[mike]

AGREED! I generally look for articles for the same reasons.

---

I'm still not convinced. Perhaps DPreview had some patents AZ wanted? I just can't imagine any company the size of AZ buying a review website just because it's cool or they could advertise on it. That makes no sense unless they had something else to offer. There has to be an ulterior motive.

[borisbg]

I think the original motive for Amazon to DPR was their visitor traffic, this allowed them push shopping links all over the place. It looked like good plan review, influence, sell... But as we know by now internet traffic is not a "thing" anymore on photography gear sites. And there is one more factor (here in US) sales taxes. B&H and Adorama have manged to help the buyer save on sales taxes. Amazon as seller is always in 8-9% disadvantage.

[davidmanze]

I've been visiting and contributing to DPR forums for nearly twelve years, ..... it's a photographer's institution .... then one fine day and it's gone ..... today's "must have" is tomorrows landfill ...... a shame indeed ....... 

Vivre Ukrain !!

[photonius]

If DPR wasn't profitable and if it didn't contribute to Amazon in terms of cross-sales (which they tried), they had to pull the plug.

They have a couple of hundred thousand employees, so firing 12 of them is probably not even a decision on the board level.

But I agree that a subscription plan should have been considered.

Speaking of subscription plan ... OL will go Patreon. ;-) But no panic, it'll be primarily about early access from my side ... and for Markus uploading his mountain of Nikon test charts.

BTW, who would have thought that Pentax and MFT will outlive DPR ;-)

Re: Pentax, LOL,  indeed.

---

Totally agree.
I hate videos. The amount of time required to obtain a descent amount of information is huge compared to text.
Furthermore, you can't actually browse the content and are forced to watch all the useless blah blah blah to actually locate the interesting bits.
It seems to be generational though. Youngsters were raised on videos and are often unable to read anything longer than 5 lines long.

Yes, also agree, videos are such a waste of time. 
And producing a good video is also more time consuming than producing a good text.

As to videos, I'm wondering what the future holds.  Now Tiktok is all the rage, long videos are out, attention span is going down the tubes. Brainless masses are following clueless inflatulencers ... 
Idiocracy looms...

[stoppingdown]

Count me among those who definitely prefer articles to videos.

[Kunzite]

BTW, who would have thought that Pentax and MFT will outlive DPR ;-)

I'm surprised that MFT is still around, but Pentax? It's obvious they would survive the likes of DPR.
And, they survived Canon EF and Nikon F as well. Just sayin'

[Rover]

I've seen some other sites that are new for me, but nothing compares to the good old Photozone anyway. :-)

[thxbb12]

A "good" news at least: "we want to assure you that the content will remain available as an archive.".

I'm glad they will actually keep it up as an archive. The content won't be lost at least :-)

Source: https://www.dpreview.com/news/0507902613/dpreview-closure-an-update

[mike]

A "good" news at least: "we want to assure you that the content will remain available as an archive.".

I'm glad they will actually keep it up as an archive. The content won't be lost at least :-)

Source: https://www.dpreview.com/news/0507902613/dpreview-closure-an-update

They also said they're going to have new stories while they're archiving. 

Kind of sounds like someone may have expressed interest in the site...

[Klaus]

I don't think that there'll be a takeover.
Reviewing stuff is a people business, and I reckon most of the staff has moved on. During the last years, Chris and Gordon were the primary drivers anyway.

While I can understand why people have bashed Amazon for the decision, the site was surely a loss-maker. They had 12 people working for it. This just wasn't sustainable.
There are now probably 20 relevant reviewers around camera/lens equipment. Back in the day, there were 5. The "reviewer community" is consuming its baseline at the moment.