BREAKING: Archie Goes Day and Date with Digital – Exclusive Interview

Archie and the gang in Riverdale have shaken up the comic book industry today. As reported by The New York Times and confirmed on the Archie News Blog, beginning in April the entire Archie publishing line will be moving to releasing their issues digitally and day and date, first through the Official Archie application, which is available on the iPhone and iPad, and then through their other partners and a newly announced Android app, as we later found out in our interview with Co-CEO Jon Goldwater which you can find below.

The digital issues will be priced at $1.99, which is one dollar cheaper than the $2.99 paper copies.

For those not in the know with the lingo, what this means is that issues released by Archie will be available on newsstands, comic book stores, and digitally all on the same day, giving consumers total choice in where they get their Archie comics fix, be it with the physical copies or with a digital copy.

This is a bold move by Archie, as they stands to be the first comic book publisher to fully commit to distribution via a digital platform and embracing the idea of day and date releases, treating digital distribution the same as distribution to comic book stores and other retail venues (like supermarkets, where many of Archie's books are still available).  The move is said to encompass their entire line, including the much anticipated Kevin Keller #1, which ships in June and features Archie's first openly gay character, who was introduced last year.

We had the opportunity to ask Archie Co-CEO Jon Goldwater some questions about this big announcement:

iFanboy: What prompted the move to day and date releases digitally?

Jon Goldwater: It's part of our continued efforts to expand our reach digitally, and to make Archie Comics as available as possible on as many platforms. We were the first comic book publisher with our own standalone app and we've continued to expand our presence through digital exclusives and social media. After some research, the numbers made it much easier to make this decision. By the end of 2010, our standalone app had been downloaded close to 2 million times, which makes it clear people are interested in reading our titles digitally. As a company, we will continue to support our core market, which is print, but we'd be remiss if we sat back and waited for others to push forward digitally. We don't have the luxury to react. We want to be proactive and make our titles and characters as available as possible.

iF: Will Archie Comics be available day and date only on the Archie Comics app, or will they be available on every platform Archie is currently on?

JG: Initially, come April, our titles will be available day-and-date with the newsstand via our standalone app. We also work closely with Comixology and Graphic.ly to get our content up in a timely manner, so we'll be working toward day-and-date with them once we iron out the logistics on those fronts.

We're also launching a standalone Archie Android app in March, which we'll push to day-and-date as well, to maximize the Android market.

iF: Is Archie more able to make a move like this because they rely less on the direct market?

JG: We value our partners in the direct market, so it's not because of any perceived lack of presence there. It's more about making our titles as available as possible. We see the print and digital reader as two different groups, with some overlap. Some people enjoy going to the shop each week and picking up the hard copies of their titles. Others enjoy the convenience of downloading titles via their mobile devices or tablets. We want to be an option to all of those buyers, and allow for a reasonably priced comic on all platforms.

IF: Archie was one of the earliest publishers to adopt digital, and continues to make strides in that direction.  What is it about the digital marketplace that's been so attractive?

JG: Digital is an exciting, new frontier for publishing and comic books. We want to be an industry leader when it comes to exploring it. As for why it's attractive — well, the chance to connect with so many new readers and the instant nature is something that really appeals to us. You can read about something interesting and suddenly have the title downloaded to your phone, iPod or iPad. That's amazing. That kind of instant gratification and connectivity is something we have to, as a company, maximize for our characters and fans.

iF: In what other ways is Archie interested in expanding in the future?

JG: We've got a lot of news in the pipeline in regards to our characters in other media — movies, television, animation, music — that we'll be rolling out in the coming months. Additionally, we'll be expanding the number of digital exclusive titles we'll be offering, like Reggie and Me and more. We have the Android app and we'll continue to expand our partnerships with iVerse, Comixology and Graphic.ly to maximize our presence in digital and across the publishing spectrum, including print.

This news is breaking and if anything else comes in we'll be here with updates.