More on Digital Manga

Following up on yesterday's post about Digital Manga's print hiatus: Brigid Alverson at Robot 6 and Alex Hoffman at Manga Widget report on the hiatus and speculate about the reasons behind it. (Once again, links were found at MangaBlog.) Alverson says "This may be a sign of trouble, but then again, it may be a sign that Digital is just reacting quickly to market conditions." She points out that Digital Manga has always been willing to try new things, such as the Digital Manga Guild, and notes that their "flexibility and innovation has kept Digital going in a tough market," but wonders if that will be enough this time.

Hoffman speculates that DMP may be spreading themselves a little too thin with "a multitude of digital platforms, the Akadot retail store, Japanese tours, YAOI-CON, and a relatively new foray into both spec publishing and print hentai manga." (I suppose this is the downside of the flexibility and innovation mentioned by Alverson.) Hoffman hopes that the hiatus will give them some time to trim the fat and regroup to survive in the long run, but like me, worries that many of their customers will spend their money elsewhere during the next six months and says that "the risk to their sales due to the delay could very well lead to losses and an eventual downward spiral."