Quebecor Press update

First - NOTICE the new Poll. ---->
Please feel free to answer! :)

As an update to my previous post on the state of Quebecor, I present this link from The Beat

http://pwbeat.publishersweekly.com/blog/2008/01/23/quebecor-world-update/

If you don't follow Heidi MacDonald's The Beat, I suggest you check it out. It's probably the premiere news blog for the comics publishing industry.

In the post that the link goes to, you see this quote from Heidi:

[...on the issue of this affecting comic prices or publishing schedules...] For one things, other printers would be happy to pick up business which, as precious as it seems to comics fans, isn’t that huge an undertaking.

However, Steven Grant, over at ComicBookResources.com has this to say about the matter:

Should things worsen and Quebecor Press heads south (and I don't mean to Pennsylvania) it could have far greater short-term (at least!) effects on the comics market than anything else this year.

You can check out Mr. Grant's full comments here:
[ http://www.comicbookresources.com/columns/?column=10 ]

Hard to say whether Heidi is correct or Mr. Grant is at this stage at the game. Both have wide knowledge of the comic industry, but its not uncommon for two intelligent people to view a situation completely differently.

Back to the Beat for a second...of particular interest over at the Beat is the comments made by a poster named Paul Stock, who seems quite the resource for how the whole Quebecor/Canadian Government thing works...

There is a big consideration here: There are four companies in Quebec who, while
not necessarily associated with the nationalist/separatist political movement,
are held up by whatever government is in power as examples of Quebec’s ability
to stand on its own as a nation. Quebecor is one of them. They’re not just
heralded as successes, they’re symbolic of nationhood. It would be unthinkable
for the Quebec government to let any of them fall.

Further down the page Paul also makes note of the effect the >Sub Prime Mortgage Meltdown has had on the Timber Market...he suggest paper mills might actually raise the price of paper, not lower it...

There’s one price factor that far outweighs the dollar: Timber prices. With the shrinking print market, and the moribund housing industry in the US, big loggers are (not quite) going begging for work. Happens I have a managed woodlot that’s due for harvest, but there’s no way I’m going to have it cut, not with where the market is nowadays.

Frankly, I don’t know what the effect has been at the paper mill, they may actually be increasing prices due to a higher overhead to production ratio, but whichever way it’s going, I think that timber fluctuations far outweigh dollar fluctuation when it comes to book costs. But that’s a whole other load of stuff to consider…

Again, the reason all this is important is because Quebecor publishes all the comics for DC and Marvel. If as a result of all this hoo rah, the big two have to take their comics to another publisher who doesn't cut them as sweet a deal as say, a printer basically subsidized by the national government, then you can expect comics to become more expensive.

Which leads me back to this weeks poll. :)