BOOM! Studios is planning to reduce the number of titles it publishes in 2016, with the Studios and Archaia imprints taking a bigger share of the reductions, BOOM! President of Publishing & Marketing Filip Sablik told ICv2.  Graphic novel releases will take less of the cuts than single issue comics.

We asked Sablik why BOOM! was making the move, and he said that retailers were pointing in this direction.  “All of the major mainstream comic publishers are pushing out more titles,” he said. “Since February's ComicsPro meeting, it's something we've consistently heard from the front lines of the industry.  So we decided to swim upstream a bit by trimming back our line and really focus, doubling down on our marketing and our positioning for each title, believing that a sniper-like approach would yield better profitability. And when we ran our 2016 projections, our thought process was borne out—the numbers didn't lie."

Sablik compared the move to some of the publisher's earlier actions, including starting a kids imprint and publishing Lumberjanes.  “We see this as another example of something we do best, which is build a bigger company by doing the unexpected," he said. "The last 10 years have shown us that the unexpected is ultimately very good for business."  

We talked  to Sablik last month on broader issues related to the company’s publishing plans (see “ICv2 Interview:  BOOM! Publisher Filip Sablik”).