Newsarama
Encyclopedia
Newsarama is an American
website
that publishes news
, interviews
and essays about the American comic book
industry.
postings on the Prodigy
comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared comic-book news items he had found across the World Wide Web
. As these postings became more regularly and widely read, he gave them the title "Prodigy Comic Book Newswire".
In January 1997, Doran began to post a version of the column, titled "The Comics Newswire," on Usenet
's various rec.arts.comics communities. The name of the column evolved to "The Newswire" and then "CBI Newsarama" before finally becoming simply "Newsarama" in 1998.
The postings quickly became popular, as the speed of reporting on the Internet meant that Doran could break stories faster than most other comic book news sources, which appeared in printed publications which had to be fully edited weeks before they were released. By the time other online comics journalists came on the scene, "Newsarama" had become an established brand and market leader. Although the column in its earliest forms reported both news and rumors, it later adopted a standard journalistic news approach.
Doran's postings left Usenet in 1998, becoming a "Newsarama" column on such websites as Mania.com, AnotherUniverse.com and Fandom.com (all defunct as of 2007) and Comicon.com before becoming a semi-autonomous site — Newsarama.com, hosted by Kevin Smith
's ViewAskew.com network of sites — in August 2002.
Three months later, Doran left Newsarama — by now a webzine — to take a staff position at Marvel Comics
. Matt Brady, a writer who had written extensively for the site, took over. Doran later returned to working at Newsarama, with Brady continuing as primary writer. The site left the ViewAskew.com network and became independent in early April 2006. It was acquired by the Imaginova
corporation in October 2007. When Brady stood down in July 2009, Doran and Lucas Siegel stepped up to run the site. The site was acquired, along with Space.com and LiveScience.com, by TopTenREVIEWS in October 2009.
Newsarama has been quoted as a source of comics news by the mainstream media, including The New York Times
. In 2006, Entertainment Weekly
listed Newsarama as one of its "25 favorite online entertainment sites" and the American Library Association
lists it as a digital resource in the field of comics. A subsequent Entertainment Weekly update also included Newsarama in their list "100 Greatest Websites".
Newsarama maintains a registered-member forum, talk@Newsarama, with over 25,000 registered users.
editor-in-chief Joe 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. Currently, Joe Quesada hosts "Cup of Joe," the latest version of his column, on Comic Book Resources. DC Comics
editor Michael Siglain's contributed the weekly "5.2 About 52
", and in 2007, DC executive editor Dan Didio
announced he would write a column similar to "New Joe Fridays", focusing on the series Countdown. Presently, Didio participates in the weekly "10 Answers and 1 Question" column for the site.
Regular columns include "Animated Shorts" (by Steve Fritz), "Write or Wrong" (by Dirk Manning), "Best Shots" (by reviewers from ShotgunReviews.com), "10 Answers and 1 Question with Dan Didio", "Weekly Webbing", "Right to Assemble" (covering Avengers titles by Troy Brownfield), "Column . . . for JUSTICE" (by Brownfield, covering Justice League titles), "Change of Pace" (by Brownfield), "Friday Flashback" (by Brownfield), "Dial H for History" (by David Pepose, covering recaps on comic book characters and trends) and "Agent of S.T.Y.L.E." (by Alan Kistler, covering the evolution of costumes and designs for different comic book characters). Newsarama also runs a series of "Post Game" columns, offering coverage and commentary of popular genre-related television programs on a regular basis; covered shows include "Lost", "Smallville", "Batman: The Brave and the Bold", "Fringe", "FlashForward", and others.
, a rival comic book industry columnist whose career has developed parallel to that of Newsarama. Johnston has repeatedly used his columns to comment on the site and has suggested in the past that Newsarama has an inappropriately close relationship to some of the major American comic book publishers.
One incident that has been cited by Johnston involved Newsarama's coverage of a Marvel Comics publicity stunt which sought to briefly mislead comic book fans. While publicizing a new series in 2001 Marvel announced that they had uncovered a previously forgotten character, The Sentry
, whose adventures the company claimed they originally published in the 1960s. The company released a press release with this information, which quoted writers and artists and contained a false history of the character's 1960s creative origins. Though the character was in actuality a new creation with an entirely manufactured 'history', Newsarama (and other comic book industry news outlets, such as Wizard
) reported on the story and quoted from the release without criticizing or challenging its claims.
Johnston then criticized Newsarama and the other news outlets involved for publishing information they knew to be intentionally misleading without comment and this prompted a vigorous defense of Newsarama's coverage from Doran and his colleagues who pointed out that their reporting was technically accurate and insisted that readers did not require their guidance to see through the deception.
In November 2005 The Comics Journal
published a study of Internet comic book industry news sources by journalist Michael Dean which evaluated Newsarama's journalistic performance. The study praised the site for the depth of coverage provided in some articles but also criticized its reliance on press releases and the "softness" of the questions asked in its interviews.
Dean also focused on one story in particular "DIAMOND
CHANGES THRESHOLDS" by Matt Brady. Though he found that the piece qualified as "journalism," Dean also found that it "contained factual inaccuracies, failed to get multiple points of view and sucked up to its corporate subject" (the Brady story itself was eventually corrected of its factual inaccuracies by its author after Rich Johnston and others pointed out the errors).
In June 2008 the site underwent numerous visual and content related changes, and decreased its traffic compared to the previous months. Subsequently, under Siegel, the site's traffic has risen above that of many close rivals.
The new format launched with multiple articles on comic books, television shows, movies and video games. These changes have been questioned by readers in the comment section of some articles Editor Matt Brady defended the recent changes by saying "Also (3) - finding the content is as easy as ever. It's all under the Comics tab. I'm not meaning this in an insulting way, but if you're so frustrated with not finding as much comics news as you'd like when you go to www.newsarama.com, re-set your bookmark to www.newsarama.com/comics . That, for all intents and purposes, will still be the "old" Newsarama that you knew and loved, without that pesky movie and television news." Some users have commented that this requirement of filtering content or bookmarking sub-pages to continue receiving comic book related content is indicative of the lack of focus on comic book news.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
that publishes news
News
News is the communication of selected information on current events which is presented by print, broadcast, Internet, or word of mouth to a third party or mass audience.- Etymology :...
, interviews
Interviews
Interviews is:# the plural form of "interview"# a compilation album by Bob Marley & the Wailers, see Interviews # a C++ toolkit for the X Window System, see InterViews...
and essays about the American comic book
American comic book
An American comic book is a small magazine originating in the United States and containing a narrative in the form of comics. Since 1975 the dimensions have standardized at 6 5/8" x 10 ¼" , down from 6 ¾" x 10 ¼" in the Silver Age, although larger formats appeared in the past...
industry.
History
Newsarama began in Summer 1995 as a series of Internet forumInternet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
postings on the Prodigy
Prodigy (ISP)
Prodigy Communications Corporation was an online service that offered its subscribers access to a broad range of networked services, including news, weather, shopping, bulletin boards, games, polls, expert columns, banking, stocks, travel, and a variety of other features.Initially subscribers...
comic-book message boards by fan Mike Doran. In these short messages. Doran shared comic-book news items he had found across the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
. As these postings became more regularly and widely read, he gave them the title "Prodigy Comic Book Newswire".
In January 1997, Doran began to post a version of the column, titled "The Comics Newswire," on Usenet
Usenet
Usenet is a worldwide distributed Internet discussion system. It developed from the general purpose UUCP architecture of the same name.Duke University graduate students Tom Truscott and Jim Ellis conceived the idea in 1979 and it was established in 1980...
's various rec.arts.comics communities. The name of the column evolved to "The Newswire" and then "CBI Newsarama" before finally becoming simply "Newsarama" in 1998.
The postings quickly became popular, as the speed of reporting on the Internet meant that Doran could break stories faster than most other comic book news sources, which appeared in printed publications which had to be fully edited weeks before they were released. By the time other online comics journalists came on the scene, "Newsarama" had become an established brand and market leader. Although the column in its earliest forms reported both news and rumors, it later adopted a standard journalistic news approach.
Doran's postings left Usenet in 1998, becoming a "Newsarama" column on such websites as Mania.com, AnotherUniverse.com and Fandom.com (all defunct as of 2007) and Comicon.com before becoming a semi-autonomous site — Newsarama.com, hosted by Kevin Smith
Kevin Smith
Kevin Patrick Smith is an American screenwriter, actor, film producer, and director, as well as a popular comic book writer, author, comedian/raconteur, and internet radio personality best recognized by viewers as Silent Bob...
's ViewAskew.com network of sites — in August 2002.
Three months later, Doran left Newsarama — by now a webzine — to take a staff position at Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
. Matt Brady, a writer who had written extensively for the site, took over. Doran later returned to working at Newsarama, with Brady continuing as primary writer. The site left the ViewAskew.com network and became independent in early April 2006. It was acquired by the Imaginova
Imaginova
Imaginova Corporation is a U.S. digital media and commerce company based in New York City. The company, which was started in 1999 as "Space.com" by CNN business anchor Lou Dobbs, later became known as Space Holdings Corp. Dan Stone became President, Chief Executive Officer and a board member in...
corporation in October 2007. When Brady stood down in July 2009, Doran and Lucas Siegel stepped up to run the site. The site was acquired, along with Space.com and LiveScience.com, by TopTenREVIEWS in October 2009.
Newsarama has been quoted as a source of comics news by the mainstream media, including The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. In 2006, Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
listed Newsarama as one of its "25 favorite online entertainment sites" and the American Library Association
American Library Association
The American Library Association is a non-profit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with more than 62,000 members....
lists it as a digital resource in the field of comics. A subsequent Entertainment Weekly update also included Newsarama in their list "100 Greatest Websites".
Newsarama maintains a registered-member forum, talk@Newsarama, with over 25,000 registered users.
Columnists
Marvel ComicsMarvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
editor-in-chief Joe Quesada
Joe Quesada
Joseph "Joe" Quesada is an American comic book editor, writer and artist. He became known in the 1990s for his work on various Valiant Comics books, such as Ninjak and Solar, Man of the Atom...
'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. Currently, Joe Quesada hosts "Cup of Joe," the latest version of his column, on Comic Book Resources. DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
editor Michael Siglain's contributed the weekly "5.2 About 52
52 (comics)
52 was a weekly American comic book limited series published by DC Comics that debuted on May 10, 2006, one week after the conclusion of the seven-issue Infinite Crisis. The series was written by Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, and Mark Waid with layouts by Keith Giffen...
", and in 2007, DC executive editor Dan Didio
Dan DiDio
Dan DiDio is an American writer, editor and publisher who has worked in the television and comic book industries. He is currently the Co-Publisher of DC Comics, along with Jim Lee...
announced he would write a column similar to "New Joe Fridays", focusing on the series Countdown. Presently, Didio participates in the weekly "10 Answers and 1 Question" column for the site.
Regular columns include "Animated Shorts" (by Steve Fritz), "Write or Wrong" (by Dirk Manning), "Best Shots" (by reviewers from ShotgunReviews.com), "10 Answers and 1 Question with Dan Didio", "Weekly Webbing", "Right to Assemble" (covering Avengers titles by Troy Brownfield), "Column . . . for JUSTICE" (by Brownfield, covering Justice League titles), "Change of Pace" (by Brownfield), "Friday Flashback" (by Brownfield), "Dial H for History" (by David Pepose, covering recaps on comic book characters and trends) and "Agent of S.T.Y.L.E." (by Alan Kistler, covering the evolution of costumes and designs for different comic book characters). Newsarama also runs a series of "Post Game" columns, offering coverage and commentary of popular genre-related television programs on a regular basis; covered shows include "Lost", "Smallville", "Batman: The Brave and the Bold", "Fringe", "FlashForward", and others.
Criticism
Persistent criticism of the Newsarama has come from Rich JohnstonRich Johnston
Rich Johnston is a writer who writes about the comic book industry.-Early life:Johnston grew up in Pontefract, West Yorkshire, studied politics at University of Newcastle upon Tyne, and was an advertising copywriter until 2009; he currently lives in Kingston Vale, London, with his wife, Janice...
, a rival comic book industry columnist whose career has developed parallel to that of Newsarama. Johnston has repeatedly used his columns to comment on the site and has suggested in the past that Newsarama has an inappropriately close relationship to some of the major American comic book publishers.
One incident that has been cited by Johnston involved Newsarama's coverage of a Marvel Comics publicity stunt which sought to briefly mislead comic book fans. While publicizing a new series in 2001 Marvel announced that they had uncovered a previously forgotten character, The Sentry
Sentry (comics)
Sentry is the codename of several unrelated fictional characters of the Marvel Universe. Currently, the most prominent Sentry is Robert Reynolds, appearing in Marvel's New Avengers and Mighty Avengers titles, and the subject of two limited series....
, whose adventures the company claimed they originally published in the 1960s. The company released a press release with this information, which quoted writers and artists and contained a false history of the character's 1960s creative origins. Though the character was in actuality a new creation with an entirely manufactured 'history', Newsarama (and other comic book industry news outlets, such as Wizard
Wizard (magazine)
Wizard or Wizard: The Magazine of Comics, Entertainment and Pop Culture was a magazine about comic books, published monthly in the United States by Wizard Entertainment from July 1991 to January 2011...
) reported on the story and quoted from the release without criticizing or challenging its claims.
Johnston then criticized Newsarama and the other news outlets involved for publishing information they knew to be intentionally misleading without comment and this prompted a vigorous defense of Newsarama's coverage from Doran and his colleagues who pointed out that their reporting was technically accurate and insisted that readers did not require their guidance to see through the deception.
In November 2005 The Comics Journal
The Comics Journal
The Comics Journal, often abbreviated TCJ, is an American magazine of news and criticism pertaining to comic books, comic strips and graphic novels...
published a study of Internet comic book industry news sources by journalist Michael Dean which evaluated Newsarama's journalistic performance. The study praised the site for the depth of coverage provided in some articles but also criticized its reliance on press releases and the "softness" of the questions asked in its interviews.
Dean also focused on one story in particular "DIAMOND
Diamond Comic Distributors
Diamond Comic Distributors, Inc. is the largest comic book distributor serving North America. They transport comic books from both big and small comic book publishers, or suppliers, to the retailers. Diamond dominates the direct market in the United States, and has exclusive arrangements with most...
CHANGES THRESHOLDS" by Matt Brady. Though he found that the piece qualified as "journalism," Dean also found that it "contained factual inaccuracies, failed to get multiple points of view and sucked up to its corporate subject" (the Brady story itself was eventually corrected of its factual inaccuracies by its author after Rich Johnston and others pointed out the errors).
In June 2008 the site underwent numerous visual and content related changes, and decreased its traffic compared to the previous months. Subsequently, under Siegel, the site's traffic has risen above that of many close rivals.
The new format launched with multiple articles on comic books, television shows, movies and video games. These changes have been questioned by readers in the comment section of some articles Editor Matt Brady defended the recent changes by saying "Also (3) - finding the content is as easy as ever. It's all under the Comics tab. I'm not meaning this in an insulting way, but if you're so frustrated with not finding as much comics news as you'd like when you go to www.newsarama.com, re-set your bookmark to www.newsarama.com/comics . That, for all intents and purposes, will still be the "old" Newsarama that you knew and loved, without that pesky movie and television news." Some users have commented that this requirement of filtering content or bookmarking sub-pages to continue receiving comic book related content is indicative of the lack of focus on comic book news.
Awards
The site has been the recipient of a number of awards and award nominations, including:- 1999 Eagle Award nomination for "Favourite Comics-Related Website (professional)"
- 2000 Eagle Award nomination for "Favourite Comics-Related Website (professional)"
- 2004 Eagle Award for "Favourite Comics E-Zine"
- 2005 Eagle Award nomination for "Favourite Comics-Related Website"
- 2006 Eagle Award for "Favourite Comics-Related Website"
- 2007 Eagle Award nomination for "Favourite Comics Related Website"
- 2008 Eisner Award for "Best Comics-Related Periodical/Journalism"
- 2008 Project Fanboy Awards for Best Comic Book Website.