Pitchfork's film site The Dissolve fades to black


Pitchfork Media's film website The Dissolve has come to a quiet end, according to an announcement posted by its Editorial Director Keith Phipps:
For the past two years — well, two years this Friday — it's been our pleasure to put up this site, a site founded on and driven by a love for movies, alongside a company with passion and talent for creating thoughtful, important work. Sadly, because of the various challenges inherent in launching a freestanding website in a crowded publishing environment, financial and otherwise, today is the last day we will be doing that. We've had this opportunity thanks to Pitchfork, which has been incredibly supportive of our vision. We couldn't have asked for a better partner. [The Dissolve]
Back during its launch in 2013, the "Pitchfork of movies" had garnered major excitement from many media organizations and cinephiles as being a one-of-a-kind, slickly designed film website with a group of major critics on board as staff. If today's outpouring of disappointment on social media is any sort of sign (it's currently trending as one of the most tweeted about topics in the United States), then this much must be true — The Dissolve was not a failure, and it will be missed.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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