On the Future of Panels
Hello all. With a headline like that, you know the news I’m about to deliver is probably not going to be good, so I’m not going to beat around the bush.
On August 31, 2016, Panels will be shutting down.
But.
Before you start the mourning process, hear me out. Panels won’t be going away forever. We’ll simply be turning ourselves into something new and different. We’re sad to see Panels go—we had hoped things would turn out differently for this quirky comics site we poured so much of ourselves into—but all is not lost.
As many of you may know, Panels is the sister site of Book Riot, the largest independently owned book website in North America. For awhile now, we’ve been realizing that it didn’t make sense to have two separate websites in Book Riot and Panels, when they could work so well together. That’s why we’re officially folding Panels into Book Riot, and on September 7, we’ll debut the new Book Riot Comics, the first vertical from Book Riot.
What does this mean for your reading experience? Well, there will be a new website and a new look, though you’ll be able to find all of Panels’ great back content over there. Most of the writers you know and love are making the transition to Book Riot, and I’ll still be the fearless editor, helping make sure that our comics coverage is as diverse, inclusive, and accessible to newer readers as possible. We’ll still maintain our own separate social media presence—if you follow us on Twitter or Facebook now, the only thing you’ll notice is a name change.
We’re sad to see the sun set on Panels, but we’re also excited at the new opportunities that being an official part of Book Riot opens up. The chance to bring even more prose book readers into the comics community and evangelize our love for all things comics to a new audience is a thing we don’t take for granted.
We’re keeping comments on this post closed because while we know you all probably have a lot of questions, we’re hoping you’ll take a leap of faith with us and join us over at https://www.bookriot.com/comics starting on September 6.
Thank you all for being such an amazing part of the Panels community. I couldn’t have asked for anything better.
Swapna
Managing Editor, Panels
