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.webp) Screenshot of the website in December 2024 | |
Type of site | Comic book |
|---|---|
| Available in | English |
| Owner | Future US (prior:Imaginova,Purch Group) |
| Created by | Matt Brady, Mike Doran |
| Editor | Will Salmon[1] |
| URL | www |
| Registration | Yes |
| Launched | August 2002 (2002-08) |
| Current status | Online |
Newsarama is an Americanwebsite that publishes news, interviews, and essays about theAmerican comic book industry. It is owned byFuture US. In June 2020, Newsarama was merged with the websiteGamesRadar+, also owned byFuture US.
Newsarama began in mid-1995 as a series ofInternet forum postings on theProdigy comic book message boards by fan Mike Doran.[2] In the forum postings, Doran shared comic book-related news items he had found across theWorld Wide Web and, as these postings became more regular and read widely, he gave them the title "Prodigy Comic Book Newswire."[2]
In January 1997, Doran began to post a version of the column titledThe Comics Newswire onUsenet's various rec.arts.comics communities.[3] The name of the column evolved toThe Newswire,[2] and then toCBI Newsarama,[4] before finally becomingNewsarama in 1998, with the help of co-creator Matt Brady.[2] That year, Doran broke the news ofJim Lee's sale ofWildStorm toDC Comics, solidifyingNewsarama as a major source for industry news.[3]
Newsarama became one of the first online news sources for the comic book industry,[5] allowing it to gain popularity when it could break stories faster than other comic book news sources that appeared in printed publications. Although the column in its earliest forms reported both news and rumors, it later adopted a more journalistic news approach.[citation needed]
Doran's postings left Usenet in 1998, becoming aNewsarama column on such websites as Mania.com, AnotherUniverse.com, Fandom.com andComicon.com.[2][6]
In August 2002, theNewsarama column became a semi-autonomous site, hosted byKevin Smith's ViewAskew.com network of sites.[7] Three months later, Doran leftNewsarama to take a staff position atMarvel Comics.[7] Brady took over writing for the site.
Doran later returned to work atNewsarama, while Brady continued working as primary writer for the site.[citation needed] The site left the ViewAskew.com network and became independent in early April 2006.[3] That same year, the site absorbed The Great Curve blog to createBlog@Newsarama.[8]
Newsarama was acquired byImaginova in October 2007.[9] The writers soon became unhappy with the new owners when Imaginova relaunched the website without notifying the staff. When a promised raise fell through, those who contributed to Blog@Newsarama quit en masse in November 2008.[8] A new team of contributors were brought on a month later.[10] Brady left the site in July 2009, leaving Doran and Lucas Siegel to run the site, with Siegel taking the position of Site Editor.[11]
In October 2009, TopTenREVIEWS acquired Newsarama, alongsideSpace.com andLive Science.[12] After the acquisition, TopTenREVIEWS rebranded to TechMedia Network.[13] In April 2014, the company changed its name again toPurch Group.[14]
Newsarama has been quoted as a source of comic news by the mainstream media, includingThe New York Times.[15] In 2006,Entertainment Weekly listedNewsarama as one of its "25 favorite online entertainment sites" in 2006[16] and as one of its "100 Greatest Websites" in 2007.[17]
Newsarama originally maintained a registered member forum known astalk@Newsarama. In 2010, Newsarama closed down the forum and redirected readers to comment on the site's Facebook page.[citation needed] In 2013, Blog@Newsarama was discontinued after Graeme McMillan moved toThe Hollywood Reporter.[18]
Purch's consumer brands, including Newsarama, were acquired byFuture US in July 2018.[19][20]
In June 2020,Newsarama stopped being a standalone site and became part of theGamesRadar+ website, another brand owned by Future US.[21][22] During the transition, most of the website's archives were erased.[23]
In February 2022, long-time contributor and editor Chris Arrant left to become editor-in-chief ofReedPOP.[24] On 2 February 2023, it was announced that Doran had leftNewsarama and GamesRadar+.[5][2]
Marvel Comicseditor-in-chiefJoe Quesada's column "Joe Fridays" (renamed "New Joe Fridays" in 2006 as a joke regarding Marvel's penchant for relaunching titles with the prefix "new") appeared weekly until 2008, when the column moved to MySpace as "My Cup O' Joe."[25] Spider-Man editorStephen Wacker contributed to the "Weekly Webbing" Q&A column.[26]
Quesada then began writing the column "Cup of Joe" onComic Book Resources when MySpace shut down its comic book division in 2009.[27] FormerDC Comics editor Michael Siglain contributed the weekly "5.2 About 52" Q&A column covering the weekly comic book series52.[28] DC Executive EditorDan DiDio participated in a bi-weekly Q&A column, as well as a weekly column focusing onCountdown.[29][30]
Regular columns have included "Animated Shorts" by Steve Fritz,[31] "Write or Wrong" by Dirk Manning,[32] "Agent of S.T.Y.L.E." by Alan Kistler,[33] covering the evolution of costumes and designs for different comic book characters, and "Best Shots" by reviewers from ShotgunReviews.com.[34]Troy Brownfield contributed multiple columns, including "Right to Assemble",[35] covering Marvel'sAvengers titles, "Column . . . for JUSTICE," coveringJustice League titles, "Getting Animated," and "Friday Flashback."[36]
Newsarama has also run a series of "Post Game" columns offering coverage and commentary of popular genre-related television programs on a regular basis. Covered shows includeLost,Smallville,Batman: The Brave and the Bold,Fringe,Flash Forward, and others.[citation needed]
In November 2005, Michael Dean, writing inThe Comics Journal, studied Internet comic book industry news sources and evaluatedNewsarama's journalistic performance. The study praised the site for the depth of coverage provided in some articles, but criticized its reliance on press releases and the "softness" of the questions asked in its interviews.[37] Dean focused on one story in particular, "Diamond Changes Thresholds" by Matt Brady.[38] Though he found the piece qualified as "journalism", Dean also found it: "contained factual inaccuracies, failed to get multiple points of view and sucked up to its corporate subject".[37]
AtWonderCon 2008,Bill Willingham revealed information about hisFables comic book series that he asked journalists not to report on. Graeme McMillan, representingNewsarama, agreed to leave the information out of his transcript, leading fans to criticize the website's reporting.[39][40]
The site has been the recipient of a number of awards and award nominations, including:
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