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Canon
Again in March, the editor-in-chief of the 25-year-old, Amazon-owned digicam evaluate web site DPReview.com announced that the site would be closing in April. The positioning was the casualty of a spherical of layoffs at Amazon that may have an effect on a complete of about 27,000 workers this yr; DPReview was meant to cease publishing new items on April 10 and to be accessible in read-only mode for an undetermined time frame after that.
However then, one thing odd occurred: The positioning merely stored publishing at a reasonably common clip all through the whole month of April and persevering with till now. A no-update replace from EIC Scott Everett published in mid-May merely acknowledged that items had been nonetheless going up and that there was “nothing to share,” which wasn’t a lot to go on but additionally did not make it sound as if the positioning had been in imminent hazard of disappearing.
Yesterday, Everett lastly had one thing to share: DPReview.com and its “present core editorial, tech, and enterprise workforce[s]” had been being acquired by Gear Patrol, an independently owned shopper know-how web site based by Eric Yang in 2007. The deal had already closed as of yesterday, June 20.
Everett’s submit says that “the positioning will proceed to function because it was earlier than, with all editorial protection and web site options remaining the identical, and all historic content material accessible.” The provision of that historic content material was a significant concern for a lot of readers—high-end cameras have a protracted shelf life, and DPReview was an essential content material repository for individuals attempting to navigate the used digicam market. Everett did observe that DPReview person accounts had been transferred to Gear Patrol and could be topic to Gear Patrol’s phrases of service going ahead.
Whereas DPReview’s present workforce will proceed with the positioning, former workers who left after the positioning’s closure was introduced do not seem to have been requested to come back again. Former web site editor Gannon Burgett criticized Amazon in harsh terms on Twitter, excoriating the corporate for the uncertainty it created for DPReview’s present and former workers and freelancers.
“You work this type of stuff out earlier than shutting down a whole division of your organization, not in hindsight after weeks of backlash and leaving freelancers to scramble for brand spanking new gigs as they’re instructed they gained’t have a job,” wrote Burgett. “The entire state of affairs was a shit present. I’m extraordinarily glad for everybody who did stick round and nonetheless has a job. However I do know that for many of them, it wasn’t clear what was taking place for not less than the primary two or three months, which is extremely unfair to workers who helped construct the very useful resource you’re about to show round and promote.”
“And to that, I’ll say once more, fuck Amazon,” said Burgett.
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