On the newsstand, the same number of issues were shipped to the same distribution points every month. If the sales dropped, it was because the number of warm bodies dropped. That can no longer be considered a truism.

Every editorial office has four months to get all of its books on schedule. At the end of those four months, talent that is not on schedule is fired. If at the end of six months, books are still coming late from a particular editorial office, that editorial staff is fired.

I wonder...

If the market were more like it was 20 years ago, that is comics available in grocery stores, gas stations, drug stores, newsstands, etc., and not many comic shops in less populated areas, would the late books be less acceptable?  When I had to depend on getting to a rack when I knew that the next issue of what I was collecting was coming out, missing an issue for what ever reason would cause me to stop getting that title and pick up something else instead.  With no pull list, or back issue stock to shop through, all I could depend on was good timing and/or presistant checking.  A title not coming out regularly would be a death sentence once the returns got billed back to the company because fans would have given up on those titles.

Until now, I hadn't noticed that I no longer saw those circulation statements in the back of comics anymore. 

What amazes me is that with current print technology the cost of printing and distributing large quantities for newsstands should have dropped.

As an example: My country is stretched thin, about the size of Japan or great Britain, but intersected with Fiords and mountains that make it difficult to travel in a straight line, and it's sparsely populated,  Only 4,5 million.

In the past, the major newspapers had problems didstributing to the northernmost cities (and small towns) since they were all printed  in the far souteast.  The Big Papers would be out at 5 in the morning in the capitol, and large cities in the north would get them at 5 in the afternoon (if at all) Even some big cities in the south wouldn't get the morning paper until 10. And the shipping costs were prohibitive.

Then, about 10-15 years ago, newspapers and printers decided to start up exchange deals. So after the Local Papers were printed, they'd get the files to the Big Papers transferred  and they'd print the Big Papers in something like 6 or 7 hubs around the country. Suddenly the northernmost cities had the paper at 6 or 7 in the morning and they even made room for using localized advertising pages so they'd rake in a few extra bucks there.

Imagine if that was the system for modern newsstand distribution of comics. Set up industry wide deals with printers in New york, Chicago, Miami, LA, London etc. And have the Comics delivered directly to newsstands off the presses, at least in big cities. I'm sure it would decrease shipping costs and aid in making comics viable as newsstand items again. Though this type of comics printing and distribution would probably make collectors' heads explode.