and moving it to a medium where you can dip in and out – FOR FREE. Most people will never buy a journal again unless it becomes an twice yearly art book.
November 23rd, 2009 at 12:11 am
Oh you cynical man