Amazon is shutting down Seattle-based DPReview, a leading online source for news and reviews about digital cameras and photography, the site’s general manager wrote in a blog post on Tuesday.
“After nearly 25 years of operation, DPReview will be closing in the near future,” said DPReview’s Scott Everett. “This difficult decision is part of the annual operating plan review that our parent company shared earlier this year,” he added, referencing Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s Jan. 4 memo announcing 18,000 job cuts at the tech giant.
Started in 1998 as a “hobby site,” DPReview grew into the go-to source for digital gear information. It attracted the attention of Amazon founder and then-CEO Jeff Bezos, whose company acquired DPReview in May 2007.
“DPReview.com is by far the most authoritative source anywhere for straight talk about new digital cameras,” Bezos said in a news release at the time. “We at Amazon.com have been their fans for a long time.”
According to DPReview’s about page, the site employs 11 people. GeekWire reached out to Amazon for comment and we’ll update when we hear back.
Everett’s post about the closure said DPReview will remain active until April 10. The site’s editorial team “is still working on reviews and looking forward to delivering some of our best-ever content,” he said.
Everett said the site will be locked, with no further updates after April 10 and will be available in read-only for a limited period. Users can request a download of all photos and text they’ve uploaded to the site until April 6.
News of the impending demise of the site drew widespread disappointment from photographers and DPReview users and fans commenting on Everett’s post. Many called it a shock that years of reviews and resources could be set to vanish from the internet.
Eugene Hsu spent six years at DPReview where he worked as a product manager in monetization.
“You might not remember the name, but if you ever searched online for digital cameras in the last two decades, it’s guaranteed that you were brought to DPReview.com,” Hsu told GeekWire. “Photographers will soon face the loss of the best centralized source of deep technical editorial knowledge, the best imaging samples, and the most passionate camera community.”
GeekWire contributing photographer Kevin Lisota called DPReview and the site’s in-depth gear reviews a valuable resource for photographers.
“While the site may not fit strategically at Amazon at the moment, I’m surprised that they can’t find a home for it outside of the company,” Lisota said. “The photography community will be quite upset at this decision.”
On DPReview’s YouTube channel, where Chris Niccolls and Jordan Drake attracted 410,000 followers with their reviews and educational content, the hosts called it “a big loss for everybody” in a new video, below.
In addition to the 18,000 layoffs it announced in January, Amazon said Monday that it is cutting another 9,000 corporate and tech employees over the next few weeks. The 27,000 job cuts equal about 8% of Amazon’s corporate workforce, which previously numbered around 350,000 people.
The company has trimmed back and eliminated several products, services, and entire businesses over the past year to help trim expenses, including its Scout neighborhood delivery robots, its Amazon Care primary healthcare business, bricks-and-mortar Amazon bookstores, and others.
Amazon this month announced the closure of eight Amazon Go convenience stores. It is also pausing construction on its HQ2 project in the Washington, D.C., area.
