Diamond Comics VP Operations Cindy Fournier has announced that new comic release day will remain Wednesday for the foreseeable future.  Diamond had raised the issue with retailers via a poll in its September catalogue (see 'Thursday Comics -- Better or Worse'), had solicited comments via e-mail, and hosted a lengthy discussion of the topic at its retailer summit (see 'Las Vegas Report -- Thursday Release Controversy').   The live comments were overwhelmingly against a change, and Fournier said that over-all 'a majority of the respondents were uncomfortable with switching to Thursday, expressing concerns that Wednesday might turn into a slow sales day, and that fewer customers might visit stores multiple times each week.'  Marvel recently came out in favor of a Wednesday release day (see 'Marvel Opposed to Thursday Release'), but Diamond's decision was made before Marvel's public statement on the issue.  

 

Diamond went with the decision preferred by the majority of its customers, despite its own interest in avoiding weekend work for its warehouse employees and providing more consistent release days on holiday weeks.  According to Fournier, 'Given all the different release days Diamond has had over the years, we're not convinced a change to Thursday would have a negative long-term sales impact, but we conducted the survey for a reason and we're not going to make a change that contradicts the feedback we've been given.  After all, retailers are much closer to the buying habits of their customer than we are.'