Posted in: Comics, IDW | Tagged: Davidi Jonas, sonic, tmnt

IDW To Own The Comics It Publishes, Plans On Being Lucky

IDW is planning to own the comics it publishes, but admits that it doesn't have a great track record and plans on being lucky

Last week, IDW Media Holdings' CEO Davidi Jonas held a public investors' call, which saw just one question from Analyst Jeff Silver of Corrado Financial Group. I should really try to get on these things live. Davidi is known for making frank statements about both failure and success that resonate, for good or for ill. Remember the "Yacht" line made while driving in his car in 2024? Would we get something as frank as that this time? Maybe not, but it was still worth listening in. Declaration of interest: I wrote a Doctor Who comic book for them fifteen years ago, as well as a politically satirical trading card set, Weapons Of Mass Distraction, which seems so quaint and naive now. It was a different time.

Davidi Jomas confirmed ongoing development on IDW projects optioned for screen adaptations, crediting much of the groundwork to prior teams and creators. He stressed IDW's current role is as a "non-writing executive producer where we provide value to the production, by being part of the creative development" rather than a financier. He added that IDW lacks the resources and track record to take on production financial risk at present: "We don't have the barometer of success to demonstrate that it would be wise for us at this time to take on the financial risk." Which is basically that they have failed too many times before, so no one can trust them going forward. Can you imagine anyone at Marvel or DC being so frank? Jonas described this as continuing an "asset light" model, though IDW reserves the right to invest more directly in the future if conditions align.

Being asked about shifting from stabilising the publishing to meaningful growth, and whether content creation was accelerating. Jonas said that "I do think that we'll achieve growth in those areas… I just don't think there's much we can do outside of getting lucky and being in the right place at the right time and having a hit book." Which smacks of those people who plan their financial future on winning the lottery.

Of course, you can make your own luck. Jonas states that a key initiative for IDW will be launching new imprints with comic books that they will own."We're focused on generating internally generated content where IDW will have pretty much for the first time, company-owned content," Jonas noted. These still involve paying creators royalties, but "the ownership of that IP will reside 100% with IDW… They're excellent stories, you know, they're compelling enough to pass the sniff test of our internal team, who thankfully have been doing this for probably hundreds of years combined, and have excellent storytelling intuition. We'll be creating crime stories, hero stories, and new horror stories. It's not so much that we're gonna be doing more, which I think what you may have seen from IDW 5 or 6 years ago, where the idea was "we're going to do a lot more content" and there was a lot more spending. I think it was something of a spending spree to go out and create a lot of that content, but it was a little bit of a spray-and-pray. I think what we're trying to do is be much more thoughtful and preemptive in terms of what stories we want to tell, what genres we want to focus on, and want to have as much upside potential for IDW. And to think about these stories, not just in terms of "is it a good story? Is it a cool story?" but how would it function as a franchise?" Again, as frank as they come. Maybe that yacht is still on the cards.

And it seems that this was the reason Davidi Jonas is even at IDW. "We don't have a history to build upon in terms of demonstrating success with internally generated IP and creating new imprints, but this is one of the most exciting things that we've done since I started at IDW, something I wanted to do pretty much from day one. Publishing is a slow cycle, it takes time to generate ideas, it takes time to contract talent, but you know I'm very excited to see those imprints start to come out in our fiscal [year] 26, I don't know if we'll see immediately the effects of it, but you know those are those are some of the investments that I think we'll be making that hopefully will build a meaningful long term shareholder value."

I need to get on one of these calls, if only to ask questions about that new IDW logo 18 months in… IDW Media Holdings is an integrated media company with two main parts. IDW Publishing was founded in 1999, it publishes comics such as Sonic, Godzilla, Monster High, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Star Trek, Event Horizon, Smile, Sleepy Hollow, and other Paramount licenses, as well as Top Shelf Productions, Artist's Editions and original titles such as The Exorcism At series and Beneath The Trees, as well as the Valiant Entertainment line from Alien Books. While IDW Entertainment handles development, production, and distribution of content in formats like television, film, and other entertainment platforms, including 30 Days Of Night, Wynonna Earp, Dirk Gently and Locke & Key. As a publicly traded entity, it releases periodic financial results.

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