DPReview has been acquired by Gear Patrol — a publisher focused on varied product reviews and buying guides. Scott Everett, general manager for DPReview, announced the acquisition on Tuesday, saving the beloved camera reviews website from closure almost three months after the site announced it was being shut down by its former parent company, Amazon. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.
“Gear Patrol is a natural home for the next phase of DPReview’s journey, and I’m excited to see what we can accomplish together,” said Everett. “Thank you for your continued support of our team and legacy. We appreciate it and can’t thank you all enough.”
DPReview will continue to operate as it did before the acquisition
Everett says in his announcement that current core employees across the company’s editorial, tech, and business divisions will continue to work on the site. He also says that DPReview site features and editorial coverage won’t be impacted by the acquisition and that the website will continue to operate as it did before the purchase. Everett isn’t promising that nothing will change under the platform’s new ownership, however, adding that DPReview will “continue evolving based on customer feedback and the rapidly changing state of the publishing industry.”
“DPReview is the internet’s original center of gravity for photography,” says Eric Yang, CEO and founder of Gear Patrol. “As a photography enthusiast, I’ve been an avid reader since its earliest days. We’re honored to receive the baton from Amazon and help the incredible DPReview team craft the next phase of their story. Editorial integrity and the passionate community are the heart of DPReview and we plan to uphold that charter.”
Given its similarities in publishing gadget reviews and buying guides, Gear Patrol feels like a good fit for DPReview. Before this announcement, the DPReview website and user forum were acquired by Amazon back in 2007. DPReview content was often linked to relevant Amazon product listings under its ownership, but otherwise, it’s not especially clear why the retail giant wanted a photography review website in its portfolio.
Earlier this year, it was announced that DPReview would be shut down after 25 years of operation as part of Amazon’s cost-cutting measures that saw 18,000 job cuts announced in January. The website was only supposed to remain operational until April 10th, sparking archiving efforts from users looking to preserve decades’ worth of DPReview’s valuable content before it vanished for good. The site thankfully remained online beyond this deadline and has continued to publish reviews and editorial content ever since.
