Comments on: Newsarama’s Acquisition Anniversary

By: James Schee

James Schee — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 01:20:15 +0000

Not to keep piling on Newsarma here too much, after all I don’t visit any other comic news site that much either. Yet the changeover did make it easier to break a daily glance over.

Of course not being that interested in much of the stuff covered, since I read extremely little DC/Marvel these days. So there is really no need to go there much anyway.

By: DK Steve

DK Steve — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:39:28 +0000

Count me in as yet another former Rama-addict who has kicked his habit post-Pluck.

I would check Newsarama multiple times a day and surf the Talk@ forums as well. But with the loss of forum functionality and the movement away from being a comics-specific site, it just doesn’t feel like home anymore. Goodbye Newsarama and thanks for the memories.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 11:03:21 +0000

To quote a past president:

It’s the economy, stupid!

I was laid-off in late April and (while off) was definitely not paying any attention at all to comics-related sites.

After getting a job with a *much* longer commute, I just don’t have time very often.

As a case in point, I used to visit here daily or at least every other day. Now, it is every other week at best.

By: MM

MM — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:10:24 +0000

Frisch, I’ve also bookmarked the “Comics” page. I don’t pay attention to the rest, but even so, it just seems to me all the interesting articles have disappeared, therefore, so did my reading habit.

By: MM

MM — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:08:03 +0000

“I think Newsarama’s main problem is that they shot themselves in the foot by trying to expand into other areas of coverage. They weren’t able to compete effectively with the many sites already covering those areas, but they’ve driven away their core readership by burying the comics news.”

=D Hm… What magazine does *this* bring to mind?

But yeah, I was a daily viewer of ‘rama last year, but I barely look at it these days. The comics portion has definitely suffered since they became “new and improved”. Pity.

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 02:30:43 +0000

Funny, I used to visit Newsarama almost on a daily basis, then they changed the entire interface and I couldn’t find stuff as easily as before. Little by little I found myself looking to other sites for information.

And I do agree, they shot themselves in the foot. They had a great site and they broke it.

By: Marc-Oliver Frisch

Marc-Oliver Frisch — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 23:01:30 +0000

“I used to visit them reasonably often, because you could skim their front page and pick up pretty quickly on major news stories and interviews. You can’t do that any more, so I’ve stopped visiting altogether. I’m clearly not alone.”

To be fair, you can still get a comics-centered news page by clicking “Comics” at the top. If you bookmark that one, there’s not much of a difference to the previous entry site, in terms of content.

That said, the site is hideously overloaded with scripts. I’m sure the new content management system makes it easier on their side, but I certainly agree the old site was hard to beat in terms of usability. (And much nicer and less generic to look at.)

By: Justin

Justin — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:42:49 +0000

Well, I certainly dropped them from my daily viewings. Honestly, I would be hard pressed to think I go there even once a week. I was turned off by the lack of focus, and even when I had found (and accessibly bookmarked) the comics section, I just don’t go there all that often.

That said, CBR didn’t really replace it either. I think in all the fuss, I just broke the habit of needing to keep on top of comics news daily. Well, that can’t be true, I still go here and to other blogs daily. Hmmmm.

By: Alan Coil

Alan Coil — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 17:34:37 +0000

I’m on dial up and a clunky, old computer. It takes forever to open the site, and it sometimes freezes my computer, so I only go there once or twice a week. And once an article is off the front page, it is nearly impossible to find it.

By: Paul O'Brien

Paul O'Brien — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 16:24:20 +0000

Jarrett is right – their “News” menu is still leading with SDCC stories. That’s absurd.

I think Newsarama’s main problem is that they shot themselves in the foot by trying to expand into other areas of coverage. They weren’t able to compete effectively with the many sites already covering those areas, but they’ve driven away their core readership by burying the comics news.

I used to visit them reasonably often, because you could skim their front page and pick up pretty quickly on major news stories and interviews. You can’t do that any more, so I’ve stopped visiting altogether. I’m clearly not alone.

By: Marc-Oliver Frisch

Marc-Oliver Frisch — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:33:45 +0000

The drop may be due to the fact that links to older articles no longer work. The CBR site at least redirects you to the new location since its redesign, but at Newsarama you just get a “Sorry” page.

By: Johanna

Johanna — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 23:24:45 +0000

Interesting. I just noticed that the Beta tag is still up there.

By: Jarrett

Jarrett — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 21:50:55 +0000

Maybe my browser is broken, but under ‘News’ about halfway down, below the ‘Features’ section there is still SDCC coverage up there. You know, from July. And an interview with Gary Oldman about Dark Knight under ‘Interviews’. You know, from July.