I am not sure how Alterna is doing it. When were were self-publishing, were were looking to do a coloring book on "cheap" newsprint, and we found that prices for newsprint were now 2-3 times regular paper and there was only enough being made for the newspapers because no one else was ordering it so production had been scales way back. Also, most of the presses capable of handling newsprint had been dismantled except for those producing the newspapers and 90% of all printers can no longer produce newsprint because the infrastructure is no long in place to do so. We were told, if you are lucky, you can find a printer somewhere who might be able to fit ina small print run or two between newspaper printing to keep the presses going, but you will have to wait for an opening in their schedule, they won't make a slot for you because it's not worth their time, and it will cost you more than you want to charge a customer for your product to get it printed and shipped from wherever it is being printed.

Obviously Alterna found a printing shop with the infrastructure and made some kind of deal that is working for them, but I don't think a large scale switch back to newsprint is possible unless someone is willing to pony up serious cash to invest in rebuilding the infrastructure for that type of printing industry. That kind of financial investment means that it would have to be recouped in the prices charged for products so there might not be the reduction is product msrp people are expecting if done on a large scale.

Plus, most current comic readers have no connection with newsprint, never bought comics on newsprint, and might reject such a product seeing it as a downgrade in product quality that makes the product more unappealing. If you are looking for future growth you have to consider the desire of future customers, not past customers who are aging out of target demographics and dying off.

As to your second point, only a tiny fraction of fans of properties in one media are willing to follow it into other media, and those that are are usually already fans of the second media. Prose novels of licensed products only attract fans of the property who already bu and read prose novels, they don't often attract new readers who don't buy books. The same is true of comics. Licensed properties attract comics readers who like the property, but in the current market they rarely attract readers new to comics. Plus licensed comics are less profitable because you have to pay licensing fees so you have to sell more of them to make as much revenue as a lesser selling non-licensed title, unless you skimp on talent costs, and then the product's quality isn't going to keep any new readers it might attract.

I think a major issue, perhaps even an elephant in the room is the lack of comics literacy among younger potential readers. Comics literacy is a different skill set than general literacy, one that only comes form experience and interacting with comics. Our generation encountered comics in newspapers, and often had comics from a very young age, and learned how to decipher the words and images coherently. Left to right, top to bottom, how the story flowed form panel to panel, page to page. We take it for granted. Younger potential readers, i.e.e the likely source of any new customers for comics, do not encounter comics young any more. Comics strips are no longer a prominent feature as print newspapers are not a ubiquitous part of people's lives and the Sunday funnies are not appointment entertainment. Comic books are not encounters to be read unless you go looking for them. How many barber shops and doctor's offices have comics in the waiting area for kids to read like they did in our youth.

Unless potential readers are exposed to comics to gain the facility needed to make reading them an enjoyable experience (i.e. comics literacy), no change to the products themselves are going to have an impact on sales or attract those readers. Webcomics and digital comics can serve the literacy training ground function the way newspaper strips did, but again they need to be in places were non-comic fans will discover them even when they are not looking for them specifically. That's the key piece of the puzzle that's missing. People aren't going to come to comics unless they want to come to comics, and that desire isn't going to spontaneously manifest itself in people unless they encounter comics in other places than destination comic shops or destination sites on the web. It's not Field of Dreams, people won't come if you build it, because they won't know about it or care about it because they don;t know or care (or even think) about comics because they never encounter them and gain the fundamentals needed to enjoy them. WE need to stop taking these things for granted and assuming life today is the same as it was when we encountered comics and people will come into it the same way we did. The world's a different place, people have different experiences now that shape them differently than we were shaped by our experiences with comics, and until we find a way to get comics into the experiences they have (and encountering comic characters in other media such as media and television has shown us over the last 17 years that it's not going to do it, mostly because watching Spider-Man is not the same as reading a comic story with Spider-Man and doesn't prepare you or give you the skill needed to be able to read a Spider-Man comic story let alone enjoy it), they are not going to come to comics whether they are on newsprint or digital, cost $10 each or are free, are serialized or offer a complete story in one go. No one is going to seek them out unless they have a reason to seek them out, not seek out the characters, not seek out properties they are familiar with, but seek out actual comics. And until you can get comics in places where the people will encounter them and discover them and see the appeal of them first hand thorough their own experience of them in whatever format or package, people are not going to become new readers of comics.

So to paraphrase David Petersen, creator of Mouseguard, at this year's Ringo awards-how many people have you turned on to comics this week? This Year? This decade? It doesn't need to be super-heroes or Marvel and DC. Oh your son likes dinosaurs? Have you ever seen this (fill in name of comics) about Dinosaurs?(he suggested a book on the rivalries in the early days of paleontology whose name escapes me right now). Oh, you like samurai-have you ever seen (fill in the blank comic). Oh, you like horror, have you tried this...? Or whatever thing they like, then follow up with something like I can lend you a copy or hey the library has a copy you can check out of this for free, or I can send you a link for it form Amazon, or recommend a shop where you can get it (but the last one is probably a better second step after they read and like something than a first step) or whatever. That's how comics will get new readers in this day and age. Not formats. Not pricing. Not digital or newsprint, but people who love comics introducing comics to people who are unfamiliar with comics. And don't try to shove your favorites on them, introduce them to things they already like that happen to be in comics format. It's the personal relationship and trust of the people, not the product, that will get them to try it, but you want them to have a positive experience with what you introduce them to or they will never take another recommendation for comics from you again. Remember it's not about you, it's about them and finding something that works for them even if it doesn't work for you the same way.

-M