More on the end of Archie Comics Digests

Yesterday I ran a story called Archie Comics classic digest format gets a shake-up covering Archie’s plan to start publishing a larger, seasonal collection for newsstands instead of their venerable 50 year old digests. 

I hesitated saying that the original digest format was dead, but reading the comments on that piece, doing some digging, and talking to a few people who are more Archie aware than I am, I can confirm: Archie’s comics digests are no more, and their entire publishing line seems quite anemic at the moment. 

Before going any further, I want to note that I am not an Archie fan from childhood, unlike most people. I was given some Archie comics as a kid but they did nothing for me, and that was that. (I did love the Josie and the Pussycats cartoon, though, hurry hurry.) So I might be missing a crucial nostalgic factor in what I’m about to write. 

My feelings aside, Archie Comics is one of the great, foundational comics publishers, with a history going back to 1939, presenting characters who are as embedded in our culture as any superhero or comic strip character. Archie, Betty, Veronica, Jughead and the rest are American icons. However, the company that published them has pretty much been slipping away right in front of our eyes without much media attention.  

A comment by Mark Moore on my previous story alerted me to the existence of his fine blog, Riverdale Reviewed, which has been following the story. By the numbers:

Looked at another way, by this time last year, Archie Comics had put out 35 issues of something (digests, floppies) that contained new material. To date, this year, they have put out 24 issues containing new material. By this time last year, they had put out 8 20-page floppies by outside writers and artists. To date, this year, they have put out 4 (3 of which were parts of miniseries that had been started last year) and a 40-page (presumably) comic written by Kevin Smith but still drawn in the Archie house style by Archie Comics artist Fernando Ruiz.

Moore also notes that the August solicitations for Archie Comics were revised – they originally included three digests, Showcase #25, Betty and Veronica #337 andWorld of Archie #153, but the solicitations were replaced with only ARCHIE COMICS DIGEST #1: HALLOWEEN SPECIAL, which has a new larger format, fewer pages and more puzzles. 

There has been sadness on various Archie fan forums over the end of the digests, but I also dug up a few business elements. As I mentioned yesterday, Archie’s digests were long a staple of check out aisles in mass market retailers – such pockets do not come cheaply, however, but have to be paid for at a premium, as I know from my time working at the similarly checkout-aisle promoted Disney Adventures. 

And now all of you truthers who think putting comics on newsstands will “save comics” listen up, because that business is pretty convoluted these days as well.

It seems that last year, Archie switched to a new magazine distributor, as mentioned in ICV2’s story about their switch from Diamond to Lunar for comics shops:

Archie also distributes its digests on newsstands, and the company signed on with a new distributor, a360media, six or seven months ago, Pellerito said. “It’s probably the most exciting and robust it’s been in years,” Pellerito said. “Each pocket [of the market] has its own geographical limitations, but going with a place like a360, a lot of that breaks down, so they are able to find places where we can test and do better and find more of an audience.” In addition, because comic shops carry the digests too, Pellirto said, “We’re kind of advertising comic stores by just being on the newsstand.”

A360 has a rather interesting background, but I can only summarize it here. The company, going back through a bunch of mergers and acquisitions, was formerly the publisher of the National Enquirer, another checkout aisle classic, but is now also a huge distributor for magazine-formatted material.  In addition to distributing actual magazines, A360 also runs The Magazine Shop, an online shop for all the stuff you might see next to Tic-Tacs and Doritos at checkouts and in actual newsstands: 

Magazine Shop is an online magazine marketplace selling popular weekly brands and special editions, which include content from partners such as Drew Barrymore, Dr. Jen Ashton, Denise Austin, and Leanne Ford, to name a few, as well as popular publishing partners such as Hoffman Media, TV Guide, and Weight Watchers. With over 1,000 unique titles across categories, Magazine Shop’s digital pockets expand consumer reach to grow household penetration and sales for the category.

Late last year, A360 merged with McClatchy, which published local newspapers, and they formed (ta da) McClatchy Media, described as:

McClatchy Media is an omni-commerce sales, distribution and logistics, marketing and media company that unlocks growth for retailers and brands at the intersection of culture, content, and commerce.

This company offers more than 6000 magazine titles and sells into more than 56,000 retail locations each week, according to their website. They also have “3MM Square Feet of Warehouse Space,” which, I’m showing my ignorance here because “mm” means millimeter, and I’m sure the warehouse is larger than that. 

You can see A360’s offering’s here and looking at this array of puzzles books, recipes books and celebrity specials, you will crave bundt cake. That page does include Archie comics digests and mentions where each title can be racked. If you think a 32 page comic called UNDEAD IRON FIST could thrive in this environment, you must be out of your mind. 

Anyway, with this detour into contemporary magazine distribution concluded, back to the Archie Comics Digests situation. It’s unclear if this new business partner had anything to do with the change in format for the digests, but whatever the numbers were, they must have shown it was time for a change. 

As someone who grew up reading digest-sized comics anthology – and reading them to pieces because I loved them so much – and later worked for nearly a decade on Disney Adventures, a digest sized magazine that included comics and was beloved by kids of its era, it’s very sad to me to see the last newsstand comics digest disappear. Certainly, others will feel a stab of sadness. I guarantee that if you put a digest-sized comics collection of GOOD comics in front of a child, even today with the triumph of screentime, they would read it and enjoy it. Given the success of roughly digest-sized manga and kids graphic novels from Scholastic, this can’t even be argued. But an end comes to even the most treasured format when so much else has changed around it. 

Where is Archie going from here? That’s a great question. The brand has life left in it, despite all this. Back in the 00s, modernizing the line with new storylines and characters gave it a big boost, and Riverdale kicked off a decade-long renaissance for media adaptations. I find it hard to believe that the enduring throuple of Archie, Betty and Veronica and an idealized vision of suburban high school life won’t find a new expression in these tumultuous times.