It’s been a great 3 1/2 (!) year run here at Publishers Weekly, but all good things must end, and in the very near future, The Beat will be moving to its own website: www.comicsbeat.com. PREPARE TO BOOKMARK!

The move is a combination of many things, but mainly the fact that PW is focusing on its B-to-B business plan, and The Beat, for better or worse, is really a consumer site. With PW’s move to a new web platform and impending ownership change at some point, it just didn’t make as much sense to continue to partner up.

I want to stress that the move is completely amicable, and everyone here at PW — Brian Kenney, Cevin Bryerman, Ron Shank, Dan Blank, and departed folks such as Sara Nelson and David Nudo — have always been incredibly supportive and appreciative of my efforts here. And of course Calvin Reid is the best boss/partner in crime anyone could ever ask for and has helped me out in innumerable ways and, I’m sure, will continue to do so. The current team has been incredibly helpful with the move, and they have my deepest thanks and appreciation. And I will be continuing in my non-Beat PW work, such as editing PW Comics Week and the graphic novel review section.

The move will be taking place over the next few weeks, but it’s been brewing for a while, leading to some distraction for your humble blogger, meaning I haven’t been as on top of some big stories as I should have been. The good news is that with a new site, The Beat will have more resources and flexibility than ever, and hopefully will be moving full steam ahead in the weird world of the future, or at least be iPad compliant.

We’ll have more ad placements in the new home, so anyone interested should shoot me a line. The Beat is also looking at some interesting partnerships which will also roll out in due time.

I started The Beat at Comicon.com in June 2004, meaning that at 5 1/2 years, I have probably been blogging every day about comics for longer than anyone else out there. (Dirk started before me, but he took a long break to edit the Journal.) When I started, the blogosphere was still a youngling at Jedi school, and I was making things up as I went along. As I watch the explosion of nerdcentric blogs (see previous item) it’s fascinating to track their evolution. The one-person shop pioneered by Dirk, Tom and myself has given way to corporate sponsored teams in the Gawker mold, or mini online magazines as I like to think of them. As more and more outlets emerge, link blogging becomes huger and huger, and original content becomes even more time consuming — and yet even more important. Blogging has evolved in so many ways, from mere curation to the trusted source to driving the media narrative of politics and social change.

The Beat will continue to evolve with all of this. Where exactly it will end up, I’m not exactly certain. But I will enjoy the journey, and hope you do, too.

119 COMMENTS

  4. Well all good things go through changes and this is a change that will help the BEAT and help Heidi keep it vibrant and cool. The BEAT Abides!!!!

  5. Aha, so that explains the appearance and vanishing of the new logo in a post yesterday.

    As someone who’s been reading since day one on Comicon, you know I’ll follow you wherever. Congratulations on the new site (and good URL!), Heidi!

  19. Best of luck with the new Beat! And thanks for keeping at it. This site has been an invaluable source of daily enjoyment for years.

  26. I’ll gladly follow you, The Beat, and Mr. Beat to the end of the medium.
    Just give me the word and the URL and it’s done.

    Glad things are smooth between you and Publisher’s Weekly.

  37. Best of luck Heidi! I’ll be following your writing wherever you go, as I have been for as far back as I can remember. You’re an inspiration! I’m sure it will be awesome.

  41. Congratulations, Heidi. It is you, and not that pugnacious hirsute Canadian mutant, that is truly the best there is at what you do.

    Excelsior!

  54. More congratulations! I’ve been reading your posts for five years now, and I’ll be happy to follow you anywhere you go. Thanks for all the fun and work so far, and here’s to much more in the future.

  58. I’ve been reading The Beat since 2004, so I’ll be following along wherever it goes. At the moment, the big three I have bookmarked and read daily are The Beat, Robot 6 and Bleeding Cool. I know I should have CWR, CR and Journalista! in there somewhere, but I’ve lapsed.

  63. Wow, this has been a crazy week of endings and transitions. This is a good one, though! I look forward to the party at the new pad!

  69. I think Rillke said it best:

    Mini-skirts were once the rage, uh-huh/
    But history has turned … a page, uh-huh/
    And la dee dah dee dee and la dee dah dee dah/
    Drums keep poundin’ rhythm/
    And the beat goes on.

    … Wait, did I say Rilke? I meant Cher.

    Congratulations, Heidi.

  70. Glad to hear it’s a happy transition! All the very best of luck to you in the new space–it will be fun to see how you decorate…

  78. Whoa! O.O

    HUUUUGE News Heidi!!!

    Hopefully all is and will be well and the new Beat will be just as great if not greater than the one we know! :)

    new site favorited already!

  80. I like the new URL, too. Calling it Comics Beat makes me think of when The Beat had to become The English Beat in the US.

    So fire up “Mirror in the Bathroom” and give us Special Beat Service!

    kdb

  87. I ‘m looking forward to clicking on my old bookmark sometime soon, wondering where the site went- coming back a few hours later, wondering if the servers are down… coming back the next day.. doing it all again.. then remembering the move – and THEN updating the bookmark.. yup.. i have awesome memory..

    Good Luck – look’n forward to the new site!

  90. 90 freakin’ replies. Sheesh, should I even congratulate you?

    Glad the relationship was good, glad moving on is amicable, hope for big things for the future. :) There’s a lot goin’ down @ Stately Beat Manor.

  91. Best of luck Heidi!

    I figured something was up when that new Beat logo came up in my Google Reader but didn’t exist as a page on the site.

    I think I started reading this site sometime in 2004 and while I’ve read other comic blogs, they come and go from my reading list, but I have always kept up to date with the Beat.

    Thanks, Heidi for many years now of great articles and I look forward to beat 3.0! :-)

  96. Congrads Heidi!

    Best of luck and wherever you go, we will follow to read!

    PS. I hope-Hope-HOPE you tell us all when to switch over.

    We NEED the daily Beat ‘fix’!

    Brett!

  97. Big steps are both scary and adventurous.

    I am sure you will find a way to make this a new thing that you love doing just as much as the old thing that you loved doing.

    I look forward to reading The Beat 2.0…or is this 3.0?

    –Lee

  101. Add me to the long list of people congratulating you and wishing you a smooth move to the new site. Yeesh, have I been reading The Beat for that long already?

    This announcement comes just in time for me to make the change on my list of recommended sources for comics news – I’m doing a graphic novel workshop for librarians next Tuesday!

  112. You’ll do great as always Heidi. May the Force be with you, or whatever geekily appropriate farewell line. I’ll help you move in your new place.

  113. Yes, according to the terms of her leaving PW, Heidi O’Brian will be getting $45 million, and be allowed to run her new FOX-owned site starting this September.

    Go get ’em, Heihei!

Comments are closed.