Like most of you, I was stunned this morning to see that Digital Photography Review, the biggest dedicated photography website, is closing their doors after more than two decades of operation. I’m still trying to process the news, but here are a couple of the early things I’d like to say.
First, I’ve been following DPReview since my first days as a photographer about 12 years ago. Other than Photography Life itself (then called Mansurovs.com), it was the formative website that I used to learn photography, especially through the wealth of knowledge in the forums. Even as the site grew and was bought by Amazon, they maintained a level of credibility and detail that few other photography websites could match. The online photography world is worse off for their demise. It’s even worse for new photographers, who will now have one less credible resource in an era where it’s about to become even harder to trust what you read.
I’ve been fielding questions from Photography Life’s readers about how DPReview’s closure will affect us. Long story short, we are not at any risk of closing. Ad CPMs have been dropping this year, but our views have been growing gradually, and we’re fully sustainable despite the shrunken photography industry this past decade. Unlike DPReview, Photography Life is not owned by any larger entities like Amazon who can drop us at their whim. The only owners of the website are myself and Nasim.
As for more details, like the possibility of us hosting a replacement forum or offering to buy any of DPReview’s assets, all I can say is that I don’t yet know. We’re looking into all the options, but frankly, we didn’t expect DPReview to close – I don’t think anyone outside of Amazon did. My hope is that DPReview’s flame can continue in one way or another, and that other photography websites like us can play a part in that. But it will be a while before we know what’s possible and what’s not.
I may say more as we learn more about the closure and how it’s going to shake out. For now, I’ll be watching the DPReview homepage as they publish some retrospective articles in the coming weeks and following along with the sad nostalgia.
Lastly, just a quick side note for our regular readers. Thank you for being patient these last two weeks while I was traveling and testing five new lenses (the image above is from the Tamron 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3 for Nikon Z). Because I lacked service during most of the trip, I couldn’t publish articles at our usual pace, and I had to push back the date of my Nikon Z 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 VR S review. Now that I’m back home, I’ll be publishing it tomorrow night. By next week, Photography Life will have ramped up again to our usual schedule of an article per day.
Hello!
I’m really new here having discovered this site a mere 2 days ago–it’s obviously a great resource.
To be blunt, it takes an income stream to keep this site alive and to keep current/potential contributors engaged.
I’m a member of two active/revered forums: Watchuseek and headfi. Both are immensely popular. Thye use outside revenue to succeed. Generating revenue through commercial advertising is not a bad idea–if done properly. Also, both forums have very active buy/sell markets, which generates tons of viewer engagement.
I’m not a website expert, but I’m suggesting soliciting responsible commercial sponsors and some type of revenue-generating subscription plan for users.
So, x$ per month (under $10) for a quality website? Especially since the big dog on the porch just shut down?
Just my $.02.
Bill
Please guys, sign the petition, it costs only 30 sec of your life time, and confirm the email address via change.org via coming mail.
www.change.org/p/sto…review-com
I wish a fine belated sunday, and a great upcoming week !
All the best, stay safe and healthy.
Marc
I have an alternative viewpoint.
TBH, DPReview hasn’t reviewed a lot of stuff in a reasonable timeframe in longer than I can remember.
They haven’t done a single interesting lens review in my recent memory: I rely on Photography Life, Bythom, and a few randoms, it’s not a bad mix.
The forums are full of arguing crusty rich old dudes for the most part. Anything interesting in their has been said many times and or can be said again.
I can only see opportunities in the end of this “shell of its former self” disappearing.
The King is dead, long Live the King.
The forums at DPReview have a wealth of information regarding all cameras, lenses and studio equipments and different techniques and compatibilities and priceless advice in addition to the history aspect of it.
It is simply an important piece of our lives and our love for photography.
Absolutely right.
If you think it can help, “change.org” petition is here : chng.it/vnwCcw6dFV
Done that since a few days ago.
Hi Spencer,
great post. I am a silent reader serveral times daily since Fall 1999, and registered on DPR since 2014. It’s with great sadness, this unbelieveable loss for the community. Also being a reader of Photographylife here since many years.
There is absolutely nothing comparable, as the gear review authority DPR onto the web, and it was…for almost 25 years. No words.
Greetings,
Marc
Excellent and interesting article, Spencer! Regarding the imminent closing of DPReview, I’ve been a subscriber of theirs for 20 years. I shall miss them, but thankfully have found your high-quality site, with equally informative articles and photography! I especially enjoy your articles and reviews of the Nikon Z System. Regards, SteveTQP
Maybe it is time for Photographylife to start new photography forums and register members. I would be interested to join here.
Is that too big and difficult of a process?
It’s going to be a huge process, not going to sugar-coat it. Nasim has expressed some interest in trying. You can read his post here: www.dpreview.com/forum…t/66960462
The existing Photography Life forum is basically a placeholder and doesn’t have anywhere near the capacity for this project, so he would need to start a new one from scratch. If the effort goes anywhere, I’m sure you’ll hear more from him soon.
Otherwise, we will do our best to promote whatever alternative seems to have the best long-term stability/plan, and buy-in from the DPR forum community.
Hope Nasim is up to it. Sounds like a significant challenge,
yes!
As much as I would like to see PL as anchor site for a lively forum to replace DPR’s one, I think that’s not an advisable combo.
DPR and PL are very very different sites. And that is the reason why DPR attracted many more siteviews and active members than PL with its current approach ever could. Don’t get me wrong. I love PL and personally spend much more time here than there.
PL’s long and educating articles, these days particularly by Spencer and Libor, are a joy to read and I continue to learn a lot. If I ever was searching the web or DPR’s forum, it was on specific topics and mostly I ended up with posts or articles of the occasionally mentioned Iliah Borg, Jim Kasson or Roger Cincala to name just three of many.
I wonder if PL’s money would not be better spent to encourage them, and other ‘nerds’ (positive!), to write articles for PL, then to spent probably more to run a forum of DPR’s size. Opening up from being a bit less Nikon focused would probably be attractive for more excellent contributors and number of readers, so that it would hopefully work bottom line for all.
The other thing is of course that I, like many others, would love to see a closed but archived DPR forum being available in future, so that global photography knowledge can be assessed in future until site views are negligible. It sounds a bit pathetic, but to me this is part of what a national or global library should be good for. This is intellectual heritage, at least parts of it.
And same applies to many of the articles here at PL and other excellent photography sites.
Thank you Spencer for your human and photography leadership as I am saddened to learn about the demise of DPR.
Thank you Fabrice, me too. It’s sad news for the photography world.
Thom Hogan has some interesting things to say on his site bythom.com
He also has a followup article discussing the future of DPReview’s forum, for anyone who hasn’t read Nasim’s post and wants to get a sense of how expensive and difficult it will be to replicate: bythom.com/newsv…losur.html
Surprised you haven’t mentioned them moving to PetaPixel’s channel
youtu.be/f6T3qWI2c-Y
I mentioned it in a comment further down, but that’s at least a silver lining. Their videos were a big highlight of DPR and I’m glad they’re not stopping now!
Chris & Jordan were my favorites. Glad to see them continue, even despite my reservations with PP’s editorial direction.