MJ Feature: Manga Magazine and it sfuture

[Floating_Sakura]

Free Comic - "Play An Ace to Enter the Market"

The first free weekly comic magazine in Japan starts on the 16th. They say 100,000 volumes will be distributed around stations in the metropolitan area. The 4th day of this month, Yoshimoto Kogyo announced that he will be launching a new comic magazine. At a market of 500 billion yen, new enterprises continue to enter, and yet, the market seems to be shrinking. Since, on one hand, new enterprises continue to enter the market and on the other hand,electric distribution, which is a rapidly expanding area in the comic market, begins to conflict with paper publishing. What is going on, now?

Around stations in the metropolitan area, 100,000 volumes are handed out for free.

All 100,000 volumes of “Comic Gumbo”, the first free weekly comic magazine, will be handed out near 30 stations in the metropolitan area every tuesdays and wednesdays. The size of the magazine is B5, it is same as other magazines, and it serializes 15 titles including long and short ones in more than 200 pages, it is about half the volume of other magazines.

“The reason of free distribution is simple. Even if we would start a new magazine, we couldn’t expect to complete with existing magazines. Realistically thinking, it is impossible that they would pay 300 yen for an unknown magazine. However, they will read it now, because it is free, ” explains Kai Akihiko, the president of Digima, the publisher of GUMBO, and the chief editor.

The idea that they distribute manga for free without competing for market shares is simple, but can he start it so easily?

“Our company is a venture company founded last August. We don’t hesitate to do this because we don’t have any other businesses.”

The content, which is an essential part of this business, hasn’t been decided yet except it aims at salaried worker at their 20-40s. If it is a paid magazine, they have to narrow the targets, but because it is free, everyone is their target. However, because it is freely distributed, they can’t guess who will be reading it, so they make the rule of not using an extreme sexual depiction. They are going to raise new comic writers, but also adopt popular writers.

Those who can not obtain the manga or living in other places can read them on the Internet, but they mainly focus on paper media.

As for the circulation of 100,000, chief editor Kai explains, “Even the volume of popular manga sold whole country is only 300,000. Because ‘GUMBO’ is sold only in metropolitan area, it can acquire as many readers as popular magazines in number.”

After quitting a big advertising agency, chief editor Kai worked for several venture companies, but it was the first time he worked for a publisher. He liked comic so much that he founded the company to fulfill his dream of creating a comic magazine by himself. A staff who had experience in editorial explained to him how reckless his plan was to issue free weekly magazine, but he said, “I believe everybody loves what I love. The manga is one entertainment such as the novel or the movie and I want to give them opportunities to meet manga to let them find it fun.”

Yoshimoto Kogyo will also start in this spring in their unique way.

On the other hand, Yoshimoto Kogyo, a leader of comical entertainment business, announced that they will start comic magazine for young adults in this spring, and get down to a publishing business. They said their goal is a circulation of 250,000.

Their plan is almost same as other existing comic magazine for young adults; their target is men around 35 years of age, they will publish twice a month, and sell them at bookstores and convenience shops. What characterizes their magazine is their authors. For example, based on Hayashiya Sanshi’s original comic story, a comic writer Takai Kenichi, who is famous for “Somu-bu Somu-ka Yamaguchi Roppeita (Yamaguchi Roppeita of the General Affair Section of the General Affair Department),” will be drawing the manga. “The thing that Yoshimoto Kogyo tries to focus on is the characteristic of the authors in every published work.”

Yoshimoto Kogyo has various kinds of stages, such as a cellular phone site, their own TV channel, production of TV programs, and now, a “comic magazine,” is going to join.

Shonen Jump's circulation has been reduced by half from 6 million.

The comic business is called “500 billion yen business” that exceeds CD and record business. However, the comic business cannot escape from recent “magazine depression.”

According to the Research Institute for Publication, the total sales of magazines in October 2006 dropped by 4.7% over the last year. A person in charge of sales committee of Japan Magazine Publishers Association says, “Shonen Jump was said to have a circulation of 6 million, but now it is at about 3 million.”

The comic business is an oligopolistic market, in which three major publishers, Shueisha, Shogakukan, and Kodansha dominates 60% of the market. One of the three, Shogakukan’s information office says, “The sales of comic magazines have been decreasing for the last 10 years.”

However, as to the sales of tankobon dominating more than half of the 500 billion yen, Shogakukan replies, “The total sale of comic book of all publishers has been same as the previous years’ for the past three three years and it is same as ours.” Also, a sales person of Kodansha says, “The comic market has matured, and its sale has been changed by around 5% every year depending on whether they have a hit or not”.

Then, why is the sale of comic magazines declining? A person in charge of Kodansha explains, “Comic magazines, especially those for young adults, have been thought as consumer goods to kill spare time. However, other things, such as commuter cellular phones gradually took over.” In short, games in cellular phones、or information provided by terminals took the place of comic magazines.

Therefore, major publishers has begun to build their business not by paper media but by cellular phone and personal computers. In fact, the electric distribution has rapidly developed. For example, according to Shogakkan, the sale of electric distribution, which includes only comic related material, has increased 13 times in a year. According to the research of Institute of Internet Lifestyle, the size of electric comic market was 3.4 billion yen in 2005, which to 36% of all electric book market.

The comic market is also affected by digitalization although its figure hasn’t changed very much at fist glance.

Shinoda Hiroyuki, the chief editor of Monthly Magazine So, points out, “People used to read serialized manga in magazines, and if they bought comic books they were fond of in the magazines. But now, withouht reading magazines, they buy comic books that become popular when they become anime or TV series.” He says that the process to buy comic books has changed dramatically.

An editor says, “In the past, editors had to pay attention only to how many comic writers he need to hire, but now, they have to pay attention to whether it will become TV drama, live action movies, anime, and have to understand these markets very much. Emphasizing on paper media policy and believing that "if a comic book is interesting, it will become a TV drama" doesn’t work any more.

“The Internet is free” is deeply rooted in users’ minds

Comic world changes their direction into the exploitation of various media such as digiatalization or tie-up with other media. Of course, there are worries peculiar to transition phase.

A person in charge of Shogakukan says optimistically, “Because magazine purchasers and net users are not necessarily over wrapped, it leads to exploitation of new market.” On the other hand, a person in charge of Kodansha is afraid that digitalization may worsen the sluggish growth of magazines. Furthermore, the concept that the Internet is free is deep rooted in users’ minds. They give favorite response while it is free, but when it becomes a paid service, they leave.

Then, what about the point of view of a writer? The Chief editor of bi-monthly magazine AX, Noriko Tetsuka points out that "at a time of digitalization, we also wish to purchase more manga copyrights, but we are concern about the income of the 'thousand yens writers.'"

An assistant of manga association said pessimistically, "The future of comic magazine will be dominated by free magazine and internet."

So are we at a transition period? According to Shinoda (mentioned previously), "The editors still advocates discovering new talent and provide them opportunity in paper medium. However, the market retrogresses it. This is a contradiction that has been spreading for quite some times."

<Desk memo> "Adult reading manga on train." That is one of the negative outlook westerners have for Japan . Although there is a much better opinion of Japanese manga these days, it is still harsh to read manga with such large pages standing on a full train. The other day, I have to lift the 190 centimeter page above my head. This is a trouble that I try to escape.

Translated by Masahiko, Floating_Sakura
Translated from: http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/00/tokuho/...uho__000.shtml