Just read from comicsbeat:
A new wave of layoffs swept over WarnerMedia yesterday, and that included DC Comics. Although DC’s staff was cut by as much as 25% back in August, still more employees were found to be let go.
Among them, as we guessed yesterday, was Michelle Wells, VP and Executive Editor, DC Children’s/Young Adult and, for a brief three-month period, DC’s co-editor in chief.
Alex Carr, a group editor, was also let go. Like Wells, Carr has a deep history in publishing, including launching Amazon’s Jet Comics line, and working on DC’s kids books.
More troubling to industry watchers, was the decimation of the direct sales department. I’m looking over an old masthead here, and it seems that everyone is gone, including sales manager Stuart Schreck, marketing services director Adam Phillips, and Events Director Fletcher Chu-Fong. Vince Letterio, the Executive Director of Direct Sales, was let go in the last round.
As far as I can discern, the only person left in DC’s direct sales sales and marketing team is Nancy Spears, the VP of Sales. I’m sure she can’t be running everything by herself, but she has lost over 100 years of institutional knowledge on her staff.
No matter what else happens, it is the end of an era. DC’s Direct Sales department, as set up by former publisher Paul Levitz and EVP of sales Bob Wayne, was the benchmark for how comics were sold in the direct market. That way of doing business is gone now, for better or worse.
A new wave of layoffs swept over WarnerMedia yesterday, and that included DC Comics. Although DC’s staff was cut by as much as 25% back in August, still more employees were found to be let go.
Among them, as we guessed yesterday, was Michelle Wells, VP and Executive Editor, DC Children’s/Young Adult and, for a brief three-month period, DC’s co-editor in chief.
Alex Carr, a group editor, was also let go. Like Wells, Carr has a deep history in publishing, including launching Amazon’s Jet Comics line, and working on DC’s kids books.
More troubling to industry watchers, was the decimation of the direct sales department. I’m looking over an old masthead here, and it seems that everyone is gone, including sales manager Stuart Schreck, marketing services director Adam Phillips, and Events Director Fletcher Chu-Fong. Vince Letterio, the Executive Director of Direct Sales, was let go in the last round.
As far as I can discern, the only person left in DC’s direct sales sales and marketing team is Nancy Spears, the VP of Sales. I’m sure she can’t be running everything by herself, but she has lost over 100 years of institutional knowledge on her staff.
No matter what else happens, it is the end of an era. DC’s Direct Sales department, as set up by former publisher Paul Levitz and EVP of sales Bob Wayne, was the benchmark for how comics were sold in the direct market. That way of doing business is gone now, for better or worse.
