Comic Buyer’s Guide To End Publication

Krause Publications, which is a division of F+W Media, Inc., has just announced the end of the [...]

By Scott Johnson

Comic Buyer's Guide

Krause Publications, which is a division of F+W Media, Inc., has just announced the end of the Comic Buyers Guide. The March 2013 issue, which is numbered #1699, will be the last issue of the publication. Krause Publications cited general poor market conditions and forces working against the title's sustainability including the downturn in print advertising and the proliferation of free content available online for this highly specialized industry. "We continuously evaluate our portfolio and analyze our content strategy to determine how well we are meeting consumer and Company goals," said David Blansfield, President. "We take into consideration the marketplace we serve and the opportunities available for each of our magazine titles. After much analysis and deliberation, we have determined to cease publication of Comics Buyer's Guide." On her website, senior editor Maggie Thompson wrote, "It's been a delight to have had the opportunity for the last three decades - plus a prior decade with the magazine's creator, Alan Light - to communicate so wonderfully with comics collectors, comics fans, and comics professionals. Over the years, we were able to reach out in a variety of ways, including coming up with the term "Done in One" (to identify stories told completely in one issue, announced in CBG for April 5, 1996). We also helped create a trade journal that was the inciting force behind the Free Comic Book Day outreach project that Diamond Comic Distributors implemented and that continues every May. Don and I were excited by Krause Publications' challenge of revamping an advertising newspaper into a full-fledged information resource. It has been an energizing challenge to adapt to the changes of the field, as it grew from a niche interest to something popular enough to command the covers of national pop-culture magazines." Current subscribers to the magazine will receive a two-for-one conversion to CBG sister publication Antique Trader: a biweekly that has served the antiques and collectibles community since 1957. The www.CBGXtra.com site and its Facebook page will exist as an archived resource administered by Antique Trader.

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