While comics and graphic novels are finding new ways to sell digitally ( Thrillbent.com being one of the most successful examples), Manga has been on the decline. A serious decline. Manga was down another 35% in sales for the first half of the year and this is after manga had an overall decrease of 13% in 2011. Shonen Jump ended their print version of their American counterpart earlier this year. So, what is Shonen Jump going to do? Why, they are gonna jump to day to date digital ... for both Japan & North America.
Yes. You read that correctly. Shonen Jump Alpha began this year, giving digital versions of their manga titles such as Bleach, Naruto and more with only been two weeks behind Japan's stories. Yet, with the serious decline in Manga sales, Shonen Jump Alpha had decided it was time to make a change. Thus, Shonen Jump Alpha, alongside various Japanese companies and with help from Square Enix, will now start distributing same day chapters of manga in both Japan & North America digitally.
That is right. The same chapter that gets released in Japan will now also be available in English. Viz Executive Vice President of Publishing has stated that to CBR:
"This is just the beginning of what I call 'real-time manga publishing,' where the English language versions are moving in sync with the Japanese original product," Lu said. "Toward that end, I would ask everyone to pay attention to 'Shonen Jump Alpha.' We will be moving to a simultaneous-with-Japan model very soon."
Some of the titles that readers will see weekly include Rurouni Kenshin: Restoration & the newly popular Fairy Tail. See Shonen Jump move to same day to digital release of Japanese titles come 2013.
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