Beano - new direction? *** locked ***

[TwoHeadedBoy]

I don't have sources - the jury's still out on whether it was the content or the marketing. In my observation though, it was the third and final in a series of disastrous revamps, and the Dandy died with that third revamp.

From my own experience, working at a newsagents, there was ONE child who regularly bought the Dandy. All the others were sold to nostalgic adults (I tried to push it to them, I really did!), but none of them were interested after reading two or three issues. A sad state of affairs really, but I'm sticking to my opinion that had DC Thomson launched the 2010 Dandy as a whole separate/new comic (called "100% Funny" or something), rather than trading off the Dandy's (once) good name, it would have been more of a success.

[starscape]

Dropping 50% of your readers overnight doesn't bode well for a role model. I'm surprised the Beano sees that as a way to go.

[Digifiend]

You need to take into account the sales figures since 2003, the year before the first of those revamps. They'd been on a steady decline. As others have said, the damage was probably already done by the Xtreme revamp. That relaunch put off the comic fans, the 2010 relaunch put off those people who were more interested in the Xtreme features than the Dandy comic strips. The 2004 revamp had already lost readers, possibly due to a massive price increase (from £1.20 to £1.99 - the Beano was £1.30 at that point). I feel that the problem in 2010 was that they put all those copies into stores, expecting it to sell as well as The Beano does... but didn't advertise it AT ALL and thus didn't get many new readers. They didn't even advertise in The Beano! It would be 2011 before The Beano advertised it. That was too late. In the end Tesco stopped selling The Dandy. No wonder they chose not to reveal 2012's sales figures.

[Gilly]

The Beano wasn't even £1 at the time of The Dandy's first relaunch, it was something like 75p and didn't come close until 2007 when it became 99p so yes it probably didn't help The Dandy's sales being more expensive.

[NP]

Dropping 50% of your readers overnight doesn't bode well for a role model.

Didn't happen. Posting such ridiculous statements as this is just making mischief.

[Raven]

Dropping 50% of your readers overnight doesn't bode well for a role model.

Didn't happen. Posting such ridiculous statements as this is just making mischief.

ABC figures published that it dropped 48.1% in sales between July-December 2010*. "Overnight" is often intended to mean "very quickly", rather than meaning literally overnight, so the statement is fairly accurate, isn't it?

EDIT: Sorry, the drop was actually later than that, wasn't it ... ? To 7,489 in July-Dec 2011 (from 15,012 in July-Dec 2010, or something similar around that period?)

[NP]

ABC figures published that it dropped 48.1% in sales between July-December 2010. "Overnight" is often intended to mean "very quickly", rather than meaning literally overnight, so the statement is fairly accurate, isn't it?

That's fortnightly sales against weekly sales. The revamped Dandy showed a very modest total 4% increase over the period, most of it right at the beginning. Statistics can be made to say anything but understanding them seems to be difficult.

[Raven]

Yes, it was a year on year drop, apparently; later than I said: mid-end 2010 was 15,012 (revamp and move to weekly was late October), mid to end 2011 was 7,489.

[ajsmith]

I always thought it was a shame that the boot was put into the content of the 2010 relaunch so much when it was far and away the best of the 3 revamps: after the "60 year old in a backwards baseball cap" 2004 relaunch and the "pre pubescent lads mag with almost no relation to the Dandy" 2007 attempt, the 2010 version, while not perfect, seemed postively alive and true to the spirit of the comic in comparison. I never got the "the 2010 version killed it" idea: the Dandy had been dead between 2007 and 2010 anyway. I took the 2010 version as a pleasant and unexpected resurrection.

[starscape]

It was a breath of fresh air and quite entertaining. Only the utmost optimist could term it a success though. Reminds me of Crisis and Revolver. Excellent comics but Zit and Smut sold more.

[SID]

I like the changes that's taking place in The Beano. More importantly I hope the kids do too. My favourite this week was Roger the Dodger. I loved Jamie's script though I did think that the cinema ticket seller/doorman was the star. I do think that Jamie would do a brilliant Bash Street Kids if DS ever decides to retire.

What I like about what they are doing with The Beano is that they are evolving the comic so that you have a mixture of the old style and the new.

This is different to what was done to The Dandy. Each revamp was a reimagining or reinvention of the comic. The Dandy after the 2004 revamp had no bearing with the previous issue, even Desperate Dan looked different. Any kid who did like the classic comic may have been turned off by the revamp. This exercise was repeated then in 2007 and then again in 2010. Each time the comic was completely changed (and in one revamp even included the name).

I understand why it was done and we had all the arguments for and against it already and I know that The Dandy's circumstances were different to The Beano's but I still would have preferred a mixture of the new and old styles. Then again on retrospect, there should only have been one revamp. But then you can always be wise after the event.

With The Beano, I think they have got the mix right. Time will tell.

[Kid Robson]

ABC figures published that it dropped 48.1% in sales between July-December 2010. "Overnight" is often intended to mean "very quickly", rather than meaning literally overnight, so the statement is fairly accurate, isn't it?

That's fortnightly sales against weekly sales. The revamped Dandy showed a very modest total 4% increase over the period, most of it right at the beginning. Statistics can be made to say anything but understanding them seems to be difficult.

In 'real' terms 'though, NP, surely it amounts to a drop in circulation? If each individual weekly issue only sold what amounted to half of what each fortnightly issue sold, then it tends to suggest that the readers didn't like the comic enough to support its increased frequency.

However, statistics apart, it was reported in the media that The Dandy's circulation had halved, and DCT never disputed it, saying only something along the lines of it being a blot on an otherwise successful year for them.

End result - cancellation. That's as much proof as is surely required that the relaunch was an abject failure.

[NP]

In 'real' terms 'though, NP, surely it amounts to a drop in circulation? If each individual weekly issue only sold what amounted to half of what each fortnightly issue sold, then it tends to suggest that the readers didn't like the comic enough to support its increased frequency.

However, statistics apart, it was reported in the media that The Dandy's circulation had halved, and DCT never disputed it, saying only something along the lines of it being a blot on an otherwise successful year for them.

End result - cancellation. That's as much proof as is surely required that the relaunch was an abject failure.

While there's no disputing the circulation continued to fall, at a fairly consistent rate with notable exceptions, the 2010 relaunch didn't precipitate the decline, it just didn't reverse it except briefly and very modestly. The Dandy's circulation didn't halve overnight.
What DCT said or didn't say is more indicative of a big change in management at that point rather than the company choosing not to dispute it.
In 2007 I was on a panel with a DCT bigwig who said "I don't think we'll be publishing the Dandy in five years time". It wasn't really a surprise, the 2010 relaunch was an attempt to do something new, and it didn't have the effect they hoped. It was a last-ditch attempt and it didn't succeed in reversing the sales figures.

[Kid Robson]

In 'real' terms 'though, NP, surely it amounts to a drop in circulation? If each individual weekly issue only sold what amounted to half of what each fortnightly issue sold, then it tends to suggest that the readers didn't like the comic enough to support its increased frequency.

However, statistics apart, it was reported in the media that The Dandy's circulation had halved, and DCT never disputed it, saying only something along the lines of it being a blot on an otherwise successful year for them.

End result - cancellation. That's as much proof as is surely required that the relaunch was an abject failure.

While there's no disputing the circulation continued to fall, at a fairly consistent rate with notable exceptions, the 2010 relaunch didn't precipitate the decline, it just didn't reverse it except briefly and very modestly. The Dandy's circulation didn't halve overnight.
What DCT said or didn't say is more indicative of a big change in management at that point rather than the company choosing not to dispute it.
In 2007 I was on a panel with a DCT bigwig who said "I don't think we'll be publishing the Dandy in five years time". It wasn't really a surprise, the 2010 relaunch was an attempt to do something new, and it didn't have the effect they hoped. It was a last-ditch attempt and it didn't succeed in reversing the sales figures.

The 2010 relaunch may not have precipitated the decline, but in my humble estimation, it certainly sealed it. As for The Dandy's circulation falling by half overnight (not something I ever claimed, by the way), I think people mean that in a purely hyperbolic (and relative) way, not in a literal one.

So, it's agreed - the 2010 relaunch didn't work. And 'though perhaps nothing would, that's not something that can be said with any certainty. A different approach, more along the lines of The Beano, might have staved off cancellation for a little while longer, if not reversed the comic's fortunes completely.

[Lew Stringer]

A different approach, more along the lines of The Beano, might have staved off cancellation for a little while longer, if not reversed the comic's fortunes completely.

The Dandy had been similar to The Beano for years, but that traditional approach was no longer working for it, which is why they tried the revamps in 2004, 2007 and 2010. Sadly overall the trend continued. Unfortunately sales on all comics have been falling for decades so The Dandy should be praised for making it to 75 years really.