Original image (c) 801Media
Hopefully this isn’t a sign of trouble over at the seemingly-unstoppable force that is Digital Manga, but over the past couple of days it’s come to our attention that the public-known staff of 801Media are all facing their final days as a part of the company this week. This includes the entire initial team and production managers behind the raunchier-yaoi imprint. Another staff member, known on the forums as Tomo-chan, had their last days as part of the small staff a few months back.
I give my sad but fondest goodbyes to them all! They made following 801Media’s releases easy, informative and, most important of all, lots of fun. It will in no way be the same without them :(
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I never got the impression that 801 was raunchy. ^_- However, do they really need an '801' now with their partnering with pubs over more salacious titles?
Perhaps 801 being downsized just means they're being absorbed into the 'co-publishing' brand arm, instead of being phased out. ^_^
I found 801Media's titles to be raunchier than those published through June, but admittedly that's their chosen word, not mine. I never read one of their 801Media books I found all that raunchy compared to many other titles out there. For Japanese-English translated boys' love, I'd give that closest-to credit to Kitty Media.
I hope if 801Media is about to be absorbed (much preferred over complete shutdown of course!), it still maintains the same publishing format. I really liked the smaller trim size and colour printing.
I find their titles more mature [plotwise and I appreciate them for being so] but not raunchy. :/
But Simon at Icarus brought up a good yet depressing point: departure, rather than reassignment, of whole teams or senior employees usually indicates something more than staffing redundancies.
:(
When I read Simon's comment, I couldn't help but see the logic, especially with most of the employees let go at 801Media having no jobs to go to ahead of them, hence being outright dismissals. Guess only time will tell right now for 801Media's future, but I'm going to try and keep optimistic about it (as futile/hard as it may be!).
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I think 801 will sell more if they lower their prices and make it more main stream. I shouldnt have to special order it. there are plenty of smutty yaoi mangas on the market that sell well in stores. 801 just needs a better marketing strategy.