Amazon is closing DPReview.com, one of the oldest and most respected online-content sites on the Internet. And like Amazon's recent decision to
shut its Smile charity program, people were united in their disappointment in a world where agreement is rare.
A
fan of DPReview tweeted, "Terrible news. Thank you for all the reviews, advices, suggestions and tricks - all of your hard work.. you may never realise how important you were, to many around the globe. I wish you all the best."
The publication, Digital Photography Review, describes its mission as follows: "to provide the most authoritative coverage of digital photography gear in the world, including news, articles and expert reviews."
But it is not only photographers and camera aficionados who rely on DPReview - buyers and sellers do too. "We have built the most comprehensive database of consumer digital cameras on the Internet, and we provide an open, active forum and useful tools for our community," according to the site.
Ars Technica senior tech reporter Andrew Cunningham explained, "Cameras, even digital ones, tend to have a pretty long shelf life, and there's an active used market for lenses and camera bodies - if DPReview.com goes offline entirely, that would be a huge blow to anyone trying to research older products."
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
That announcement came a day after
Amazon revealed more cuts in its business. On Monday, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy announced Amazon would laying off an additional 9,000 employees after announcing in January it was eliminating 18,000 positions.
Amazon's CEO said in part, "given the uncertain economy in which we reside, and the uncertainty that exists in the near future, we have chosen to be more streamlined in our costs and headcount. The overriding tenet of our annual planning this year was to be leaner while doing so in a way that enables us to still invest robustly in the key long-term customer experiences that we believe can meaningfully improve customers’ lives and Amazon as a whole."
It's difficult to know if Amazon's current penny-pinching will cost it goodwill among customers, as seemed to be the case with the demise of Amazon Smile.
Said one DPReview fan on Twitter: "And in a "metaverse" awash with shite reviews it was the only place I trusted. Not sure where I'll go now... My contempt for Amazon keeps increasing. #savedpreview"
You can find tributes from DPReview readers who were responding to its announcement posts on
Facebook and on
Twitter.
Sellers Lose Research Tool with Another Amazon Closure
by: COVID-19 