Recently, Shueisha released their Media Guide for 2014. This Media Guide is used for advertisers to get an estimate on the popularity of the magazine and how much an ad would cost. From this we can gather some interesting pieces of information. Which I have translated and placed for you below (for JumpKai)!
Here’s the part that’s a little scary. If you compare it to the 2013 Media Guide, all of the numbers are almost exactly the same except… the number of sales!
2013: 34,000 copies
2014: 18,000 copies
That’s a pretty massive decline! Compared to all of the other Shueisha manga magazines, that is now clearly the lowest in running Shueisha’s lineup. Does this mean that Jump Kai is going to go under? It’s hard to say. The 34,000 number could be inflated since it was still a new magazine, and they didn’t have solid numbers yet. Plus Shaman King Zero help sell out some copies.
One thing to compare is the price of the ad space. That number has stayed the same. And it’s priced exactly the same as Ultra Jump (it’s primary competition for the age bracket/style). Selling ad space is king for a print magazine, so the magazine does contain some value still. In the last 8 months however, it looks like their marketing budget got severally cut. We haven’t seen any big banner ads for Flowers in subway stations or things like that.
So, if you were wondering why Shaman King Flowers is always on the cover of the magazine… this is why. It’s keeping the magazine alive right now. Based on the age demographic, people who read Shaman King are probably the people still buying the magazine. If the number continues to decline next year (under 15,000), then the magazine might be doomed. If it stays at 18,000, then it’s still got a chance.
But what if Shaman King Flowers isn’t enough to keep it alive!? What if the magazine folds!? What will happen to Shaman King Flowers!?
Well, the simple answer to that is… it will move to another magazine. Probably JumpSQ. Right now that’s a fairly big powerhouse for adaptations and continuations of Weekly Shonen Jump titles. Ultimo is still running in JumpSQ19 and Jumbor in Ultra Jump. It’s hard to say if Flowers will rise above the already established series in SQ, but it probably won’t. Ultra Jump already has Jumbor, and wouldn’t have 2 series running by Takei at the same time. So where Shaman King Flowers is right now, is actually the best place for it. Now if we get a new Shaman King anime this year… things might start getting interesting…
