Today brought a heartbreaking news to the global photography community. DPReview.com, one of the biggest global titles in photography journalism, is closing on April 10, after nearly 25 years of operation.
DPReview.com will be available in read-only mode for a limited time after April 10. Readers and contributors who uploaded photos and text to the site have until April 6 to request a download of their content.
According to General Manager Scott Everett, this difficult decision is part of the annual operating plan review that their parent company, Amazon, shared earlier this year.
“Everyone on our staff was a reader and fan of DPReview before working here, and we’re grateful for the communities that formed around the site.
“Thank you for your support over the years, and we hope you’ll join us in the coming weeks as we celebrate this journey,” Everett wrote in the publication’s announcement.
Apart from covering photography news, gear reviews, educational topics, photography culture and video content, DPReview.com also housed a community of passionate photographers across the globe.
My understanding is that they are deleting the entire site as well.
Among the possible responses from the photography community:
1) Find a Buyer. encourage another leading partner such as B&H Photo or Adorama to buy the site.
2) Start a DPR foundation. Have loyalists fund a nonprofit foundation to continue DPR’s operation.
3) Consider Boycotting Amazon— a symbolic gesture, to be sure, but a deserved one. I will buy my photo gear elsewhere, starting today and will encourage friends to do the same.
Thoughts? Other possible actions?
I started reducing my use of Amazon quite a while ago. There are several reasons, and this just adds another.
We need a new place where gearheads can argue endlessly about sensor noise.