Barnes & Noble Yanks DC Comics From Stores

[vansau]

Barnes & Noble Yanks DC Comics From Stores

DC comic books are flying off store shelves, but they're disappearing from Barnes & Noble for a totally different reason.

DC comic books may be selling like hotcakes right now, but there's one place where they won't be sold for much longer: retail chain Barnes & Noble. The book seller has announced that it won't be stocking physical copies of DC graphic novels any longer. The reason? DC is exclusively selling digital copies of its comics on Amazon's new Kindle Fire tablet.

DC recently gave Amazon a four-month-long exclusivity deal to sell graphic novels on the Kindle Fire; the deal is set to go into effect on November 15th. Unsurprisingly, Barnes & Noble is not happy about this, and is citing its policy to not sell books that are available in digital formats that exclude its Nook e-reader.

The company's chief merchant Jaime Carey explained: "We will not stock physical books in our stores if we are not offered the available digital format. To sell and promote the physical book in our store showrooms and not have the ebook available for sale would undermine our promise to Barnes & Noble customers to make available any book, anywhere, anytime."

However, just because the comics are being taken out of the physical stores doesn't mean people can't buy them from Barnes & Noble, as they'll still be sold through the retailer's website.

DC, in turn, pointed out that that the digital comics will be available on any device that's compatible with Amazon's Kindle app. "We are disappointed that Barnes & Noble has made the decision to remove these books off their shelves and make them unavailable to their customers," a DC spokesperson said.

How did DC think Barnes & Noble was going to react to this situation? I can totally understand why the retail giant is upset about this deal between Amazon and DC, as it means a huge loss of potential revenue. At the same time, pulling the physical comics from store shelves while still selling them online seems like a response that is simultaneously petty and pointless.

Source:<a href=http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/entertainmentnewsbuzz/2011/10/dc-graphic-novels-to-be-pulled-from-barnes-noble-in-digital-spat.html> Los Angeles Times

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[Omega Pirate]

I could see why Barnes & Noble is not happy. But DC kinda walked into this one.

 

[Fappy]

Local comic shops will probably see an increase in revenue because of this... how is that a bad thing?

EDIT: And yeah, that is a kind of round-about way of looking at this issue.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Seems like the tantrum throwing is not just between politicians, journalists and CEOs then.

Does everyone in the real world have this much trouble dealing with straight business issues?

If my mates (online/RL) do something that annoys me, I just ignore them or flick the Vs. What I don't do is storm off in a huff taking my ball in over the normal sleights of life.

Someone I know does, but he's a idiot anyway.

Next time, they should just get out the NERF guns and settle this like nerds.

 

[emeraldrafael]

its going to be funny to see the people say that B&N is acting petty or stupid or whatever when Microsoft did something near the same thing with its XBLA exclusivity (or lack there of) and people seemed to generally greet this as something positive or at least acceptable (if they werent involved in the fanboy wars).

...

The only thing I can say is, B&N, I enjoy your stores and while I get the principle of what you're doing and the reasoning why, you may want to be careful of just what bridges you burn. Though you really should either go all in or all out.

 

[evilneko]

DC comic books may be selling light hotcakes right now

I'll take eight of those light hotcakes!

Also, aww, B&N is butthurt their ebook reader isn't as good as the Kindle. Better luck next time, B&N!

 

[Jaime_Wolf]

Good news for local comic shops everywhere!

 

[Kapol]

Yea, that's smart when similar companies *coughBorderscough* are going out of business. Let's just get rid of this hot-selling product where most would buy it because this company signed an agreement with someone else! Who cares if we lose sales, our assholeishness will pay off in the end because they'll come back to us on bended knees begging us to sign an exclusivity agreement of our own! Nevermind the fact that most people who read these comics will find a place to buy them anyways!

Seriously, this is just stupid. And I doubt they sell every book they sell in-store on their ereader anyways. I'd be surprised if they had every graphic novel/manga on the nook that they sell in store. It's possible mind you. I just doubt it.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

So their potential profits are limited, so they decide to limit them more?

Ok.

 

[Snotnarok]

Okay so they're the ONLY ones who are going to suffer from that decision. Take that hot selling product off the shelf this instant!

 

[DJDarque]

While the decision is questionable, the reasoning behind it makes a lot of sense. At least to me.

I'm not affected either way.

 

[XT inc]

It isn't really an issue is it? Every bookstore I've ever been to stocks their comics on poorly balanced spinning racks that wreck them up the ass. No care taken at all and they look like they've been read through 40 times.

Cheap digital distrubution is more or less the future for comics.

Thought this was going to be another half joke about new superman saying god damn, or starfire being a raving slut in this iteration. I thought they were joking but then I read Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 loled good.

 

[3AM]

snip

Get out the NERF guns and settle this like nerds.

That sir is meme-worthy.

OT (so I don't get yelled at): Since the agreement with Amazon is only for 4 months, maybe B&N could have waited to see how things went, then got all pissy about it when/if it becomes permanent.

 

[qwertyz]

This draws many similarities from the whole Steam vs. EA fiasco, doesn't it?

 

[Stealthygamer]

This is probably because NO-ONE OWNS A NOOK

 

[Charli]

Okay hold up a second. Do Barnes and Noble seriously think comic book buyers use... Kindle. To the extent it will impact their business?

...Is no one seeing the humor in this. I mean no offense but the majority of comic book readers/buyers are not going to be owning a kindle and most of them want the physical copy for collection purposes.

Oh well, here's to the comic book stores. Carry on folks.

 

[Royas]

So rather than get *some* of the profits from selling these exclusive DC comics, they'd rather get *none* of the profits.... Am I the only one having trouble getting this logic? I realize there's certainly information involved in this decision I'm not privy to, but it just seems to fly in the face of common sense.

 

[lacktheknack]

Seems like a child throwing a tantrum to me.

No, it's just "actually doing something about being slighted versus laying down and taking everything".