[SPEAKER_01]: What's up everybody?
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Comic Book Club.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Alex and we've got a very special episode for you today talking to a special guest cat Zappa the VP VP at Hoopla digital cat welcome to the podcast
[SPEAKER_00]: Alex, thanks so much for having me today.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a real honor to be here.
[SPEAKER_00]: It can't wait to dig into comics with you today.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm excited to chat as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I imagine not even imagine I know for a fact, a bunch of our listeners for sure, use Hupla.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm guessing some don't at Art for Billy or within all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just kind of set up the reason we're talking.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we'll get into this part a little bit later.
[SPEAKER_01]: But,
[SPEAKER_01]: At the end of the year, beginning of this year, y'all released a list of some of the most downloaded books, some of the most barred books of the past year, and that included a list of the top comics of the top manga.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, there's definitely appropriate to what we're talking to you, but I want to kind of start by stepping back, taking the broad view, ask a question.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know the answer to you, but as I said, many of our listeners may not, what's hoopla?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so who put digital is a streaming and downloading platform that goes into public library.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we deliver digital content to public libraries throughout the US, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got millions of subscribers or not subscribers, but more so I should say library patrons.
[SPEAKER_00]: that are able to engage with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: They basically utilize their library card to get in and access the platform.
[SPEAKER_00]: Their public library has a service agreement with us.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's exactly what gives them the access.
[SPEAKER_00]: Every time they come in to do a borrow of something, they are able to borrow for a 21 day period of time that digital comic.
[SPEAKER_00]: graphic novel or manga, and the library ultimately ends up covering the cost of that borrow for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: They can go in, they can rebaro again, to re-read and re-engage with their favorite content, time and time again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we've always gotten content coming in.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got about 39,000 titles currently available in our catalog for comic, graphic novel and manga.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have a couple of questions off of that and I don't know how granular you're able to go necessarily.
[SPEAKER_01]: But first of all, just to point out, so it's like with anything of the library, it's free to rent this stuff, though, does cost the libraries a little bit of money to send up the rentals.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's why it's important to support your local library.
[SPEAKER_01]: I imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: And, you know, libraries are business is just like everybody else.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so to that, what they do to manage their budgets, it's they allow a certain number of borrowers every month to their library patron.
[SPEAKER_00]: So their library patron can go in, utilize their boroughs up to that amount that the library provides, and then at the beginning of the next month they'll get another Access of borrow maybe it's for maybe it's 10 it depends on what that public library sets for them based on their budget allowance
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know how much you can speak to this, but give it the fact that you are an international app, you know, I'm based in New York, so I have a general understanding of how like the Brooklyn and the New York Public Library System works and brought it now potentially to the United States.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I have to imagine there's big differences between the United States, when you're dealing with them, Canada, when you're dealing with them, Australia, or New Zealand, or it's all kind of vaguely the same thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: There are definitely differences between the various territories.
[SPEAKER_00]: Obviously, there's different governments that are involved, localized and federal, so there's different aspects from those perspectives.
[SPEAKER_00]: But also, you've got different patrons at the end of the day, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got different needs for those individual libraries that we're always trying to maximize and meet.
[SPEAKER_00]: The patrons are different from the U.S. and Canada.
[SPEAKER_00]: to what New Zealand and Australia happened to be looking for as far as content goes so we're always trying to make sure that we're providing a diverse offering that meets the needs of those patrons that are coming in at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and I think you mentioned this before, but one of the things that I think makes who play unique or at least special as an app, which is different from some other library apps, is you don't just have books on there, you have other media as well, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: That's right, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got not just comic books, ebooks, graphic novels, manga, audio books.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got music albums, we've got videos, both long for movies as well as episodes in episodic content.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's kind of a one-stop shop for what I like to call, the universe of content, if you will, which plays really well, obviously, into the comic book space where
[SPEAKER_00]: We're fans, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's that's sort of the world that we live in.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love going to cons.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love going to other other opportunities, expose conferences where we can really engage in the Universes and IP that we're really committed to, the things that get us excited at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's what makes Hupla a really great opportunity for digital borrowing.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you can go in and you might be looking for
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, a comic book, a Superman, but you can also get the soundtrack from the movie that came out recently.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can delve into, you know, prose books that we happen to be carrying from some of those publishers or audiobooks and things of that nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're really great opportunity to lean into the fandom access or aspect of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're in, you know, you got this commitment and
[SPEAKER_00]: voracious hunger to continue to engage with content or on storylines and characters that you love in a door and just want to get more of and we're a great place to be able to do that because we are almost, you know, formatting, not stick when it comes to content and you want to engage with it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So,
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, this is very much a side thing, but this immediately may be think of and I'm very much aging myself here, but I remember when my local public library as a kid opened up their DVD section upstairs and it was just my mind was blown because there I could like I could take out the Stephen King bookstout stairs and they'd go upstairs and read them and it was just it's cool it's cool to have that all in one place.
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, and that's one of the things that the library is so great at because I'm I'm I'm with you right there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can remember going and I'm borrowing the you know reading the book Christine then watching the movie, but oh wait Maybe I didn't have a DVD player yet right or a VHS tape player and I had to borrow that even from the library and the library really is providing those types of services today to make sure that if it's content you want to engage with Let us make it easy for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us give you all the tools to be able to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: whether it's the digital content or even devices behind that in some cases.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it's a really exciting opportunity and on the digital side of things, we're able to obviously expand the content that they happen to be caring to more than what they can just fit on the shelf.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, shelf space.
[SPEAKER_00]: whether you're talking about the retail market or we're talking about the library space, it's limited.
[SPEAKER_00]: That shelf space is limited and then the digital space it's not so limited.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then the library and the digital space is also providing that accessibility opportunity, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Not everybody is five minutes down the street from a public library.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not everybody has a way transportation to get to the public library.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so through digital,
[SPEAKER_00]: engagement, like what Hupel provides, we provide that accessibility opportunity to them as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this is getting towards something that I wanted to ask you about, this is a big discussion of the comic book space, is about digital sales versus physical comic book store sales.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is very much anecdotal, but whenever I've seen a study pop up, it's shown that one doesn't necessarily impact the other negatively, and in fact digital sales may help drive physical sales into the stores.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you find the same thing with libraries or is that kind of apples targes?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, we absolutely feel that way about the synergies between the comic book stores.
[SPEAKER_00]: and the libraries especially since you know we talked about that obsession right with certain characters and things like that and maybe for some reason your your comic book store is presently out of but you you know what you want to engage with you know this upcoming volume that's coming out you can check it out on hoopla but ultimately they're gonna continue to fall in love with it even more and they're gonna need to have that in their hands they're gonna end up going into the comic book store to pick that up once it does become available.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and vice versa, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, sometimes those comic books are a sellout right away.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they just want to see what's in there again, but it still doesn't take you away from that experience of wanting to hold that book in your hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: and hold the piece of artistry that comes through all the illustrations that are contained in an comic at the end of the day or a volume, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to want to get that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's where I think, you know, there's a nice synergy there to your point where they can help sort of support each other.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because again, that fandom that is never going to be going away in the comic book space, we can help to support it, but we can't replicate holding in your hand what that
[SPEAKER_00]: and getting to experience it in, you know, in real life, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I mean, we try to make a nice experience that gives you that great taste of being able to hold that comic book, or volume, you know, we've got, we've got action view processing at the end of the day, which will help to give you the close-ups on those panels with the panel by panel viewing, which we think is really, really important to get to the artistry of the comics at the end of the day and what comes into the illustrations, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, that's a really important piece for us that we think helps to even grow that need and that wants to hold that book in your hand and hopefully encourage the, the reader to end up going out and making that purchase at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: If they can find that comic book store close by.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was going to ask you about the reading experience next.
[SPEAKER_01]: So you actually have paneled by panel zoom in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you do that on your end?
[SPEAKER_01]: Does the publisher provide that?
[SPEAKER_01]: How is that put together?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so all of we do that for a hundred percent of our comics, manga and graphic novels that we carry at the end of the day, all of our publishers before we go into deals together are aware that that's something that we offer.
[SPEAKER_00]: We end up having in-house work tech company,
[SPEAKER_00]: So we have in-house proprietary software that we utilize to do that and then we have a team of humans that go in and do the review of everything that the software is put together to make sure that in fact it's capturing everything the way that's supposed to be getting captured at that very high-quality level and so we know at the end of the day when we go in and we actually release that title
[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to meet that product quality, if you will, that not only the library and patron are expecting, but more importantly, even that publisher at the end of the day right who has entrusted us with the rights to distribute their content.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're really coming in from a pretty, pretty, 360 perspective there, making sure that everything that we're releasing is really coming in with those high-quality expectations.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, let's get into the list the 2025 list and before I even read off or talk about the specific titles, how how did you break this out?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I know maybe you don't want to provide the data or are allowed to provide the data, but the lists are five titles.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is that based on specifically?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, those really, those really are based on top engagement from our library patrons at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: So looking at
[SPEAKER_00]: how many library patrons came in and actually decided to commit to doing that borrow, utilizing their currency right, that's their currency ultimately with the library to end up, you know, engaging with the content so that's how the lists are determined on our side of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've also got at any given point in time various carousels that we have within the platform that indicate what titles are popular, what's on a trending upslope to sort of let, you know, those that are,
[SPEAKER_00]: coming to our comic landing page specifically or come to us specifically for comics, you know, they kind of have an idea of oh, this is what's popular right now and this is what's moving with everybody that's that's coming into who blew up from a patron perspective.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: All right, I know you know this, but for our listeners, I'm just very quickly going to read the comics list just so people know what we're talking about.
[SPEAKER_01]: So these aren't necessarily ranked, these are just five.
[SPEAKER_01]: titles that were in there.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got invincible compendiums 1 and 2, smile, a graphic novel, absolute Batman volume 1, the zoo, dogman, and then big-nate attack of the cheese funk breath.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is very interesting to me because this is a mix of you've got perennial favorites like smile.
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got something new that came out that's very huge on the superhero space from last year with absolute Batman.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you have that mixed in with the middle grade YA stuff, dog man, big date, etc.
[SPEAKER_01]: What led to this list?
[SPEAKER_01]: What led to these top five and what can you kind of like pull out of just any findings there or anything?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, so in general one of the things that hoopla that we've identified is that
[SPEAKER_00]: Patrons come for us not only for the hot new content but also the evergreen content or the classic content to feel at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: In particular those that can even maybe start a franchise or start a series.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so for us we've got great content engagement not only with frontless but also with what would be considered backless content.
[SPEAKER_00]: Over 90% of our content circulates on a regular basis in the comic space So they really are coming back for anything and everything if you will and we have seen an influx of engagement with the kids content Over the past couple years in particular some of the scholastic content that's been coming out
[SPEAKER_00]: I think a lot of that's going to lean back into we see a lot of media tie in additions coming out as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, we're the dog man movie last year and things to that nature.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think a lot of the time we do lean into those media tie in additions from a merchandising perspective, but also just making sure that the content again is available.
[SPEAKER_00]: because the patrons are looking for that content.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, it goes into that fandom too, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: Where they may be hearing about something that's coming out in theater, or maybe it's going to be streaming on Hulu or Disney Plaza Netflix.
[SPEAKER_00]: And before they can even get to it, they're voracious and they want to re-engage or make sure that they've covered seeing or reading everything in the series, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and so they'll come back to us beforehand and I think that some of what you saw it happened this past year goes back to that, um, having a great impact for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, I don't know if you're allowed to provide any specific numbers, but just talking from the comic perspective, absolutely Batman, at least in comic book stores, has been a monster hit, but as far as we know in terms of sales numbers, it doesn't even come close to a dogman or a big Nate or any of those books that are hitting with the middle-grade class, are you seeing, are you able to provide any comparison if not anything specific, obviously I'd love something specific, but I know you probably can't.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, so, you know, it's funny when we started to look at the absolute titles coming out, we noticed right away the uptick and you could see that it sat that those titles were sitting there, in particular, absolute payment for a very long time and a popular carousel in our trending carousels.
[SPEAKER_00]: so on and so forth.
[SPEAKER_00]: We definitely did do some merchandising around about when we, when we look at things, when we look at titles and IP franchises in particular,
[SPEAKER_00]: from an adult versus kids perspective, we are you are talking about some of those top IPs that we're circulating for adults at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do have a kids mode within the platform which also removes all of that adult content if maybe a parent is handing their phone over to their child or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think that that's one reason why you might be seeing a mix in there between the absolute Batman's
[SPEAKER_00]: in the dogman's and big nates, but let's face it at the end of the day, you know, Batman in general, kids and adults love Batman, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So you can probably be said for dogman, right, because it's gotten so many adults out in the theaters to sing things.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think that we saw a lot of nice crossover there, but if we were to break it down between adults and kids, absolute Batman was sitting up there as a top title for us throughout the year.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moving over to the manga, I'll just read that list very quickly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the thank you for sitting through it.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we've got berserk volumes 1, 3, 4, and 5 attack on Titan Volume 1.
[SPEAKER_01]: Captain's gamer volume 1, Ganobal volume 1, and HP loves crafts, the hound, and other stories.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess the first question is, what happened to berserk volume 2?
[SPEAKER_00]: What did happen to those who want you to?
[SPEAKER_00]: For some reason, it didn't end up being one of them that registered in the top, although I can tell you, it was very well engaged with throughout the year.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things I think that sometimes happens right is folks maybe start with the first volume.
[SPEAKER_00]: And they either attrition over and end up watching everything or reading everything rather or in some cases they may end up skipping to one that is featured, or one that's getting certain murky placement, one that happens to be landing in that popular carousel.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so in some cases what we'll see is they'll go back and they'll end up reading a previous volume earlier that they realize that they've missed.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we've been caring it, it's been there
[SPEAKER_00]: when we looked at the top list, it didn't happen to hit the very top of the list, but it wasn't there as a top title too.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know I keep hammering on the same thing, but I'm just very curious mainly how library borrowing compares say to bookstore sales.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we know that again, manga dwarfs pretty much everything in the comic book space, probably with the exception of like a dogman or something like that.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I know there's separate lists, but are you able to look
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I'm assuming you're speaking specifically within hoopla right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, we absolutely are seeing manga all sort of grow year over year, however, we just launched manga a few years back.
[SPEAKER_00]: We had to, again, I mentioned before that we're a tech company.
[SPEAKER_00]: We literally rebuild our player.
[SPEAKER_00]: to support left to right and right to left reading when we did that rebuild.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think for us, manga is still growing as far as an area of content as for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're getting more content in year over year.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so I think as we start to see that catalog of content continue to grow,
[SPEAKER_00]: we will start to see a little bit more competition between some of the traditional titles that you mentioned in that topics list, versus what we're talking about in the top mongolist.
[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, as I mentioned at the top of the call, I think we've got about 39,000 titles in the catalog.
[SPEAKER_00]: And manga is,
[SPEAKER_00]: a little bit less than 10% of that, as far as the titles that we're offering right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So as we continue to diversify that offering, bringing in more publishers, getting more day and day releases through the existing relationships we have in the manga side, we're going to continue to see that grow, based simply on the fact that we're seeing you're over your growth when it comes to manga engagement within the platform today.
[SPEAKER_01]: I did want to ask you about one more list that doesn't have any comic books on it, but I thought it was a very interesting one, which was the top challenge titles list.
[SPEAKER_01]: Basically, books that are seeing a lot of banning across I assume, not just the United States, but elsewhere, internationally, and you're highlighting those and how they are available through Hupla, which I thought, first of all, is great, but sort of as a corollary there, usually at the top of most United States list, is Maya Kobaybs genderqueer, the graphic novel.
[SPEAKER_01]: But that was not on the list there.
[SPEAKER_01]: So again, just in terms of comparing generally how people are buying stuff versus what you're getting through the hoopla app, I guess my question is like, did you see any graphic novels popping up there?
[SPEAKER_01]: What is the, I know I just kind of stated it, but like what is the purpose of the top challenge titles?
[SPEAKER_01]: And do you seek those titles out and actively try to have them to the app?
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, you know, we're here to bring a diverse offering to the public libraries at the end of the day for those libraries that happen to live in maybe states that do have certain laws in place around certain books that they're not able to carry.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have built within our system, the tools for the library to be able to not have those titles made available, so that way they're able to comply, of course, with those laws and regulations that might be in place.
[SPEAKER_00]: But our position as a distributor is to provide diverse content to the public library patrons at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're going to be going out there, and we make it part of our business to make all titles available.
[SPEAKER_00]: But we have to make sure that we have in place those tools so that way the libraries themselves can comply because obviously we want to make sure that they're able to do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, you know, gender queries are great title by the way, it's a favorite of mine.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one that we are consistently talking about last year we did a book signing even with the book at one of our library shows so.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're a big supporter of content on the band side of things we want to make sure that again we make it available, but ultimately the library if if they're in a situation where they simply can't carry something that they're able to to not carry it.
[SPEAKER_00]: and are able to comply.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I love that you do that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is awesome.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, we are just a little over half about the 2022.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is kind of a crazy thing to ask you, but just looking ahead of the year, do you see any trends that you're prognosticating that you're talking about, anything that's particularly going to change or to make it more specific about who play, anything that's going to be changing or growing in who play as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, most definitely.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we talked a little bit about manga because, you know, we, we know we do have additional partners coming in in the manga space this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do know that we're going to be expecting a lot more content in the manga space.
[SPEAKER_00]: That is definitely a focus for us for continued growth.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hopefully this year will also end up pulling in some some more monwa.
[SPEAKER_00]: as well.
[SPEAKER_00]: We have very little right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're hoping to bring in a lot more of that in the upcoming year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Media Tions definitely going to be something that we're leaning into.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, we're already, we've already identified a lot of the stuff that's going to be coming out in the theaters and through some of the major streamers this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to see that we probably lean into some of those, making sure that folks know before those movies come out, before those shows come out.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to check out the comics, we've got them here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Come on over and let's engage in a big way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, we do think that the kids content is going to continue to grow as well, um, we're real excited by a few of the announcements that have been coming out there from Scholastic, um, from Andrews McNeill.
[SPEAKER_00]: from a lot of our other partners that are in the kids space.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then also for us, doing a little bit more on the single side of things.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mentioned earlier in the show, rather, that we are a place that folks tend to come for content that can be hard to find sometimes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe their local comic book store simply doesn't have that anymore, because it came out so long ago or it's just a really hard issue to find.
[SPEAKER_00]: or trade defines.
[SPEAKER_00]: So we're hoping to dig in a little bit more on the single side from that perspective for certain highlighted type of opportunities.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe we're able to lean into creating a binge pass that might have some singles in it for a set period of time that might lean into a certain superhero or certain set of the storyline right of that particular hero.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so those are a few things that we're real excited about.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've got two binge passes out there right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: The concentrate in the comic space.
[SPEAKER_00]: One of them is with fan base press, which we're a huge fan of.
[SPEAKER_00]: We love supporting the content that fan base is doing from that in the in-diverse perspective again.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we've also got along with her, called comics kingdom, which leans into the funnies, those classic funnies that like are so hard to find, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think we're going to see a few more of those types of opportunities pop within hoop love.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not just in the binge pass space, but specifically supporting singles potentially in the binge pass space.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is awesome that you're doing that as well, or at least exploring trying to do that more.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you find any resistance from plays that not to call them out?
[SPEAKER_01]: But like places like Marvel or DC where they have their own pay apps where it makes a tricky or again, is it kind of a different space because we're talking about the library.
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, we have really great relationships with Marvel and DC.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think at the end of the day, you know, they have a really good understanding of our platform, and they really understand where we come in to support from a community perspective, what we're offering.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so that's one of the reasons why that I, you know, I feel really confident that we'll be able to find some really exciting opportunities this year.
[SPEAKER_00]: that even if there happens to be a platform with a publisher that they have a good portion of their content located or maybe even all their content located, that they'll see how we can provide a different type of an offering to that public library patron than maybe limited again by that borrow currency that they have, but really can sort of trigger some community you know growth and word of mouth growth, if you will.
[SPEAKER_00]: For maybe some properties that aren't getting the type of attention that, you know, they used to get back in the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to be able to bring that attention back to some of those classics and to some of those older story lines, to some of those singles that are just simply hard to find because, you know, it's decades later, in some cases, maybe that, that they're trying to find it in the digital space, finding digital or finding digital singles can be a real challenge.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's like a million titles that we're going through by head that I want to request for you, but I'll leave that for another time and not for our listeners Just sort of to wrap up here if you have a library, well, two-part question If you have a library that does not have Hupla, how do you go about asking about that?
[SPEAKER_01]: And secondly, if you have a library that does have Hupla, how do you go about requesting a title?
[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, both happen all the time.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would say if you are a library patron and your library doesn't offer hoopla, let them know that you want hoopla.
[SPEAKER_00]: We do have a really great offering.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that we've got a really amazing library experience when it comes to comics in particular, particularly because of that action view processing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, if you can't get your hands on the actual product, that physical book at the end of the day, to be able to really hone in and go close up
[SPEAKER_00]: The hand writer wrote that text, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: The emotion that they've given there, the emotion that the image itself provides that the illustrator put in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's the next closest thing, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: So let them know that like, I can't get everything off of the shelf.
[SPEAKER_00]: Or we don't have a comic book store located close by, please, you know, consider picking a hoopla up.
[SPEAKER_00]: They have a great offering because we do 39,000 comics as a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then for those that have access to hoopla and the comic offering, but don't see some of the comics in there that they want.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are constantly going through title requests.
[SPEAKER_00]: Our marketing team looks at that.
[SPEAKER_00]: We look at it on the acquisition side of things and we want to be able to meet that needs.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anybody that we have preexisting relationships with, we go to right away with those types of requests and we see if we can get it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And to be honest with you nine times out of ten we're able to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because that publisher still holds the rights to it, hopefully a license hasn't transferred out.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we know that happens to sometimes, but if they have the title and they know that we're hearing from library patrons that they want something.
[SPEAKER_00]: We are typically able to get it for them.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it's just the waiting while we ingest and we apply the action-view processing and we do that, you know, human quality control over that piece of it to get it live.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it can take a little while, maybe a couple weeks to a month still.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if we hear of a title requesting me, we typically try to try our best to try to get that title and usually we're pretty successful in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because at the end of the day, the publishers
[SPEAKER_00]: They love they get excited by the fact that there's a patron actually asking for something that they haven't given to us yet and sometimes, honestly, it ends up being not just that single title, but it could be in some cases anything missing from the series, maybe a whole series, it could be a lot of different things that they're able to say hey wait a second this triggers us to open the door to a little bit more you guys we just didn't realize that there was interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, yeah, we encourage everybody to let us know if you're interested, let your library know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your library can come in, we've also got accessibility through the platform to let us know about where you're interested in having a title get picked up from us or via us.
[SPEAKER_01]: Excellent, and last question, not to put you on the spot, but anything you've read recently that you'd like to recommend people check out onto who play, can be a comic or otherwise, does not have to be a graphic novel.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, you know, going back to what you mentioned just a few minutes ago, um, about requests, you know, we had seen some interest in zombies, you know, talking about where we don't have everything for Marvel right now we've got a really great offering, but we don't have everything and so zombies had come up as.
[SPEAKER_00]: something that was of interest.
[SPEAKER_00]: We ended up getting a bunch of backlist and we ended up positioning it around the seasonal holidays.
[SPEAKER_00]: We were able to end at we ended up doing a really big push in that ended up being a really big IP for us last year.
[SPEAKER_00]: Part of it was what it came out of the request of, hey,
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to see this coming from a backless perspective or back catalogue perspective because it's hard to find.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think that that would be the biggest thing I could say is, you know, pushes on what we might consider the classics or some of those harder to find content.
[SPEAKER_00]: We want to be able to make sure that we're a one-stop shop to be able to find it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, if, you know, your listeners are interested in us carrying it, let us know, we want to be able to be there for you and carry it at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: The only other thing I could say on the scope of things that we're always paying attention to, that might be out there in the median, whatnot.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, we do do a lot in the anime space too, so we're trying to do more crossover between what you find in manga, what we find on the
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so that would be another thing to maybe look for when it comes to hoopla, um, that we're always being cognizant of is, you know, what's hot in that space, because usually there's a really strong cross over because of that fan base, um, between anime and manga at the end of the day.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kat, thank you so much for your time, congrats on everything, really looking forward to everything that hoopla is going to be doing and I'll be checking it out by self.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks a lot, Alex, really appreciate the time with you today.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a lot of fun.
[SPEAKER_02]: Now let's just turn back to number one There is a night and a night and a night We want the feet There's no goal in mind We stay calm, make sense And it's time now Let's get it, I don't listen It's a cover
[SPEAKER_02]: They sit on crappy gadgets and they let us see the moon And he's just a monkey, they're like fast, they're so destiny To wrap your brain tailor, don't be late for it, don't be fair