The steady increase in manga titles is beginning to create a strain on shelf space. Central Park Media, a New York City—based anime distributor and manga publisher, was forced to lay off six people last week—three each on the book and DVD sides.
Sources said the house plans to cut back its production schedule from about 80 titles a year to 12 to 15, focusing on titles in the popular yaoi manga category. CPM now has about 30 employees.
John O'Donnell, managing director of CPM, declined to comment on the situation. However, sources confirmed the layoffs and attributed the downsizing to both a warehousing glitch on the DVD side and CPM's reaction to even "normal" book returns. "The returns were typical, but CPM really never had returns before," the source said, blaming them on "much more selective" store buyers and consumers.
