DPReview is shutting down in three weeks
Mar 21, 2023
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Share:
Unless this is an April Fool joke that somebody hit publish on a little too soon, it looks like DPReview will be shutting down completely as of April 10th. An announcement published on the site today states that DPReview will be closing as part of Amazon’s annual operating plan review. According to the announcement, DPReview will remain live but read-only from April 10th for a short period of time.
The company hasn’t said how long the site will remain online in a read-only mode after user interaction is disabled, but they have said that it’ll be visible “for a limited period afterwards”. It’s a very swift ending for a website that’s been around for 25 years and become one of the largest and most respected on the Internet.
[Related reading: Adobe: We are committed to not having company wide layoffs]
The complete announcement from DPReview General Manager, Scott Everett reads:
Dear readers,
After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview will be closing in the near future. This difficult decision is part of the annual operating plan review that our parent company shared earlier this year.
The site will remain active until April 10, and the editorial team is still working on reviews and looking forward to delivering some of our best-ever content.
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.
Sincerely,
Scott Everett
General Manager – DPReview.com
A statement from Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, doesn’t mention DPReview specifically but states that they plan to eliminate 18,000 roles in the company. He says the roles will primarily be in Amazon Stores and People Experience and Technology (PXT) organisations. Presumably, DPReview falls under PXT. Amazon does say that they are working with those they are letting go to help them transition to other work.
S-team and I are deeply aware that these role eliminations are difficult for people, and we don’t take these decisions lightly or underestimate how much they might affect the lives of those who are impacted. We are working to support those who are affected and are providing packages that include a separation payment, transitional health insurance benefits, and external job placement support.
– Andy Jassy, CEO, Amazon
DPReview was one of the first photography websites I discovered when I started getting serious with photography a little over 20 years ago. With as large and popular as it’s become… It’s the largest photography site on the web by a significant margin from its nearest competitor. It’s difficult to imagine a valuable site like DPReview being expendable.
We wish our friends at DPReview all the best for the future!
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
Join the Discussion
DIYP Comment Policy
Be nice, be on-topic, no personal information or flames.
14 responses to “DPReview is shutting down in three weeks”
@DPReview , even in light of this shutdown of yours. I still wish to make known that I will not be turning off my adblocker. You see, advertisers pushing their wares on my bandwidth is a form of freeloading. I won’t tolerate it on my home network resources on bandwidth I paid for. My adblock solutions will remain in place and fully active on all internet resources consumed in this home. Advertisers are welcome to reach out to me directly to make an appointment to discuss the matter.
How does this have anything to do with the post?
get over yourself
Will be a huge loss for the photographic community. While I’m a casual visitor for news and reviews, I do make use of their comprehensive camera database at least a couple of times a week. I have a little GAS when it comes to “vintage digital”. With the DPR database, I can get features, release date, full specs. This sucks. The forums, even questions that go back years, can be of use as well for those oddball problems. This really sucks.
It’s a sad news :(
DPReview has been my no.1 camera website and forum since the internet existed
you know, the first thing I did was to verify it is not April’s 1st :( DPR has been a true companion in my journey with an incredible team.
yes me too!! I can’t really believe it at all and thought it must be April fool’s joke. Unfortunately it was not a joke :(
I gave upon DPR a long time ago.
Too much fanboy vitriol and poor site management.
I can get what I want and need photographically from other sites without all that negativity.
and you moved on to where?
I gave upon DPR a long time ago.
Too much fanboy vitriol and poor site management.
I can get what I want and need photographically from other sites without all that negativity.
Why did Amazon buy them? What di they think they were going to gain from DPR? What have they asset stripped out that was worth what they paid or is like Google and the NIk software that google was going to throw away.
Amazon sux! Corporate greed at its finest, the least they could do is keep it running and preserve the history.
Pretty unuseable. Im not surprised its gone
Very sad…a site with story…and great information about old cameras