The Workermonkey

Wednesday, May 25, 2005

a slap on the wrist for fow news on this one. 

# posted by Supreme Monkey Overlord @ 5/25/2005 11:36:00 AM

This was a meaningless story i read but the punch line is in the last paragraph. no spin my ass.

Comics are selling less than they used to, sure. But in recent days folks have noted the decline in theatrical box office, lower TV ratings, and music industry woes as well. Now the book publishing industry is heard from with a recent report that concludes that more books are being published, but with lower sales per title.

“People are reading less, so what you’re seeing is the same phenomenon that has hit magazines and newspapers, a massive shift toward home video, DVD, internet and cable,” said Albert N. Greco, an industry consultant and a professor of business at Fordham University.

The Book Industry Study Group, a nonprofit research organization, reported estimated sales of 2.295 billion books in 2004, compared to an estimated 2.339 billion the previous year. Higher prices enabled net revenues to increase 2.8 percent, to $28.6 billion, but also drove many readers, especially students, to buy used books, Greco said.

While the new HARRY POTTER is expected to makes '05 an up year, the major areas of growth appear to be religious publishing, and schoolbooks for younger readers ("el-hi".) Other categories are expected to remain flat for the next four years.

What does this have to do with comics? Not much directly (although manga is usually cited as a rare growth area for publishing, as well.) But it does put some of the declines in comics publishing into a larger perspective. There's simply more media than ever before, and everything has to compete for time in an era when people walk around with earpieces in place so they can yap on the phone all day.

The Beat was amused by the Google News headline aggregate for this story, however. "More books published, but fewer sold" was a common headline, while Fox News has its own spin: "Publishers Putting Out Too Many Books." Thanks, Rupert.

8 comments

What do you do all day?

By  Brancibeer, at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 12:45:00 PM  

duh, he looks for jobs.

ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha

By  ron, at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 4:48:00 PM  

he cranks, spanks, AND yanks

By  josh, at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 9:56:00 PM  

i had a productive day today. i woke up around 10:30, ate a bowl of cinnemon toast crunch in front of sportscenter, looked for jobs until about 1 and read up on the various websites i visit. after that i took my mom to the doctors, came home, made chili, watched the aviator (what a waste of 3 hours that was), ran a mile and watched the yanks beat the tigers again. now i'm trying to download the new beck album and then play some video games.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Wednesday, May 25, 2005 10:46:00 PM  

I would love to hear how an UNproductive day goes. Let me guess:

I woke up around what i thought to be 12:30. Day or night, it didnt matter and i didnt care. Feeling no need to put on pants, i stumbled to my parents kitchen where i ate some left over pepporoni pizza. Feeling the need for something more in my life, i reached into the fridge and doused the greesy cheese with some ranch dressing. Boooya! Now we are talking. Senseing some contact with actual human life, i flipped on the TV and sparked up a bowl. Letting the sweet smoke massage my brain and thoughts, i opened my laptop with wireless internet in front of me. The world was at my fingertips. Oh damn! Suddenly some sauce fell from the pizza and onto my already stained "go yankees" T-shirt. Nothing worth worrying about, for I had done the same the day before. Stretching out upon the large couch, i began to think how much the world is screwed up and how i would fix it. Then, i suddenly decided to look at my ever growing collection of asian porn. After a 5 minute "time out", it seemed fitting for an ice cold beer. Ah thats the stuff. Continuing to watch intermixes of baseball clips and Emmerill, i let the hours pass by. Life is good, and its time to take nap.

(Ha ha! that was fun)

By  Brancibeer, at Thursday, May 26, 2005 11:27:00 AM  

Bwa haha. Zing.
Most of my days lately have resembled....well, both of the above. Typically wake at 10:30, do some job searching, downloading tunes, watch a movie, stroke it somewhere in there, go to kung-fu training, cpu games, get stoned. It's not always in that order. Sometimes there's also frisbee. Most times there's Tino's.
By the way Aviator rocks, Matt. It's the wave of the future. The wave of the future. The wave of the future.

By  DJ Booze Piñata, at Thursday, May 26, 2005 1:56:00 PM  

me thinks branciteam is jelous.

sure i have days like that, like today for example. i woke up around 11, i actually got 11 hours of sleep last night, i was amazed because i hadn't beeen to bed at 12 for a very long time. i put a bowl of aformentioned chili in hte microwave and watched Shaun of the Dead. not bad, nothing great but not bad. that lasted until about 1 when mom got home, i had al franken playing i nhte background and before i knew it, amanda was home. i had to unload a bunch of junk out of her car since she's moving home for 1 day between apartments. after that i spent about 5 minutes looking for jobs until she convinced me ot watch oceans 12. not as good as the first but still a solid movie. then dad was home. more nonsense, i made rubens and mac and cheese for dinner, then the game was on. robert stopped by at around 9 and i had a few beers and bullshitted with him. don't let me forget to ask greg about dumpsters. today was utterly pointless. i wish i was smoking.

By  Supreme Monkey Overlord, at Friday, May 27, 2005 12:55:00 AM  

I am jealous.

I had monday off however, and did not know what to do with myself. I'm out of practice in being lazy

By  Brancibeer, at Tuesday, May 31, 2005 8:30:00 AM  

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