After my Q&A with Alvin Lu and Sasaki Hisashi at the Shonen Jump Alpha press conference at New York Comic-Con 2011, I asked a few more questions to Brian Piech, Vice President of Digital Publishing for VIZ Media. I grilled him about a few more nitty-gritty details about VIZ's digital publishing initiatives, like when/if VIZ Manga and Shonen Jump Alpha would be available on other digital platforms and devices, how it would be made available to libraries. We also discussed Apple's policies about "adult" content, whether VIZ has plans to digitally publish manga for "mature" audiences, and once again, how VIZ and Shueisha plan to respond to online piracy in the months to come.
I also spoke with Joel Enos, editor of several Shonen Jump Manga titles that will be included in VIZ Media's "digital warp" accelerated releases in the months preceding the arrival of Shonen Jump Alpha. And finally, Urian Brown, Associate Editor of Shonen Jump Magazine, had a few words to share with Shonen Jump fans at the VIZ Media panel at NYCC.
AMAZON FIRE, ANDROID, AND ACCESS FOR LIBRARIES
Q: So now that you’ve announced Shonen Jump Alpha, where it’ll be available, how much it’ll cost, and which titles will be featured at launch. So the next most frequently asked question will be: When will Shonen Jump Alpha be available for the Amazon Kindle Fire tablet and Android devices?
Brian Piech: We have no exact dates to announce yet on that front, but we are actively working on it. Besides the developing it on the technical end, we’re also looking to see if the terms and conditions for these platforms make sense for our readers. I think the main digital strategy is to start with the iOS and getting our web platform up. Now that we have that, we’ll be expanding.
Q: Are you shooting for 2012?
Brian Piech: Absolutely. But I can’t comment specifically on the Fire or other devices yet.
Q: How will this affect libraries? How will you make Shonen Jump Alpha available to libraries?
Brian Piech: That’s a very good question. By January, we should have a more concrete answer to that question.
We certainly love libraries and know the importance of libraries It’s one of those things that we have on our list of things to settle before launch, but I don’t have any details for you yet. It’s definitely a part of our audience that we want to continue to support.
KIDS' STUFF AND STUFF THAT'S TOO HOT FOR APPLE
Q: Are there any concerns about limiting the type of content in Shonen Jump Alpha to being appropriate for only a certain age group, that is, 13 and up?Brian Piech: Sometimes our print edition tends to trend younger, but we see our core demographic for Shonen Jump Alpha to be readers age 13 to 20.
Q: So if a reader who was, say 13 years old or younger, wanted to sign up for this, would they need their parents to sign up for this for them?
Brian Piech: We do abide by all the Internet laws that deal with selling to minors. You’d basically need a PayPal or Amazon Checkout or iTunes account that is associated with an adult account. That is true for almost anything you buy online, via Kindle or the Apple App store.
We won’t have mature content in here (manga for readers 18+). Further down the road, when we publish content that is more violent, we’ll have an official age gate, like with our anime content on Hulu.com.
Q: Okay, so one thing about publishing on Apple's iOS is that Apple does require a review of anything that's posted for sale for the iPad, iPhone, iPod, etc. and in the case of comics, that means that they won't publish content that's too... uh, "adult."
Brian Piech: Yes, Apple does censor content, but that doesn't impact us too much because we've been putting out our core catalog, so all the titles in Shonen Jump Alpha are titles that we've already been releasing through Apple.
Q: That's true for Shonen Jump Alpha, but what about titles such as Tenjo Tenghe that are not currently available for sale digitally on VIZManga.com or for the iPad/iPod/iPhone? Is Apple's stance on sexually explicit content or graphic violence in publications for sale on their platform one reason why this is title (and others like it that are rated M-18+) are not currently available on VIZManga.com or for the VIZ Media iPad/iPod/iPhone apps?
Brian Piech: That's not it, per se, we are looking to do something with our mature titles next year. We think it's a different audience for these types of titles, so we'll be handling them differently. That's another phase that we're looking toward taking on in the near future.
Right now, we're focused on getting our core catalog out there, and getting Shonen Jump Alpha up and running. But the additional pillar (of our digital publishing strategy) will be our mature content.
Q: If this works out well, are you considering doing more online manga magazines for, say IKKI, Shonen Sunday, or Shojo Beat... or even something else?
Brian Piech: Well, everything's possible right now with digital. It's really up to what we hear, as far as fan feedback; either active feedback, like letters, emails, tweets or Facebook posts, or passive feedback, as in what they buy.
We have been getting feedback, so we do have some idea of what people want us to do next. But the more fans tell us, the better decisions we can make. We're definitely not doing this in a vacuum.
(Note: You can send your feedback directly to VIZ about Shonen Jump Alpha via VIZ Media's Facebook page or the Shonen Jump Twitter feed (@shonenjump).
RESPONDING TO FANS... AND TO ONLINE PIRACY
Q: I know a lot of this is in response to fan demand, and in many ways, fan demand was expressed through... piracy. (laughs)
Brian Piech: Yep! (laughs) Piracy, social media, survey results... we've had several inputs.
Q: If this doesn’t stop piracy in a significant way, will VIZ and Shueisha step things up a notch, as far as responding via legal channels?
Brian Piech: We’re continually looking at our options with our legal team and with the industry’s legal team toward distribution of content. We do anticipate that this new offering will lessen the need for piracy, but we’re not naïve enough to think that it will all go away. We’re working with the industry, in both manga publishing and publishing in general. There are various legal efforts that are underway now, and VIZ will continue to support them.
Q: The price point, the quality and the availability on various platforms is awesome – for North American fans! But I know I’ll get questions from fans in other countries who will ask me, why isn’t this available to them now?
Brian Piech: We’re working with Shueisha to do this now, and what we intend to do next. If this is a successful launch, and if we can put out a quality product, as far as the technology and resolving any customer service issues, we intend to keep the conversation going with Shueisha as far as our next steps.
I know from the Shueisha side, they’re looking to see how this looks, how this works, and that they’re looking to introduce this in other countries.
Q: Is there a simple way to explain the "why not" reasons to readers who may ask why it may take a while to get this introduced to their country?
Brian Piech: VIZ is the print publisher for all these titles that we are publishing digitally. We publish and distribute these books in North America, and we were able to get the digital rights to these series for this territory. In other territories, there are other print publishers who publish some of these series. So each territory has different legal rights and contracts in place.
Q: So other English-speaking countries like the United Kingdom or Australia –- are they off-limits for now?
Brian Piech: I wouldn’t say "off limits" –- but we currently don’t have digital rights for these territories.
Q: And that’s something that Shueisha controls.
Brian Piech: Right. This is something that the entire publishing industry is dealing with, not just manga. Digital rights (to a given book or manga) wasn’t always included in the original contracts.
Now, with everything that’s happening, everyone wants the digital rights. But it’s not clear if the print publisher (of a given book in a given territory) has first dibs, or if the rights holder can just shop (the digital rights) around to whomever wants it.
Also, each country has a different set of laws regarding such things. England has its laws, France has its laws –- and many of them are similar, but each country has different publishing contracts, different laws, different penetration of digital devices, so there are a lot of variables.
I can’t speak to specifics, but Shueisha is using this as a test. Whether or not they duplicate this kind of thing in another territory, or do it on their own, I can’t really say. But I’d be surprised if we didn’t see more of this kind of thing in other countries.
