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The Beat just participated in a conference call with Comixology CEO David Steinberger and Amazon’s vp of digital content David Naggar, and while details are at Publisher’s Weekly, everyone sounded very chipper about Amazon’s planned acquisition of Comixology.

“Comixology is in a better place than ever for the diversity of our content ad the diversity of our audience,” Steinberger said. “Amazon is good at a lot of things we’re not great at yet.”

Comixology will be staying in New York and all employees have been made offers. Steinberger noted that Amazon has been a great partner for other companies that have acquired such as Audible and Zappos. The Submit program will also continue—Amazon has a lot of upload it yourself programs so this is no surprise.

“We’ve got a long history of buying companies we admire and that’s the case here,” said Nagger. ” We’ve admired them for the customer focus and customer experience they’ve created for several years so it made sense to bring them into the Amazon family.”

He also told PW:

Naggar was also enthusiastic when asked about Comixology Submit, Comixology’s digital comics self-publishing platform. While he said, “Amazon doesn’t make a lot of plans before it makes an acquisition, so we’ll have to figure it all out over time. But Kindle Digital Publishing has been big for us and so we love Comixology Submit. Comixology has had a positive impact on physical and digital comics.”

In a statement on Comixology, Steinberger wrote:

Dearest readers,

I’m very excited to share some big news with you: we have just announced that comiXology is becoming a part of the Amazon family!

More than seven years ago, John D. Roberts, Peter Jaffe, and I set out to connect people to comic books and graphic novels they’d love, and we’re so excited about how far we’ve come. Thanks to the books we are privileged to present and the platform we created, there’s access to more diverse content than ever, allowing all readers to enter the amazing world of comics.

We have long had the goal of making every person on the planet a comics fan. With Amazon’s help, this crazy goal is more possible than ever before. With the Kindle, Amazon has shown a passion for reinventing the reading experience, just like comiXology has shown for comics and graphic novels.

ComiXology will retain its identity as an Amazon subsidiary and we’re not anywhere near done “taking comics further.” We are confident that – with Amazon by our side, who shares our desire for innovation and a relentless focus on customers – we’ve only just begun.

We wouldn’t be here without you, our customers. Thank you. The best is yet to come!


While this cannot have surprised anyone who was paying attention, the fact that it is happened—and as Janelle Asselin pointed out, not both Amazon AND Apple get a piece of your digital comics money—Amazon’s aggressive model against brick and mortar, and tough terms with print publishers don’t exactly point to the same kind of warm and cuddly company as Comixology.

And here’s some tweet reactions from the industry:

9 COMMENTS

  1. The point about Audible & Zappos — two companies who have long enough a leash that I keep forgetting that they’re owned by Amazon nowadays — is an apt one and a welcome one. Despite the every-present concerns Amazon offers physical booksellers, the company seems to be a good steward to acquired companies, so comiXology should be in good hands…AND get a new leg up in marketing from the acquisition.

    Of course, what this means to brick-and-morter comic shops, being a sort of physical bookseller themselves…

  2. Currently Amazon charges publishers who sell books through their KDP platform a delivery fee. Doesn’t really amount to much for a book that is mostly text at $0.15/MB. But if they start putting this onto comics it could result in a pretty significant cut in revenue.

  3. If this acquisition means that the everyday Amazon customer will be able to see the weekly comics on the Amazon site, I think it will dramatically increase awareness of comics as low cost digital reading.

  4. @ Dan Vado – I didn’t know that’s how Amazon determined their cut from books. They’d almost have to change the unit of measurement for books with art, right?

  5. Yes, what Dan said. I don’t include Kindle Store in retail plans for my consulting clients for that exact reason. Graphic novels cost more to sell through Amazon than they earn in sales, leaving ComiXology and Comics+ as the most viable ways to go. I can’t imagine why Amazon would change is for ComiXology vendors but if they did, geez Louise.

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