More from Phil Askey

[Carol T]

DPR probably makes them little money or loses a little money relative to their total income. However, this probably simplifies some group's life and so bye-bye. I see this all the time at the big company for which I work. Negative affects on users/'customers' are rarely considered.

 

[Nick on the Baltic]

Amazon is engaged in some far-reaching cost-cutting. For them, or whoever within Amazon had responsibility for DPReview and made the decision to close it, it's not about the money, it's about the budget.

An edict will have come down from on high: "we have to cut $x billion from our costs, so every department will have its budget from next year reduced by y%". The departmental managers then look for the low-hanging fruit they can cut to reduce their projected spending to meet the reduced budget.

DPReview, as a self-contained little business, will surely have counted as low-hanging fruit.

 

[Bast Hotep]

Amazon is engaged in some far-reaching cost-cutting. For them, or whoever within Amazon had responsibility for DPReview and made the decision to close it, it's not about the money, it's about the budget.

An edict will have come down from on high: "we have to cut $x billion from our costs, so every department will have its budget from next year reduced by y%". The departmental managers then look for the low-hanging fruit they can cut to reduce their projected spending to meet the reduced budget.

DPReview, as a self-contained little business, will surely have counted as low-hanging fruit.

Axiom: whenever someone says "It's not about the money"...it's about the money.

 

[Nick on the Baltic]

Amazon is engaged in some far-reaching cost-cutting. For them, or whoever within Amazon had responsibility for DPReview and made the decision to close it, it's not about the money, it's about the budget.

An edict will have come down from on high: "we have to cut $x billion from our costs, so every department will have its budget from next year reduced by y%". The departmental managers then look for the low-hanging fruit they can cut to reduce their projected spending to meet the reduced budget.

DPReview, as a self-contained little business, will surely have counted as low-hanging fruit.

Axiom: whenever someone says "It's not about the money, it's about the principle"...it's about the money.

Fixed that for you. Doesn't apply budgets.

 

[johnapp]

Amazon is engaged in some far-reaching cost-cutting. For them, or whoever within Amazon had responsibility for DPReview and made the decision to close it, it's not about the money, it's about the budget.

An edict will have come down from on high: "we have to cut $x billion from our costs, so every department will have its budget from next year reduced by y%". The departmental managers then look for the low-hanging fruit they can cut to reduce their projected spending to meet the reduced budget.

DPReview, as a self-contained little business, will surely have counted as low-hanging fruit.

Axiom: whenever someone says "It's not about the money"...it's about the money.

THEY ARE CHEAP

 

[chris gunn]

Thank you!

 

[Winterfrost]

“I truly hope that Andy Jassy can see what a waste tearing this team apart and burning all this content will be, and what a huge loss it would be to the photography community and the Internet as a whole.”

Askey tags Jassy, Amazon’s current CEO, in the statement, clearly indicating that he expects him to read it.

link

I'd wish - if only a fraction of the DPReview community would drop Andy a mail via [email protected] or [email protected]...my letter is posted into the forum.

Good night.

 

[John Fantastic]

I am guessing that one reason the site lost a lot of revenues is a lot of bullies look down on cellphones as not real cameras, ( maybe even management) don't think cellphone are real cameras that is why it seldom review cellphones.

But in the real world it is where the money is right now. The Bullies influenced management to not focused on cellphones, killing this site.

Hahahahaha one thing I won't miss is the bullies who dominate this site with their messianic lectures . And those who disagree and considered stupid. Now with this site gone, they will probably have withdrawal symptoms like a drug they are so addicted , they need to go to rehab.

 

[bridge77]

I am guessing that one reason the site lost a lot of revenues is a lot of bullies look down on cellphones as not real cameras, ( maybe even management) don't think cellphone are real cameras that is why it seldom review cellphones.
But in the real world it is where the money is right now. The Bullies influenced management to not focused on cellphones, killing this site.
Hahahahaha one thing I won't miss is the bullies who dominate this site with their messianic lectures . And those who disagree and considered stupid. Now with this site gone, they will probably have withdrawal symptoms like a drug they are so addicted , they need to go to rehab.

the reality on smart phones, and i have been on both sides of the fence. growing up something economical is what most will use, not gonna change. what we have is a small niche hobby.

should they have had a smart phone section of the forum? well sure, but too late now i spose.

this is what i wrote elsewhere...

personally, canon/nikon/sony et al don't really fire me up much. kinda like them all and glad we have such a great selection still. the smart phone issue has always been there on the low end and isn't going away.

when i was young, not many had great cameras. we just got what was cheap and developed a roll of film at times. that probably always will be. we are in the minority - not gonna change.

 

[GossCTP]

I am guessing that one reason the site lost a lot of revenues is a lot of bullies look down on cellphones as not real cameras, ( maybe even management) don't think cellphone are real cameras that is why it seldom review cellphones.
But in the real world it is where the money is right now. The Bullies influenced management to not focused on cellphones, killing this site.
Hahahahaha one thing I won't miss is the bullies who dominate this site with their messianic lectures . And those who disagree and considered stupid. Now with this site gone, they will probably have withdrawal symptoms like a drug they are so addicted , they need to go to rehab.

the reality on smart phones, and i have been on both sides of the fence. growing up something economical is what most will use, not gonna change. what we have is a small niche hobby.

should they have had a smart phone section of the forum? well sure, but too late now i spose.

They have about four of them, and they get surprisingly little traffic. They added them quite a few years ago.

this is what i wrote elsewhere...

personally, canon/nikon/sony et al don't really fire me up much. kinda like them all and glad we have such a great selection still. the smart phone issue has always been there on the low end and isn't going away.

when i was young, not many had great cameras. we just got what was cheap and developed a roll of film at times. that probably always will be. we are in the minority - not gonna change.

 

[bridge77]

I am guessing that one reason the site lost a lot of revenues is a lot of bullies look down on cellphones as not real cameras, ( maybe even management) don't think cellphone are real cameras that is why it seldom review cellphones.
But in the real world it is where the money is right now. The Bullies influenced management to not focused on cellphones, killing this site.
Hahahahaha one thing I won't miss is the bullies who dominate this site with their messianic lectures . And those who disagree and considered stupid. Now with this site gone, they will probably have withdrawal symptoms like a drug they are so addicted , they need to go to rehab.

the reality on smart phones, and i have been on both sides of the fence. growing up something economical is what most will use, not gonna change. what we have is a small niche hobby.

should they have had a smart phone section of the forum? well sure, but too late now i spose.

They have about four of them, and they get surprisingly little traffic. They added them quite a few years ago.

ok, my Bad and stand corrected. :-O

this is what i wrote elsewhere...

personally, canon/nikon/sony et al don't really fire me up much. kinda like them all and glad we have such a great selection still. the smart phone issue has always been there on the low end and isn't going away.

when i was young, not many had great cameras. we just got what was cheap and developed a roll of film at times. that probably always will be. we are in the minority - not gonna change.

 

[Bashir Lunat]

1. In 2007 dpreview was at a tipping point where I could no longer run it single handed

2. Amazon wasn't the only offer back then

3. They had an excellent reputation for not just maintaining but improving independent businesses transparently

4. Amazon invested heavily in the site, the team and equipment

5. In the last 16 years dpreview has been in their ownership it has grown and flourished, it's significantly bigger and better than it was in 2007

I have no regrets of my decision back then, if I had tried to continue alone I suspect the site would have had to close a long time ago. I truly hope now that something will happen in order to at least maintain the site content.

Any chance of taking over?

 

[JoeBryanFFC]

Fair play to Phil for posting here. Actually more than fairplay - well done!

I'm from a corporate background myself (high level)...

I wasn't surprised by the announcement, since dpreview has had this corporate front cover to it especially for the past few years. It was asking for it.

Articles were of decent quality but very passive and pandering to the latest releases by the largest manufacturers.

Unlike quite a few other giant forums, user generated content (WHICH IS FREE) never got the respect it deserved here, hardly ever featuring on the homepage and with little to no engagement between protagonists such as Chris & Jordan with regular forum contributors. DPreview could have easily ran the biggest and best annual/quarterly photography competitions with prizes from manufacturers or amazon and generated genuine revenue from paid entrants. Or at the least, given the stage a little to various forum pros that are reservoirs of knowledge - at say manufacturer R&D focus groups - another source of site income.

Amazon WOULD NOT have micro-managed dpreview to an extent that would have made this impossible. I know that for a fact.

But here we are, with the ultimate slap in the face to regular posters and generators of massive amounts of free content... at the end of an insultingly small 2 weeks notice of termination... when clearly the site staff knew for many months before.

Bravo to those who run this site today

 

[Neverlost99]

Phil. Can you share any contact information where we might email people like we would a US senator or lobbyist to try to get attention?

 

[GossCTP]

Amazon is engaged in some far-reaching cost-cutting. For them, or whoever within Amazon had responsibility for DPReview and made the decision to close it, it's not about the money, it's about the budget.

An edict will have come down from on high: "we have to cut $x billion from our costs, so every department will have its budget from next year reduced by y%". The departmental managers then look for the low-hanging fruit they can cut to reduce their projected spending to meet the reduced budget.

DPReview, as a self-contained little business, will surely have counted as low-hanging fruit.

Axiom: whenever someone says "It's not about the money, it's about the principle"...it's about the money.

Fixed that for you. Doesn't apply budgets.

Yeah. I take it that Amazon is about to have a bad stock report and they are trying to fire people to make the investors satiated. If it succeeds, the big wigs will get bonuses while thousands are left on unemployment. Public companies do this dance all the time, often at a detriment to the organization as a whole.

 

[TN Args]

If you read my reply above I've had NO complaints about how Amazon has run dpreview for the last 16 years, I've only appealed to them that rather than just shutting it down perhaps find a buyer and/or enable the archiving of content.

I think that was well conveyed on your part, which is why I limited the scope of my post to your comments about the dissolution of the site.

I think it would be remiss of me to not say something publicly, which is why I did.

Thanks for chipping in Phil. Not sure if you are aware of Scott Everett’s April 7th update that the content will not be lost and will be archived.

cheers

--
"A picture is a secret about a secret: the more it tells you, the less you know." —Diane Arbus

 

[Mark Ransom]

Phil. Can you share any contact information where we might email people like we would a US senator or lobbyist to try to get attention?

If I remember correctly, Phil is in England and isn't likely to have any US political connections.

 

[Frank_E2]

I don’t think Amazon even sells moral compasses. I’ve looked.

 

[Winterfrost]

1. In 2007 dpreview was at a tipping point where I could no longer run it single handed

2. Amazon wasn't the only offer back then

3. They had an excellent reputation for not just maintaining but improving independent businesses transparently

4. Amazon invested heavily in the site, the team and equipment

5. In the last 16 years dpreview has been in their ownership it has grown and flourished, it's significantly bigger and better than it was in 2007

I have no regrets of my decision back then, if I had tried to continue alone I suspect the site would have had to close a long time ago. I truly hope now that something will happen in order to at least maintain the site content.

Thanks for your post here, and the explanation, Phil. Yes, it does make (much) sense, from your PoV. The only bad taste i've had after the Amazon 2007 DPR overtaking process was - Amazon could drop, dump DPR anytime...but during the past 16 years, i've never thought that negative about Amazon again...until reading the shock-ing announcement, that DPR would to be shutdown...and the whole staff team laid-off...

Thanks for all your hard work, what you've done to make DPR a global (the best) photography gear site onto the web.

kind regards,

Marc

 

[GossCTP]

Phil. Can you share any contact information where we might email people like we would a US senator or lobbyist to try to get attention?

That only works for underinflated footballs.