ICv2 continues it’s series of interviews with newsmakers with Viz Sr. VP Liza Coppola:
What are you looking at for 2008 in terms of your manga output versus 07?
For 2008, we’re looking at the same number of titles. What we’re looking at doing is really honing down the titles, and it’s not going to be a sampling of every single category. We’re probably going to concentrate on a few different segments of the market.
We’re really looking into what exactly are Shonen Jump titles, what exactly are Shojo Beat titles, and just really trying to define what that strategy would be to appeal to that market. I think a lot of the problems that publishers have is they do the whole “slash” thing (it’s a romance/horror/science fiction/fantasy), so we need to learn how to segment down a little better. At Viz, something we’re looking at for 2008 is building a much more overall rounded program. It’s not just dropping a title out there in publishing and finding that audience, but it may be finding a different distribution channel for the anime, it may be that the manga comes to you in a completely different format. I think for 2008, we’re taking a really good look at our properties and really building them more as brands versus one-off properties.
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