DC Comics is parting ways with Diamond Distributors

Well, what started as way to supply comic books to U.S. stores when Diamond wasn't doing it now appears to be the ways things will be going forward for DC from now on.

There's this from comichron (https://blog.comichron.com/2020/06/dc-ends-distribution-relationship-with.html?m=1):

As announced to the general public in a report from Hollywood Reporter, DC has cut ties with Diamond Comic Distributors and will not solicit any titles after the June 1 Final Order Cut-off. This ends not just a 23-year period in which Diamond was the only source for comics periodicals from all major publishers, but also a sales relationship with Diamond owner Steve Geppi that precedes Diamond's Feb 1, 1982 founding. (Read more about the start of the DC/Diamond exclusive relationship.)

The report quotes an e-mail to retailers, saying that retailers who want new DC product must order graphic novels from its bookstore distributor, Random House. Periodicals must be obtained from Lunar Distribution and UCS Distributors, sister companies to two retail operations, DBCS and Midtown Comics, which it granted distributor status to in April during Diamond's Coronavirus pandemic shutdown...

You can read the rest of the story from the provided link.

Also found this on Bleeding Cool regarding what Diamond has to say about this:

. . . Steve Geppi, Founder and CEO of Diamond Comic Distributors issued the following statement regarding DC Comics announcement that they were leaving Diamond Comic Distribution entirely, wit messages of thanks to Steve Geppi and Diamond. It seems that Diamond didn't get those thanks in person. The statement reads;

Today, DC sent out a retailer communication indicating they are ending their long-standing relationship with Diamond. In April, we were informed that DC was going to begin distributing products through additional partners. At that time, they asked us to submit a proposal for a revised agreement with the understanding that Diamond would continue to be one of their distributors. Which we promptly did. They then requested an extension to June 30 which we also accommodated. Last week, DC requested an additional extension through July. We responded with questions and DC indicated they would reply today, June 5. Instead of receiving a response, today we received a termination notice. While we had anticipated this as a possible outcome, we, like so many others in the industry, are disappointed by their decision to end our partnership so abruptly at this time...

You can read that entire posting here: https://bleedingcool.com/comics/diamond-says-dc-comics-terminated-relationship-rather-than-answer-qs/

This will damage a lotn of comic shops, I fear. If not kill them outright.

Mbast1 wrote:This will damage a lot of comic shops, I fear. If not kill them outright.

Not necessarily.

I've heard comic book shops complaining about the way Diamond handles things in the past, so this could also bring some benefits to the way business is done by comic book distributors (including Diamond).

MajorHoy wrote:Not necessarily..

Obviously not necessarily, but at this point a LOT of small businesses are struggling, comics stores have been barely getting by for decades and I think making it harder to get books from their 2nd biggest seller is going to make the struggle more.[/quote]

I have a couple of friends who run stores, and while they're concerned about what this might mean for them, both agree that breaking Diamond's virtual monopoly on distribution can only end up being a good thing for the industry. Neither are happy with Diamond's business practices or customer service.

While theorically no monopoly is good for the market, during the years I have also read several comments favorable to Diamond and it's true that the monolopolist is strictly linked to the fate of the struggling market of local comic shops, so during the years it surely has helped a lot of players in it.
At the moment we have no information about how the new Dc Comics "not so big" distributors will reach the market outside North Am, maybe the bosses at Dc have "simply" forgot the rest of the world....

Barry_Allen wrote:While theorically no monopoly is good for the market, during the years I have also read several comments favorable to Diamond and it's true that the monolopolist is strictly linked to the fate of the struggling market of local comic shops, so during the years it surely has helped a lot of players in it.
At the moment we have no information about how the new Dc Comics "not so big" distributors will reach the market outside North Am, maybe the bosses at Dc have "simply" forgot the rest of the world....

How much was Diamond supplying comic books outside of North America?
Did the UK get its books directly/indirectly through Diamond?
(Is the Panini deal with DC impacted by Diamond?)

I remember to have read some months ago, on Bleeding Cool website, that the European market counted 15% of the total invoiced amount for DC Comics printed comics, but I don't know what their sources of information were
Diamond has a Uk branch (which had absorbed a small local distributor several years ago and then Titan Distributors back in 1992) which is basically serving Uk, Ireland and all mainland Europe too, in fact usually European comic shops receive our "own" version of Previews catalog, the Previews Uk but I think that our fearless leader knows everything about this story!
(Well, the Panini deal has been delayed due to Covid lockdown first, and now, seeing from the social interactions, it doesn't seem to be so much interest in it, people have other priorities and their prices are not really cheap, so we'll see what happens now, I'll keep you informed

According to old fox Chuck Rozanski of Mile High Comics in his latest newsletter, the problem with DC Comics acting that way now is closely linked to Warner Bros (which included Dc Comics) having been bought in late 2018 by AT&T Exclamation for the crazy amount of $ 108.000.000.000 maybe they thought to gross for each every DCU movie revenues like Aquaman's which made more than a billion $ worldwide but then the Covid stopped everything in movies, entertainment and so on. With the pandemia and their revenues greately reduced they're (AT&T) desperate for cash, even just to pay interests so, for what concerns the revenues of DC Comics that could also explain the creation of the two new distributors in just a few days to restart distributing comic books and books and have some revenues in a small time maybe without thinking too much about the long term...

MajorHoy wrote:

Barry_Allen wrote:While theorically no monopoly is good for the market, during the years I have also read several comments favorable to Diamond and it's true that the monolopolist is strictly linked to the fate of the struggling market of local comic shops, so during the years it surely has helped a lot of players in it.
At the moment we have no information about how the new Dc Comics "not so big" distributors will reach the market outside North Am, maybe the bosses at Dc have "simply" forgot the rest of the world....

How much was Diamond supplying comic books outside of North America?
Did the UK get its books directly/indirectly through Diamond?
(Is the Panini deal with DC impacted by Diamond?)

Diamond were the sole distributors of American comics to the rest of the world. Panini publish reprints, they have nothing to do with the distribution of actual US imports, so they aren't affected.

Barry_Allen wrote:While theorically no monopoly is good for the market, during the years I have also read several comments favorable to Diamond and it's true that the monolopolist is strictly linked to the fate of the struggling market of local comic shops, so during the years it surely has helped a lot of players in it.
At the moment we have no information about how the new Dc Comics "not so big" distributors will reach the market outside North Am, maybe the bosses at Dc have "simply" forgot the rest of the world....

That actually seems to be exactly what happened: nobody at DC even considered the overseas market, they just seem to have assumed their new distributors could service everyone. It has since been pointed out to them that no infrastructure was in place for this and that the only reason it hadn't been costing Diamond a fortune to ship overseas was because they had their own central hub, and I gather they're now trying desperately to sort out a solution. Right now, it seems there is no official distribution for DC anywhere outside the USA from the end of this month (and yes, that appears to include Canada, too).

MajorHoy wrote:
(Is the Panini deal with DC impacted by Diamond?)

Aside from the not so big launch affected both by the Pandemia and the general lack of interest here, maybe in the short term Panini could benefit at last from Diamond not having Dc Comics to distribute after 30 June, because a lot of people in social network and forums in Italy were reacting to Panìni raising of their prices twice and a lot in last 18 months (first from € 2.00 to € 3.00 for 24 pages comic books and then to € 5.00 for 40-48 pages while the previous publisher gave us "Jumbo" issues of Batman 84-96 pages with poster too for only € 5.50 until last February), saying that they now would have bought Dc comic books in original language and form but then, if there won't be a supplier for these comics books now, one could be "forced" to buy some Panini Dc comic books, at least for the moment being...

tony ingram wrote:
Diamond were the sole distributors of American comics to the rest of the world. Panini publish reprints, they have nothing to do with the distribution of actual US imports, so they aren't affected.

Well we hope Diamond is and will be a (the?) distributor of American comics, magazine and various merchandise to the rest of the world, through them you can order (for example) a single issue of a magazine like Locus or Scary Monsters or Filmfax or even a diffucult to find Australian book which otherwise would cost you tons of $ in shipping charges, even if you had a mail subscription to these magazines.

Diamond UK, who handled distribution over here, are actually a (more or less) separate company from Diamond US, so a lot of people here are hoping they can sort out a deal with DC.

We really hope so! But you mean also that Diamond Uk is not owned 100% by Steve Geppi family?

Barry_Allen wrote:We really hope so! But you mean also that Diamond Uk is not owned 100% by Steve Geppi family?

As far as I know, Diamond UK is what used to be Titan Distributors.

It seems our fearless leader was right! Seeing from a newsletter coming from the Uk is it stated that Dc Comics will allow Diamond Uk to continue selling their comics over there, as if it could be a different company from Diamond USA!

Barry_Allen wrote:It seems our fearless leader was right! Seeing from a newsletter coming from the Uk is it stated that Dc Comics will allow Diamond Uk to continue selling their comics over there, as if it could be a different company from Diamond USA!

As it stands, a last minute deal was made which means Diamond UK can continue to distribute DC until at least January next year.

tony ingram wrote:I have a couple of friends  who run stores, and while they're concerned about what this might mean for them, both agree that breaking Diamond's virtual monopoly on distribution can only end up being a good thing for the industry. Neither are happy with Diamond's business practices or customer service.  

I don't know which way I fall, to be honest. I want the shops to stay viable, so in the end that is what matters. Yes, having a monopoly is bad in some ways, but I saw an article (someone else mentioned it) by a dealer who talked about how much trouble it can be with multiple distributers. I don't know, but I want stores to remain alive.

I think we can all agree on that...

tony ingram wrote:I think we can all agree on that...

Be weird if we didn't here!