I have no idea what’s going on with ComiXology these days. Just recently I posted a BW Ramble v-log about how they finally fixed the Guided View feature they dropped when Amazon bought the digital comics service and decided to integrate it into Kindle, and now they’re cutting a huge chunk of their workforce. Almost 75% according to Bounding Into Comics. Yes, with people being allowed into that area of space we call “outside”, which I vaguely remember visiting once or twice, demand for at-home media has gone down. Streaming services are not making as much money as they were during the lockdowns and that’s only partly blamed on Netflix doing terrible anime live-action remakes and movies of dirty dancing pre-teens, Amazon working over Tolkien fans, and basically everything Disney is doing to their animated properties, comics, and Star Wars. Part of it can also be blamed on our current economic issues and I won’t go into a political rant here because I’ve discussed that stuff too much lately and yet will probably have to again.
Even people currently working at ComiXology is complaining about the layoffs, not to mention high ranking types who are already hitting the job sites for work. That’s certainly bad news in this climate and I wish them all the best of luck, but BW Media Spotlight isn’t a business site, it’s a storytelling site. Digital comics, for some, have replaced physical comics because they take up less floor space and are a bit cheaper since there isn’t printing costs to deal with…I mean, in theory they’re cheaper. However, with such a huge drop in people running the site this is a format of comics that may take a hit of its own, and frankly just pushes my belief that physical comics are still superior in the end.