Tokyopop, among the top manga publishers in North America, announced yesterday that the company would split into two distinct entities: Tokyopop Inc. (for manga publishing) and Tokyopop Media LLC (for comics-to-film and digital media). Both companies will be held by the “Tokyopop Group.”
Stuart Levy, CEO of Tokyopop, Inc. and Chief Creative Officer of the Tokyopop Group, also announced that the publisher would cut its publishing output by 50%, in order to “overcome current market challenges” and avoid “cannibalization at retail.” Additionally, the companies will lay off 39 employees (presumably due to the production cut). Japanese operations will also be split, but European ones will remain the same.
While the executive and corporate changes might not directly affect consumers outside of us seeing more comics-to-film and other material from Tokyopop, the production cut will surely be felt in bookstores everywhere. Tokyopop currently controls a large portion of the manga market, so halving their production will definitely mean considerably less manga for consumers to buy at bookstores.
[via ICv2]
