Sell Outs

Newsarama has a good article on the phenomenon of sell outs:

"As we all know, it has been a craze in the comic book industry for publishers to announce sell outs. Underneath the facade of grandeur and excitement rests a dirty little secret: Almost every comic sells out at the publisher level at some point or another. True, they usually announce sell outs on those issues that sell out prior to hitting the shelves or immediately thereafter, but there are others."

"Likewise, there are other points of interest that readers and collectors might not know. First, a comics that sells out prior to release only means that retailers ordered up the whole print run after the company set its print run. It doesn't mean that readers are buying, so, technically, the title could still be a dud. It might not really be as hot as the publisher is making it out to seem. Second, publishers don't consistently announce all sell outs, rather, a select group of sold-out books are announced. This tells me that there is another reason for announcing the sell outs that they do and letting the others slide under the dusty old cape."

The article goes into the various justifications that publishers have for making such announcements. Mainly it comes down to being another marketing boost for certain titles.

However, there is one angle of the practice that isn't discussed. Why do sites like Newsarama report on sell outs in the first place? Why treat a fairly common occurrence as being newsworthy? Is it filler for a slow newsday? Do they want to stay on good terms with the publishers by giving them free advertising? An appeal to comic book speculators? Something else?