Amazon layoffs will shut down camera review site DPReview.com after 25 years :( [View all]
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/03/amazon-layoffs-will-shut-down-camera-review-site-dpreview-com-after-25-years/
Amazon has plans to lay off at least 27,000 workers this year, including 9,000 that were announced in an internal email Monday morning. One unexpected casualty: Digital Photography Review, also known as DPReview, is losing its entire editorial staff, and the site will stop publishing on April 10.
Founded in November 1998, DPReview is one of the few active review sites as old as Ars Technica. Amazon purchased it in 2007, and the site's team has been located in Amazon's hometown of Seattle since 2010.
The announcement post, written by DPReview General Manager Scott Everett, says that new pieces will continue to be posted through April 10, and "the site will be locked" afterward. It's unclear what will happen to the site's content afterwardthe post promises only that the site's articles "will be available in read-only mode for a limited period afterwards." Any photos and text that readers have uploaded to their accounts can be requested and downloaded until April 6, "after which we will not be able to complete the request."
Former site editor Gannon Burgett said on Twitter that the decision to lay off the staff was announced in January and that "Amazon hasn't yet come up with an archival plan" for the site. Cameras, even digital ones, tend to have a pretty long shelf life, and there's an active used market for lenses and camera bodiesif DPReview.com goes offline entirely, that would be a huge blow to anyone trying to research older products.
There have been some impressive articles at DPReview.
Fortunately, the Wayback Machine at the Internet Archive has captured its pages:
Saved 377,500 times between November 28, 1999 and March 21, 2023.
Went up to 378,404 as I was typing this.