Fierman Leaves DC
- Posted by Johanna on January 13, 2007 at 9:44 am
- Category: Comic News
Guy LeCharles Gonzalez has thorough coverage. Stephanie Fierman was Senior VP of Sales and Marketing at DC, hired two years ago this month, and she is now leaving. The anniversary timing makes me wonder if it had something to do with a contract time period being up and not being renewed.
Gonzalez reports that “she was generally disliked by most of her colleagues and notoriously difficult to work for/with” without attribution. It’s plausible, though, that there would be clashes, as old-school comic market types are forced to work with future-looking bookstore planners. He also turns up an old comment predicting this time frame for her dismissal.
Gonzalez goes on to provide a personal viewpoint. He had interviewed for a position as DC’s Marketing Director, and the information he learned during that process sheds new light on DC’s process and goals. He’s right to identify DC’s progress into bookstores and more diverse product lines as likely slower than they’d prefer.
January 15, 2007 at 9:35 AM
Thanks for links like this, Johanna. I always hate when no one comments, as it implies it is of no interest to folks. I am sure I am one of many folks however that first learned about the news from reading your post. So thanks for the effort and keep it up, please.
January 15, 2007 at 10:27 AM
Thank you, Tim, that’s very kind of you. The number of comments is one of the factors that feeds into the popularity ranking on the left side, but I know that some topics lend themselves more easily to response than others.
January 15, 2007 at 1:19 PM
[...] Fierman Out At DC and Mor On Stephanie Fierman by Heidi MacDonald from THE BEAT, Fierman Out At DC Comics by Guy LeCharles Gonzalez from Comic Book Commentary, and Fierman Leaving DC by Johanna Draper Carlson from Comics Worth Reading – The blogosphere all abuzz about how and why Senior VP of Sales and Marketing Stephanie Fierman is leaving DC Comics (from THE BEAT, Comic Book Commentary and Comics Worth Reading) [...]
January 15, 2007 at 2:38 PM
Yeah, as with Tim I appreciate this type of coverage. I think it is sort of hard to comment though, as while interesting it doesn’t leave much room for comment unless you know the people involved.
I guess I can wonder if is this a case of someone from the outside of the comic industry being unpopular/disliked because they are from outside? Which meant they don’t have the same hangups and mentality of “this is how things are done” that so many insiders do?
Or was she someone with an abrasive personality, and whose work wasn’t up to the level they were expecting?
Or even something entirely else.
We’ll likely never know…
January 16, 2007 at 9:50 AM
I suspect you’re right, that we’ll never know what really happened… and I don’t know that we should, since it’s an internal personnel matter.