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Shonen Jump Dips Below 1.4 Million in Print Circulation


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AksaraKishou



Joined: 16 May 2015
Posts: 1411
Location: End of the World
PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 1:03 pm Reply with quote
Wasn't that the time period where several mangaka were taking breaks left and right?
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otastorian



Joined: 02 Aug 2018
Posts: 64
Location: otakuhistoryguy.blogspot.com
PostPosted: Tue Nov 16, 2021 3:17 pm Reply with quote
You gotta wonder how many of those 1,371,818 copies of Jump were bought just by OP fans who want to read the latest chapter hot off the press.
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Ushio



Joined: 31 Jul 2005
Posts: 630
PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 6:11 am Reply with quote
Top Gun wrote:
Not all that surprising. There's very little reason to continue creating cheaply-printed periodicals in the year 2021. I'm sure digital readership has seen a corresponding spike.



Well there is, one makes money the other does not. It's like US comics the monthly copies make money and actually give the creators a living wage while the digital stuff is worthless.
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Rob19ny



Joined: 13 Jun 2020
Posts: 1752
PostPosted: Wed Nov 17, 2021 6:31 am Reply with quote
The dip will be at its worse when OP ends. Crazy how SJ will be that year.
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BrainBlow



Joined: 22 Apr 2013
Posts: 364
PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 6:28 am Reply with quote
Unsurprising. Why read the manga on cheap, low-quality paper when you can read it in HD on your computer or phone?
The tankobon selling extremely well by comparison really shows that the magazine decline is from digital adoption, not loss of readership.
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SenpaiDuckie
ANN Community Manager


Joined: 16 Sep 2021
Posts: 474
Location: PH
PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 9:35 am Reply with quote
@Brainblow and enurtsol I would totally agree! And because of your posts, it seriously made me look into this and learned the following so far:

It is said the contemporary anime and manga are a result of particular circumstances --economic, technical, and media-related (reference here); hence, BrainBlow's point is definitely under technical/media-related while enurtsol's point is also partly cultural, because we are in a digital era. From what I have gathered in my cultural studies' research, "Culture shapes values, values shapes behavior, and behavior affects how we live our daily lives." It just shows how powerful can culture be, affecting the preference of Shonen Jump's current customers and others -- that we are more on our phones than on hard copied materials.

Another issue is the fall out of 'pen-and-paper fashion'. Current mangakas prefer the working and drawing with drawing pads, as it is easier, better, and economically saving. Furthermore when it comes to publishing the manga, keeping it on the soft format would give a better quality rather than the hard format. The printing itself will also add up to the cost and sadly, it will not help raise the mangakas royalties or salary.

Lastly, the added issue that manga publication houses have is the circulation of online free manga reading sites. I mean... let's be honest... people also like free online manga and anime sites. Lol.

This headline has definitely contributed and became one of the factors on Japan's current economic state where their GDP dropped by 3% (reference here). Shonen Jump is one of the biggest names in the manga industry. I wonder how they're going to recover from this really.

Other than that, if I happen to miss a point, definitely would like to hear it!
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mangamuscle



Joined: 23 Apr 2006
Posts: 2658
Location: Mexico
PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 11:20 am Reply with quote
I think the are only two reasons WSJ weekly print has not reached zero.

1. Old habits die hard. Many people must be used to buying their copy each week and reading it on their breaks. But sooner or later they will get some kind of tablet or big screen phone.

2. The weekly ratings. When people can get to vote online (maybe with some sort of paid subscription) there will be no incentive left to buy the weekly print edition (and maybe ecchi series will now rank higher since the vote will be secret).
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Blanchimont



Joined: 25 Feb 2012
Posts: 3461
Location: Finland
PostPosted: Thu Nov 18, 2021 11:32 am Reply with quote
Ushio wrote:
Well there is, one makes money the other does not. It's like US comics the monthly copies make money and actually give the creators a living wage while the digital stuff is worthless.

Wrong, at least insofar you refer to manga and Japan. Unless you can back it up(which I doubt), I will assume that's a baseless claim.

Digital sales of of Japanese comics overtook physical in 2020, that year the total sales were 613 billion yen, of which digital sales were 342 billion yen, or 55% of total. I'm expecting it to lean even more toward digital in 2021.

From WS News Publisher;
Japanese Digital Comics Account for 55% of the Total Sales of Comics and have Become the Primary Sales Model
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