I’d lost track of Wowio. Once it changed owners twice, and it quit paying publishers to put comics online for free, it didn’t offer much for me to pay attention to. Publishers pulled their works, so as a reader, there wasn’t material for me to look at. And as a reporter, “we’re still not paying people” isn’t much of a story.

So bless Sean Kleefeld for teasing out the latest news, by following the company’s current owner on Twitter. Sean quotes Wowio owner Brian Altounian as saying:

every publisher was paid entirely and I even added an interest payment on top of it as a good-faith gesture to apologize for the delays in payment.

Based on that, Sean says, “To my understanding, Wowio is now debt-free.” Me, I hope that’s true. The debts dated from June 2008, and that’s a long time for an artist to wait for funds. And given that a year ago Altounian had no plans to pay, I’m glad he changed his mind.

Flashback Universe posts an interview with Brian Altounian, CEO and President of Wowio. In it, he reveals that the company is no longer owned by Platinum:

Platinum … has narrowed its focus this year to be strictly on its core film and television business. I personally formed a holding company that acquired 100% of WOWIO from Platinum on July 1 of this year.

Wowio had been acquired by Platinum about a year ago, so that didn’t last long. (And the combination was generally unsuccessful.) Practically, I’m not sure how much of a change this actually is, since Altounian is still President and Chief Operating Officer of Platinum, and he was the one defending the company when people pointed out that they still owed creators money from June 2008. That debt has still not, to my knowledge, been paid. The interview didn’t ask Altounian about financial matters.

Altounian is now plugging the “richer experience” of including audio and video as additional content in their ebook PDFs. He concludes by promising a brighter future:

[W]e are exploring additional media elements such as audiobook and other formats for our readers to broaden their collection of material. We are exploring new revenue-generating opportunities for our publishing partners. We are looking at new corporate sponsorships, and we recently launched a new non-profit initiative that will expand our readership greatly. Look for new announcements to come out over the next couple of months.

Given the number of times the company has said “trust us, good things are coming”, it appears that even though, on paper, the leadership may be different, it’s the same old Wowio.

Me neither. But Sean Kleefeld reminded me.

To recap: A year ago, Wowio was something of an online success story, making thousands of dollars for participating publishers. Six months ago, Wowio was acquired by Platinum, a dodgy company with a shady track record. The changes they implemented, including eliminating most of the free PDFs, were unpopular. Then the payments stopped.

Now, if I’m reading Sean’s post correctly, Platinum hasn’t ever caught up with the Wowio obligations and has no definite date on which they’ll be able to. The company president, Brian Altounian, said (over Twitter, of all things) that they had to get more investment money since there wasn’t enough revenue coming in, and investors didn’t want to pay “old debt”. Given Platinum’s track record, I wonder how likely it is that anyone wants to pump more money into the company, especially given the current economic environment.

Most fascinating about Sean’s post is that Altounian shows up in the comments to spar with him. Understandably, the official doesn’t like people pointing out what bad shape his company’s in or how low the readership has dropped, but the explanation boils down to “you don’t understand how big business works; we’re trying our best”. Sean responds:

… it’s a superiorly bad business decision to either A) buy a company which owes any amount of debt with no plan for repayment, or B) buy a company with no knowledge of the debt it already has. I’m not familiar with the due diligence that may have been done on your part, certainly, but the only other option I’m seeing is amoral … I simply do not understand how a business run so poorly can continue to operate.

In a followup at Digital Strips, Brigid Alverson reviews the Wowio site as a new reader.

Sean Kleefeld notes that, per TeleRead’s Alexa figures, Wowio’s traffic now is about what it was when the site was shuttered during the handover to Platinum. This has not been a successful acquisition.

Wowio, the troubled online publisher, is over three weeks late paying publishers their earnings for second quarter 2008 (which ended in June, assuming they use a standard calendar). Their Editorial Director told a publisher that she didn’t know when fees would be going out, but to apologize for the delay, they’d pay an extra 2.5 – 5% late fee when the money did arrive.

5% of nothing is still nothing. “We’ll make up for our delay by giving you more when we finally do pay you,” sounds like a con man’s trick to keep the fish on the hook.

Regarding Wowio’s woes: Rumors are spreading that they’re late on paying second quarter royalties.

Update: Wowio publisher T Campbell goes into detail and recommends people get out now.

Regarding the Webcomics book review, I guess I’ll have to start reading PvP — at least this week.

Regarding the awesomeness that is Middleman: Creator Javier Grillo-Marxuach is interviewed by my old roommate Alan Sepinwall. I am very sad that the show isn’t doing well, and even sadder that we were going to see how the “Middleman developed his old-fashioned, upright persona” but now we likely won’t. I would buy this show if it went straight to DVD. I love it.

Last, the final word on Kramer’s Ergot #7, the $125 anthology: Supporter Tom Spurgeon talks with editor Sammy Harkham about its contents, contributors, and the rationale behind the price point. Among the factors: due to its size, each copy has to be bound by hand. Custom shipping boxes had to be made. And the editor wanted to do an on-site press check, so he had to fly to Singapore.

Brain Scan Studios wanted to release their comic Serial, about real-life serial killers, through Wowio, only to be turned down due to content. Now, although the publisher calls it “censorship”, Wowio (owned by Platinum Studios) has every right to decline to carry titles if they feel they aren’t a good match for their readership.

However, if they’re bumping some titles and others are choosing to leave (via) because of decreased downloads and feeling “uncomfortable” about the new ownership, how many are they going to be left with?

Warning, snark approaching: which value do you think will go to zero first, titles offered or readers?

When Wowio was down for its ownership transfer earlier this year, I said I wanted to be notified when they returned. Because of that, I got an email with a link promising a free gift. It’s an almost 14-MB download of an 87-page sampler. The contents are

• Wowio Overview — “introduces the highlights and features that’ll help you make the most of your Wowio experience”
• The Adventures of Tymm: Alien Circus #1 — a 50-page Platinum kids’ comic, ending “to be continued”
• The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County — the 1865 Mark Twain book, with illustrations

The overview section is two pages of “we’re great.” I found it interesting that the options discussed are “read online for free” or “purchase and download”. They’re trying to eliminate the previous model of “download for free”, it appears.

If you want to see for yourself, that link doesn’t appear to be restricted or protected. Unfortunately, their mass mailing didn’t include an “unsubscribe” link, which I thought was standard in such emails.