The Decline Continues

Um, as someone who had to plan the transition of a major magazine to online content, I'd have quite a few words to say about what people will or won't buy. But a few are really easy to say: they won't buy the magazine in online form ;~).

Instead you have to give them something new, that doesn't already exist, and that they perceive of value. I can point to clear examples. Heck, my own site is one. Good content sells. Content that was already watered down and had breached the Editorial fire wall will not.

Nail hit directly on head. And further to the point: once the people trying to make that goal happen can enumerate that goal, we'll all evaluate whether or not it's something that we want to participate in, even just as readers.

There's also the issue of bifurcation. dprforum.com is trying to do the same (similar?) thing. Split the audience, and it absolutely won't work.

Those "expenses" could easily be US$1million a year if the goal is as big as I've seen hinted at. Moreover, non-profits don't tend to build asset value where they could be later sold if they need a bigger wallet.

A competently equipped studio for test shots (even if we are not talking lens/mtf tests) needs something like a Photo Research spectroradiometer to monitor lights and target aging.

For me, most of the value of DPReview was in the forums; that's where I did most of my learning. I'd hate to see a good forum go bust because it tried to do too many expensive things early in its existence.

I've a slightly different perspective on reliably finding content from 'the rumor sites' ;-)

My feeling is that these sites want to cling on to visitors so tightly that you'll get not an ounce of real cooperation that might affect their [increasingly thin] bottom lines.

I set up [just as a few pages] the first dedicated rumour pages nearly 20 years ago - for a few years my [mostly Canon] rumours pages did phenomenally well (enough in ad revenue for my wife to give up a part-time job she hated and become marketing director for our main commercial photography business), but by 2010 everyone and their uncle was setting up XYZrumors dot com and I decided that it was time to wind down the pages. It became a chore, and my 'real' reviews and articles were becoming far more interesting to do...

I still keep them on our site partly for archiving and partly to keep up with what's happening in the industry, but updates are infrequent these days - as much as anything because 'real' rumours have become much more scarce, and most 'rumor sites' are just recycling scraps.

As to original content here - it's difficult to keep up the volume and quality needed for a good site, especially if it's to be at a suitable level of expertise and complexity.
I take note of Thom's comments here in that there needs to be a clear commitment to editorial independence, and that's not always easy. I've turned down 'ambassador' requests because it's taken years to build up a reputation for impartiality. Personally I could never afford to buy the stuff I test, but with clarity it's possible to test loan equipment and 'call a spade a spade' [we have a published review/advertising policy for example] - I try and stick to kit that I'll actually use in my work.

Having written stuff for ~20 years it's not easy to keep activity going!
Take note of those contributing here with that sort of experience, like Thom ;-)

From what I was told, the test most asked for is "high ISO noise" test ;)

I had several discussions with their stuff on that. The answer to my questions was, essentially, "good enough for 99.9% of the audience".

I talked with Rishi -- at his instigation -- about how to make the tests better, but he seemed to think that there was little appetite at Amazon for a significant increase in expenses.

me / no generalizations ! / = forum + camera models data(base) + test shots (raws) to experiment w/ cameras that I do not have ( that is 99.99 % of them ) ... as for dpreview-level reviews or news it is not a big loss at all ...

Good to see the guy who hosts the best resource fot tilt shift Architectural photography on the web posting here. I have found your articles very useful.

I believe there is a space for articles and information about all those specialist areas of photography that do not seem to be well covered on the big sites. I am thinking about the 15mm Laowa shift lens right now. Reviews of this lens are very thin on the ground.

but the this site owner(s) needs to implement a curated space - landing page w/ such articles on this site outside of the forum structure and then see how it goes - if HQ material will be posted ( directing discussion then to forums here ) that will be great ...