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Newsarama is an American website that publishes news, interviews, and essays about the American comic book industry. It is owned by Future US. In June 2020, Newsarama was merged with the website GamesRadar+, also owned by Future US.
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 to CBI Newsarama, before finally becoming Newsarama in 1998, with the help of co-creator Matt Brady. That year, Doran broke the news of Jim Lee's sale of WildStorm to DC Comics, solidifying Newsarama as a major source for industry news.
Newsarama became one of the first online news sources for the comic book industry, 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.
In August 2002, the Newsarama column became a semi-autonomous site, hosted by Kevin Smith's ViewAskew.com network of sites. Three months later, Doran left Newsarama to take a staff position at Marvel Comics. Brady took over writing for the site.
Doran later returned to work at Newsarama, while Brady continued working as primary writer for the site. The site left the ViewAskew.com network and became independent in early April 2006. That same year, the site absorbed The Great Curve blog to create Blog@Newsarama.
In October 2009, TopTenREVIEWS acquired Newsarama, alongside Space.com and Live Science. After the acquisition, TopTenREVIEWS rebranded to TechMedia Network. In April 2014, the company changed its name again to Purch Group.
Newsarama has been quoted as a source of comic 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" in 2006 and as one of its "100 Greatest Websites" in 2007.
Newsarama originally maintained a registered member forum known as talk@Newsarama. In 2010, Newsarama closed down the forum and redirected readers to comment on the site's Facebook page. In 2013, Blog@Newsarama was discontinued after Graeme McMillan moved to The Hollywood Reporter.
Purch's consumer brands, including Newsarama, were acquired by Future US in July 2018.
In February 2022, long-time contributor and editor Chris Arrant left to become editor-in-chief of RELX. On 2 February 2023, it was announced that Doran had left Newsarama and GamesRadar+.
Quesada then began writing the column "Cup of Joe" on Comic Book Resources when MySpace shut down its comic book division in 2009. Former DC Comics editor Michael Siglain contributed the weekly "5.2 About 52" Q&A column covering the weekly comic book series 52. DC Executive Editor Dan DiDio participated in a bi-weekly Q&A column, as well as a weekly column focusing on Countdown.
Regular columns have included "Animated Shorts" by Steve Fritz, "Write or Wrong" by Dirk Manning, "Agent of S.T.Y.L.E." by Alan Kistler, covering the evolution of costumes and designs for different comic book characters, and "Best Shots" by reviewers from ShotgunReviews.com. Troy Brownfield contributed multiple columns, including "Right to Assemble", covering Marvel's Avengers titles, "Column . . . for JUSTICE," covering Justice League titles, "Getting Animated," and "Friday Flashback."
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 include Lost, Smallville, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Fringe, Flash Forward, and others.
At WonderCon 2008, Bill Willingham revealed information about his Fables comic book series that he asked journalists not to report on. Graeme McMillan, representing Newsarama, agreed to leave the information out of his transcript, leading fans to criticize the website's reporting.
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