Popular Photography shutting down

farlymac said:
It's all over for the gang at PopPhoto. I already miss the magazine, as I haven't been able to find it around here for a few months. I knew when they purposely skipped an issue that this could not be far off. Hope they all find good jobs.

https://www.dpreview.com/news/80503...d-popphoto-com-to-close-after-nearly-80-years

Who knew they'd been on the 'net for 80 years?

PF
Click to expand...

It seems odd to me that PopPhoto could not find its way to profitability with such a large customer base.

Stephen
 
Wow, that's something. I remember so well pouring through the last 20 or 30 pages of ads from every major camera store – mostly in type too small to read. I suppose all but a few, along with their ad dollars, are gone too.

I just visited a bookstore for the first time in while and was shocked at the huge wall of magazines. People still read that paper stuff?

John
 
CameraQuest said:
It seems odd to me that PopPhoto could not find its way to profitability with such a large customer base.

Stephen
Click to expand...

Problem was ads. Seems people stopped buying ads for the printed magazine; also, people aren't buying magazine anymore, again, due to the internet. Pretty sad. My dad was a subscriber since the 80s til he died. In fact, the subscriptions overlasted my dad. Really learned a lot from reading PP and Shutterbug in the time before the internet.

Best wishes to their employees.

Regards

Marcelo
 
Loss of readers -> loss of advertisers -> close shop

I stopped reading it about 12 years ago. At that time, it was all about the next Nikon D n+1, and the Canon EOS N+1, and how to adjust every photo to death with photoshop. Since I'm still a film shooter, I figured that they had nothing for me at that point, and stopped reading them.

When I was reading them in the 1970s-2000, they had excellent articles, and often featured up and coming artists.
 
If I recall correctly, PopPhoto changed owners 10-15 years ago and fired super camera nerd and legendary photography writer Jason Schneider as editor, unfortunately replacing him with a succession of less camera knowledgeable editors.

No camera nerds = declining readership imo.

I remember a really terribly written review in Pop a few years back of the then new Leica M240. I considered writing Pop about it, but didn't bother since if they published such stuff, they would not understand my objections.
 
Changing world.

Used to subscribe to Popular Photography. Lost its meaning for me.

Still receive Shutterbug but the issues aren't as many pages as in the past. I remember when Hasslblad had an ad on the back cover, it seemed like most issues.

Time brings changes.

I have bookmarked/joined 13 Facebook pages on Leica. And others as well.
 
I always found that once you had a subscription for a year, the next year felt redundant. Then it just becomes about new gear. And the internet is better at new gear reports than waiting for a magazine.
 
I used to buy the end of year Camera Catalog, but never bought any copies during the year. There was just never anything in it for anyone creative.

Photo District News, Aperture, Art News, Artforum, Radical Software, Avalanche, Bomb Magazine, Shutterbug if you wanted to buy something. For me personally, Pop
Photo just seemed amateurish.
 
Sad news since Pop Photo was the first camera magizine that I ever bought back in the late 1950's. I haven't looked a copy for quite a few years now but, I guess they just weren't keeping up. - jim
 
Glad I waited until last minute to renew subscription.

Was sad to see Modern merge as I thought it was a better magazine. I truly miss camera 35 and Photo Techniques.
 
pop-photo-1.jpg


pop-photo-2.jpg


Sad to see them go, I grew up reading Popular Photography. When I was a kid, it was a much more technically-focuses magazine and I learned a lot from it.

They published a spread of my photos in the November, 2003 issue!
 
Robert Lai said:
Loss of readers -> loss of advertisers -> close shop

I stopped reading it about 12 years ago. At that time, it was all about the next Nikon D n+1, and the Canon EOS N+1, and how to adjust every photo to death with photoshop. Since I'm still a film shooter, I figured that they had nothing for me at that point, and stopped reading them.

When I was reading them in the 1970s-2000, they had excellent articles, and often featured up and coming artists.
Click to expand...

Ditto my experience. Still with film, too old to change, and the cameras that feel good in my hands, well they take film.
 
Well, I'll update it to 2003 to include Chris Crawford being featured as an artist. This was the type of thing that they did which was of merit.
 
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