Hey gang, with Shueisha & Kodansha releasing their manga magazine issues online for the time being, do you think it's possible that they will finally see the potential of the Internet?

I actually posted up thoughts about this at: http://www.mangatherapy.com/post/4209201343/online-manga-p ublishing-japan

Some people found it funny that the earthquake has got publishers to finally go onboard the online manga initiative. With J-Manga (http://www.jmanga.com) on the way, maybe Japan won't be so scared of the Internet when it comes to manga.

What are everyone's thoughts on this matter?

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Manga Therapy - Where Psychology & Manga Meet http://www.mangatherapy.com

Hmm, seems interesting.
Korea's been kind of already doing this with Webtoons.

I'm not all that concerned since I don't purchase the magazines but I wonder if it fully went on the web, will the way scanlators obtain raws change as well? Or will it remain the same?

yess. thats great. well not the earthquake. but about the publishers now allowing more freedom.

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D'oh!

@ForteAtrox That is true. What will the scanlators do then? Their methods probably have to change. J-Comi has free manga with ads that go to the creators/publishers/etc.

@Masterba Well, yeah. They have to put manga online since pretty much a lot of plants/factories involved in publishing are crushed. I'm just hoping to see whether Japan will take it seriously. Globalization is rearing its head again.



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Manga Therapy - Where Psychology & Manga Meet http://www.mangatherapy.com

The future is in electronics. Soon there will be no paper copies of anything,

Well as of now... about the online subscription is FAIL(mostly applies to manga's which are targeted towards a young audience), since shounen is widely popular and most of the targeted audience are tweens... it will be difficult for them to subscribe online(like paying their subscriptions via CC or PayPal) reason being they buy their magazine using what the pocket money their parents give them(that being most of the case)"if" their parents willing to help them subscribing online... then there may be some ray of hope.

Still it will take sometime for the trend to change because from what i came to know is many like to read manga on paper/holding it in hand than rather reading online.

I think we should give it some time, maybe the number of subscriptions will raise in some months for various reasons.

It's also true tough that most people(I'm one of them) like holding the manga rather than reading it online. I think for now online reading should remain.. as an alternative for people that can't buy the books and people that like online reading better.

They'll fight it as long as they can, since it's harder for the publishers to justify rooking people without selling them hard copies. But sooner or later they'll have to cave in...

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"It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

I can see where there would be a problem with the magazine issues staying just online. Under age people might not be able to subscribe because of their parents. They buy it at a newsstand or bookstore with their allowance because mom or dad aren't hanging over them. I totally don't understand the mentality of parents who are against manga. Yeah, maybe your younger kids shouldn't be seeing M-rated ones, but come on....... Wouldn't you rather have your kids at home reading manga than out running the streets getting into trouble? My sons have been lucky because I'm into manga myself. A lot of kids aren't so lucky. They really need to pursue both print and online, this way they can acquire the largest readership overall.

And yes, I'm one of those that like to hold it in my hand. I do read online, but I buy print copies of the ones I like. One of the reasons I prefer printed copies is that I spend 10 hours or more staring at a computer screen for my job. When I'm ready to relax in the evening and read, I want a print copy because my eyes have had enough strain for the day.

There will never be as many manga subscriptions online as there are scanlators to steal them for us.

yes
let even more jobs become obsolete

go for it japan
force all the ppl involved in the process of making these magazines loose their jobs
remove as much ppl from the process as possible
and make even bigger profits
who cares...they are only workers
what they think doesnt matter as long as they can go online and buy themselves a membership

how wonderful

Of course, people should stop using the internet in order to create more jobs! On top of that, I say we stop using cars and switch to human-drawn wheelbarrows. Think of how many jobs that would make!

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"It is those who know little, and not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science."

I think this thread is boring, pointless, and takes itself too seriously. Someone lock it.