IDW to cut comics output by 25%

[andersonh1]

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/07/21 ... sentation/

It may be the comic story of the past few years. Boom! made it public first, that they were cutting the number of titles they were publishing in order to refocus them. But others did similar, if less publicly, including Marvel, DC, and Dark Horse.

Today at the Retailer Lunch meeting, Dirk Wood from IDW committed to doing similar, and pointed out how their title count had fallen to reflect expressed concerns: a 25% drop. They will keep their line around 40 books a month.

Wood said that the current First Strike crossover will change the Hasbro universe, and the Transformers line will shrink as the Hasbro books get refocused. Star Trek Discovery comes out two weeks after the show’s release and ties directly in with continuity.

[andersonh1]

More bad news for IDW. I missed this one, the story is actually from a month ago.

https://www.bleedingcool.com/2017/06/26 ... 0-million/

IDW Lost $1.8 Million in Q1 2017, Raising Another $10 Million

IDW has announced that it is planning to raise another $10 million in new shares sold to their shareholders at $29.50 per share. The intent is to use the proceeds from the sale to finance the Company’s IDW Entertainment division, and for general working capital purposes.

The only people eligible to buy shares are existing shareholders who, together with affiliates, own more than 2,000 shares. And such holders may invest up to 7% of their ownership.

They state that Howard Jonas, Chairman of the Board has committed to purchase approximately $5.4 million in shares, and Raging Capital Master Fund, Ltd. has committed to purchase approximately $1.625 million while members of management have committed to purchase approximately $250,000 worth.

The company is suspending its quarterly dividend, as it has reported a $1.8 million loss. ICV2 reports that revenues declined 33% to $8.9 million from $13.4 million and last year in the same quarter, IDW made a $81,000 profit.

The decline is not just in one area, but in all three, IDW, which includes IDW Publishing and IDW Games; IDW Entertainment, which was created to develop and produce TV shows and movies; and CTM, which distributes tourist information, with all showing operating losses.

IDW is one of the few comic book companies to be listed in this fashion, and having to declare this kind of information publicly…

[JediTricks]

Oh man, that's rough. I can't say I'm surprised, they have a lot of titles selling in the 10k range which isn't enough to go on without ads every other page. Hopefully the contracting of titles will help, they have a great business model and generally strong artistic merits, but weak customer follow-through I suspect from fatigue.