Early Friday morning, before the doors to New York Comic-Con 2011 was open to the public, a smaller group gathered in the depths of the Javits Center for a much-buzzed about press conference. VIZ Media sent word that they had something big to announce, and sure enough, they delivered, by announcing Shonen Jump Alpha, the new digital-only edition of Shonen Jump Magazine that would deliver new chapters of six popular Shonen Jump manga series in English only two weeks after they're published in Japan for readers in the U.S.


and Canada.

Shonen Jump Alpha is scheduled to debut on January 30, 2012, offering 48 weekly issues over 52 weeks for $25.99, the same price as the print subscription of Shonen Jump Magazine. Each issue can be read for a period of 52 weeks. Fans on the fence can try out a single issue that can be read for four weeks for 99 cents. Shonen Jump Alpha will be available via VIZ Media's VIZManga.com website, and can also be read on VIZ Media's iPad and iPhone/iPod touch apps, with a single log-in, at no additional charge.

The print edition of Shonen Jump Magazine will end in March 2012, but current subscribers with 6 or more months left on their subscription will be eligible to get a full year of Shonen Jump Alpha once they sign up at http://shonenjump.viz.com/WeeklySJ. Subscribers who sign up before January 30, 2012 will also get three digital volumes of Shonen Jump manga for free.

To catch readers up with the current storylines in Japan, VIZ Media will be speeding up releases of the series featured in Shonen Jump Alpha by offering digital-first releases of Naruto (Naruto Volume 53 is available now on VIZManga.com, 2 months before the print edition's street date), and promising an accelerated release schedule for Bleach, which is currently up to Volume 36 in North America, but is up to Volume 52 in Japan.

That's pretty much the basics of Shonen Jump Alpha -- but the VIZ and Shueisha executives gathered at the Friday press conference had more to share. I had a chance to speak with Alvin Lu, VIZ Media Senior Vice President and General Manager and Sasaki Hisashi, Deputy Director of Shueisha's Shonen Manga Group. Here's what they had to say about Shonen Jump Alpha, online piracy, new opportunities for international manga artists, and the future of online manga.

INTRODUCING SHONEN JUMP ALPHA

Brian Piech:We launched our digital publishing last November with iPad. Quickly thereafter, in May, we launched our iPhone app. We learned a lot along the way, and were very excited about the results that we saw. We then moved onto our next step of our digital platform which was VIZManga.com, the website that we launched at San Diego Comic-Con. We felt that was the core of our existing platform. And now, with that platform in place, we're looking to develop more and more content.
We now have over 40 series and over 450 volumes available, and we're actually getting caught up with some of our series. You may have noticed that we're getting really close to print releases in the stores. We'll also be doing some day and date releases. And even some digital first releases, which we'll be announcing as well.

Our big announcement today is Shonen Jump Alpha. Shonen Jump is the largest manga publication in Japan, and it has been our flagship property. We are now taking it into the digital future. Starting on January 30, 2012, we will be having an all-digital Shonen Jump magazine that will be released every week, on a two-week delay, so it's almost simultaneous.

We're just doing what the fans want, and what everyone has been asking for. In the digital age, we're now able to do a lot of things that we weren't able to do in print. We are starting with six key titles for us: Naruto , Bleach, One Piece, Nura: Rise of the Yokai Clan, Toriko, and Bakuman.

Every week, we'll give you about 120 pages of manga in each issue of Shonen Jump Alpha. You'll get a one-year subscription for the same price as the print subscription, which is 25.99 for a full year - 52 weeks and 48 issues. You'll be able to read each issue for a period of 52 weeks. We are also offering a trial version, so you can read one issue for 99 cents for 4 weeks.

This new digital Shonen Jump magazine will be available on our current digital platform. You'll be able to read it on your iPad, iPod touch, iPhone and on the web. We have a lot more that we'll discuss about what we'll be doing with shonenjump.com in the months to come.

Along with this, we will be closing the physical Shonen Jump Magazine in March 2012. By then we'll have gotten everyone ramped up to the new digital Shonen Jump.

We're very excited to note that we'll be offering a speed up. We call it the "digital warp," so you can get ready for the releases in January. Naruto Volume 53 is now available digitally on VIZManga.com before its print release in December. We'll also have news about our Bleach speed-up to get caught up with the Japanese releases very soon.

Alvin Lu: I also wanted to mention that Sasaki-san was also the Editor-in-Chief of Weekly Shonen Jump for a long time, and was the editor who discovered Nobuhiro Watsuki, the creator of Rurouni Kenshin.

As someone who has spent the better part of his working life in the North American manga publishing industry, this is personally and professionally a very significant announcement. One of the aspects that we've taken pains to try to capture is the energy behind manga. For people on the outside, one of the mysteries of that energy that is difficult to pinpoint is that manga, in many ways, is very much like live entertainment in Japan.

Manga comes out in its most popular form once a week, and it enjoyed at the same time by millions of readers. Like with any kind of live entertainment, the creators feed off that energy. That's the secret of manga's success. Since the 1980's, when manga first began publishing in the U.S., what we've mostly been able to present in North America is the finished product in its collected form, as graphic novels.

It wasn't until recently that digital technology has made it possible to publish something that's very current. A weekly publication that would be available to North American fans at close to the same time as it is enjoyed by Japanese fans is something that has been the long-held dream of many of us in the manga publishing industry in North America. Digital technology has made this possible, and a lot of people at VIZ Media and Shueisha are making it possible. This is a very significant moment for us.

Sasaki Hisashi: From the Shueisha side, we are so excited to be a part of this launch of Shonen Jump Alpha. In this tough economy, we very much respect the efforts being made to make this new venture a reality, so we'd like to acknowledge all that the VIZ Media and Shonen Jump team is doing here.

There are a lot more content in Weekly Shonen Jump Magazine that has not been introduced to the US market yet. As we move to this new flagship vehicle for this content, we are looking forward to introducing new content to the United States market as well as expanding the readership of Shonen Jump in the future.

Q: Is this going to be U.S. only or US and Canada or worldwide?

Alvin Lu: US and Canada only.

Q: Any plans to take this worldwide in the future?

Sasaki Hisashi:At this moment, we don't have plans to take this worldwide. However, this digital technology is always improving and changing. Therefore we do not necessarily deny any possibility in the future, however as I said, at this moment, we don't have anything to announce now.

Q: You mentioned introducing some new series? Obviously, when VIZ's / Shonen Jump Alpha's English digital editions of Naruto and Bleach, etc. catch up with the Japanese editions, a print volume will come out.

However, if you opt to bring in new Shonen Jump series that haven't been published in the U.S. yet, like Beelzebub or Medaka Box, or series like Gin Tama, that ended in North America because they didn't sell quite well in print but fans love it, would it be possible to be a digital-only kind of thing? Particularly in the case of long series where they might not justify the cost of publishing a print edition, but could offer these series in a digital-only format?

Alvin Lu: The answer to that is yes, but (doing digital-only releases) introduces a host of logistical issues. It's tough enough to figure out how to put out 6 series every week. But we'll look at the possible roadmap and look at expanding our offerings. Obviously, getting caught up for a very long running series, it'd be more flexible to do it digitally.

Q: There's a lot of content in Weekly Shonen Jump that never gets translated, like the articles and the surveys, interviews and so on. I know that the English edition of Shonen Jump Magazine has lots of articles and extras. Is that going to be a part of what Shonen Jump Alpha will have?

Alvin Lu: Well, this is our teaser announcement -- the editorial content will also be undergoing a transformation as well. We'll be using our digital platform to do more than just the manga.

Q: I know in Weekly Shonen Jump, you rely a lot on feedback from your readers. Surveys, fan art and contests, etc. will this sort of thing be incorporated in this new Shonen Jump Alpha?

Alvin Lu: Yes, Weekly Shonen Jump is famous for their surveys, as everyone who reads Bakuman already knows! (laughs) Feedback from the readers is key component of Weekly Shonen Jump's creative business model. We're looking to fully take advantage of this for this digital edition for America. We'll reveal more about this later.

Q: Will American fans be able to influence Weekly Shonen Jump content? That is, what titles come in, which ones are phased out. I know Japanese fans have this power - but will now American fans have some say in this process?

Alvin Lu: I'll let Sasaki-san respond for the Japan side, but obviously one of the questions we will put forth to our readers is getting feedback on Shonen Jump Alpha.

Sasaki Hisashi:It is hard to answer this question. As you know, it is a completely new business venture for all of us. We don't deny that I don't know what kind of feedback that we'll get from readers. However, one good point of digital is that we can quickly change the course of how we do business.

As I said, we do not deny any possibility, but more we are looking into any possible business opportunities. So we should be very flexible. That said, we still don't know what's going to happen with this.

Brian Piech:This is a result of U.S. fans. I'd argue that Shonen Jump Alpha is a direct result of North American fans' requests.

Q: Why isn't the digital release of Shonen Jump Alpha simultaneous with the Japanese print release of Weekly Shonen Jump?

Alvin Lu: We want to leave room for improvement! (laughs) There are various factors that went into this. For now, if we can get this right, we can close the time gap and address the digital rights issues with other countries.

Q: So you're doing something very similar to what you've done with Rin-Ne by Rumiko Takahashi, where the English translation and editing process begins at the storyboard stage? (After the artists has created the rough storyboards of a given chapter, instead of waiting for the finished artwork to begin translation/editing process)

Alvin Lu: Yes. We revamped the translation process, and are working on ways to make this more streamlined.

--------------------------

After the initial press conference, I was allowed to ask a few additional questions to Lu and Sasaki. We talked a bit more directly about online piracy, the possibilities that digital publishing is opening up for new stories, new ways for fans to interact with Shonen Jump editors and creators, and perhaps new ways for North American comics creators to get a chance to be a part of the Shonen Jump phenomenon.

WILL SHONEN JUMP ALPHA CURB ONLINE PIRACY?

Q: This is exactly what I had hoped you would announce today. I never thought I’d see the day, so thank you!
I’ll just jump right into this – How are you going to address the piracy issue? Are there any concerns on your side, that people can just screengrab Shonen Jump Alpha pages and post them online anyway? As I understand it, that’s always been a concern with digital publishing from the Japan side.

Sasaki Hisashi: Screen capturing is something we can’t avoid. If someone wants to do it, they’ll do it anyway. However, Shonen Jump Alpha is using ePAP3, a secure encryption platform. From Shueisha’s point of view, we agreed with what VIZ wants to do here. As far as screen captures go, the quality should be leass than what we will provide. As I said, technology keeps improving and I hope that this issue will be minimized.

Alvin Lu: We have DRM (Digital Rights Management) practices in place that we feel good about. We know that no system is foolproof, but that said, given the convenience of the system that we’ve introduced, and given the price point, of 99 cents for a single issue, we think that the trouble that anyone would go through to get an illegitimate version is not worth the hassle to a lot of people. We think that there are a lot of compelling versions to go with this legitimate version.