I read a good amount of comic news every day, subscribing via RSS to the bulk of comic related websites. Unfortunately I find the bulk of it a waste of time, scrolling on by.
The big news this week has been the conviction of Micheal George, a former comic retailer who murdered his wife. How is this comic relevant news? He didn’t say comics made him do it so why would anyone who reads comics care about what some retailer did? My day job is in IT and I never come across news stories of IT people committing crimes: it just doesn’t relate to the media outlet.
There seems to be an endless stream of surveys and stats showing how many women work in the creative end of comics. Perhaps I’m in the minority but I’m not really concerned about the sex, ethnicity or background of the people who create the comics I read. I’m there for the stories: words and art on a page. Does that mean I don’t want anyone but middle-aged white males working in comics? Not at all: I want everyone who is talented and passionate to be able to work, but that’s true across the board for any career.
Sites need to drive traffic to attract advertisers to make money and stay in business. I get that. What I don’t get are the major sites posting every press release that’s available, all from the publisher’s websites. It looks like new content and allows users to only read one site, I guess, but why bother.
I’ve read criticism that CBD is a fan site and not a professional news site. Absolutely, 100% correct. If we weren’t fans why bother? We’re writing about a hobby and medium that we love and are passionate about. At times we may lack experience but there’s only one way to learn for free.
Why all these thoughts? Because Comic Book Daily seems to have hit a wall and we need to get past it, bringing more readers in. We started with the site redesign which looks great and presents our articles in a concise manner. We tried contests and met with little interest, but we’ll keep trying that. We’ve held firm to publishing articles with our opinions added: everything has the author’s opinion, from movie clips on the short end to our reviews and columns.
To that end we’re looking for volunteer contributors to the site. Please submit a post to [email protected] and if we’re interested we’ll contact you.
What do you want to see on Comic Book Daily?
I’ve actually thought about this deeply and it’s a tough one. The current approach to business is to find out what your audience wants and to fulfill it. However, the comic market has a lot of negative trends working against it, in addition to the fierce competition and the need for resources, the market is so fragmented it’s difficult to focus on a particular area without isolating the other…
My 2 cents is this:
Treat news and information for what it is… as a commodity. A simple statement to alert or direct people is all that’s needed. And post everything cause this is your bait and so the information should be fluid.
In addition to this, I think the real value here are the writers. In the same way that people choose to listen to a particular radio station, or read a newspaper column, or follow anything, for that matter, is because they relate to it or… them. In other words, “birds of a feather…” is not just a song… it’s a governing social principal. ie; I follow Walters column because we both love vintage.
So I would encourage you guys to dial up your personalities. I know you’re being careful not to offend or say the wrong things but being politically correct is vanilla. Blandsville. Boring. There’s nothing wrong with having a strong opinion as long as it’s handled in a mature and rationale way. You may very offend some people but you can’t make everyone happy… and over time, I believe you’ll cultivate a loyal following.
As they say in the branding world… fill peoples emotional void. Offer insight and perspective in an entertaining way. It worked for Siskel and Ebert and a host of news broadcasters who are all pushing the same news.
“Unfortunately I find the bulk of it a waste of time, scrolling on by.”
Scott, would you say that 80% of it is crap? If so, I guess you and I are a couple of pessimists *wink*