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ICv2 is the top source for information on the business of pop culture products in five important categories:
* Anime and Manga
* Graphic Novels and Comics
* Games
* Movie/TV Licensed Products
* Toys
These categories make up a dynamic $10 billion retail market in the U.S. alone. We created ICv2 to help our readers keep up with the ferocious pace of change in this exciting industry.
ICv2's content is respected throughout the industries it covers, and used as a resource by the top business and popular press, including:
* New York Times
* Wall Street Journal
* Fortune
* Business Week
* Time
* USA Today
* Publishers Weekly
The ICv2 Website and magazine are unsurpassed in their fields for their graphic presentation and the quality environment they provide for ICv2's editorial content.
The ICv2 audience is unique in its categories, aggregating the most important players for its advertisers:
* Independent Retailers
* Chain Buyers
* Distributors
* Librarians
* Press
* Media Gatekeepers
* Licensees and licensors
ICv2 stands for Internal Correspondence version 2 (see more about Internal Correspondence below in "History"). The ICv2 website -- www.ICv2.com-- provides news and information for pop culture retailers from "inside the world of pop culture products," with the only daily trade news, in-depth analysis, and product and sales information available anywhere. The ICv2 Guides provide bestseller lists, info on upcoming releases, market reports, previes, reviews and features to help retailers better manage their businesses and librarians better manage their collections.
Milton Griepp has been in the pop culture business for over 30 years. After receiving his B.A. and attending graduate school at the University of Wisconsin (and working through college in comics retailing and distribution), he formed Capital City Distribution with John Davis in 1980. As an officer and beginning in 1984 as CEO of Capital, he grew sales for 14 consecutive years, building Capital into a profitable international company with over $150 million in annual sales of pop culture products to retailers around the world. In addition to many supply chain innovations, Capital also published over 400 pages of printed material a month, including Internal Correspondence, Advance Comics, and other publications.
Since selling Capital in 1996, Griepp has continued using his expertise in the industry as a consultant in the publishing, retailing, distribution, toy, and educational fields.
Also beginning in 1998 and extending to mid-2000, Griepp was chairman of Next Planet Over, then a venture-funded, San Francisco-based e-commerce company. From October of 1999 to May of 2000, when the company was sold, Griepp took the additional role of CEO. Nextplanetover.com had a best-of-class Web operation, with robust community, over 7,000 e-commerce product offerings, compelling content, superior service, and auctions.
Since early 2001, Griepp has operated ICv2, the #1 information source for pop culture business, as well as continuing his consulting practice.
Tom Flinn has been in the pop culture business for over twenty years. A graduate of the University of Wisconsin, he studied art history and cinema in graduate school and spent three years as an instructor in filmmaking and popular culture at the University of Wisconsin--Stevens Point. While in graduate school, Flinn was the Book Editor of The Velvet Lightrap film magazine.
Flinn was the first full-time employee of Capital City Distribution where he worked his way up from the warehouse to Vice President of Product Management, a position that involved supervising the staff that created the monthly Advance Comics mag-a-log. He was also a frequent contributor to the highly esteemed print version of Internal Correspondence, Capital City's magazine for pop culture retailers. At Capital Flinn pushed hard to expand the product lines available to retailers, believing that diversity of offerings gave retailers the best chance of riding out the often drastic ups and downs that characterize pop culture collector categories.
After Capital City was acquired by Diamond Comic Distributors, Flinn took the position ofDirector of Purchasing at Diamond where he created the International Section of Previews.
Flinn has been Vice President -- Content at ICv2 since its founding in early 2001.
Gassere comes to ICv2 from American Girl, where she had the position of Managing Editor, Book Development.
Prior to her time in American Girl's publishing division, she worked for Capital City Distribution, where she was managing editor of ICv2's predecessor, Internal Correspondence.
Gassere joined ICv2 in August of 2006.
Steve Bond--Account Representative
Steve came to us from Diamond Comic Distributors, where he played an integral role in the development of Diamond Previews, and Bud Plant Distribution.
Dennis Viau--Website support, Research
Dennis Viau came to us from Diamond Comic Distribution and Capital City Distribution.
We believe that we're all in this together -- that if the markets for pop culture products grow, we'll all be more successful. Accordingly, we're devoted to promoting our common interests and growing the business of which we're all a part.
At ICv2, we strive to be fast, accurate, fair, and complete in our coverage. We'll try to get you the news that affects your business first, to give you correct information, to be fair to the companies, people, and products we cover, and to give you the whole story.
Rather than telling you our personal preferences, our credo is "we like what sells," and we will endeavor to chart accurately the potential and performance of various products profiled, always trying to include those important channel issues (who's selling these products), that can greatly affect sales potential.
Many people involved in the production and sales of pop culture products are also aficionados. We certainly are, and that's why we're still in this business after many years. One of our goals in doing this site is to remind people that this business is supposed to be fun! No gloom and doom or dour countenances here -- we're having fun and hope you are too.
Advertisements on ICv2 will be clearly distinguishable as such.
ICv2 will print no press releases (except our own) verbatim -- we will always try to provide some measure of analysis or perspective. ICv2's occasional press releases, giving information on news of note about ICv2, will be clearly labeled as such.
ICv2 will indicate the source of our information whenever possible.
In case of error, we'll update the site as quickly as possible, including corrections in the original article in an effort to make our archive as error-free as possible.
Internal Correspondence was a newsletter and then a magazine published from the early 80s through the mid-90s by Capital City Distribution, Inc., one of the largest distributors of pop culture products during that period. The magazine was a trade publication directed at specialty retailers. When Capital City Distribution was sold to Diamond Comic Distributors in 1996, the rights to the name were kept by one of the principals of Capital -- Milton Griepp -- who had been publisher and editor-in-chief of the magazine at Capital. Beginning in the fall of 2000, Griepp began working on a Web version of the title. ICv2 launched in January, 2001. The ICv2 Retailer Guides magazines were launched in 2002.
Advertising
ICv2 is an ad-supported site. Click here for more info.
Click here to subscribe to our daily newsletter and get the latest news.
If you hear of a story that the pop culture products industry needs to know about, e-mail us at news@ICv2.com. To find out how that can get you a free gift, check out our Send Us a Tip page.
ICv2 is owned and operated by GCO, LLC, a Wisconsin limited liability company. Click contacts to reach us.
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