In the wake of Fandom's drastic layoffs (see 'Fandom Selling the Bones?'), a number of questions remain to be answered.  Foremost among them is the fate of the Fandom Shop, which reportedly did about $10 million in sales last year.  Sources close to the situation indicated to ICv2 that it appeared likely that the company would attempt to blow out its considerable inventory, sell Creation Entertainment back to its original owners, and find a buyer for Cinescape Magazine.  Some employees involved in product handling and shipping have been retained on a short term contract basis (contrary to previous announcements by the company, the outsourcing of shipping was never done; orders are still shipped from the old Another Universe facility in Virginia).  The company is attempting to avoid going into bankruptcy, which would hurt its creditors (including Diamond Comic Distributors and various manufacturers with which Fandom deals directly). 

 

The fate of the many fan domains that operated under the Fandom umbrella is also murky.  At least some of the webmasters, who created and maintain these sites (for a monthly stipend from Fandom), will retain ownership.  Many of the sites such as Newsarama have been recently updated, and most of them are removing anti-Fandom posts from their discussion boards.  This may reflect a distaste for some of the vitriol coming from ex-Fandom employees, or it might also signal a hope that these sites could still be packaged and sent to another web site network like UGO.

 

The picture that emerges of Fandom from the messages posted by ex-employees on F***edcompany.com (which put the Fandom story at the top of its home page today under the heading, 'Fandumb') is not pretty.  A huge rift between the west and east coast operations of the company is evident.  The east coast location acquired from Another Universe was the site of the online sales and marketing, as well as fulfillment.  Many of the posts are from former employees of Fandom's east coast operation who complain of having their recommendations ignored by highly paid executives from the west coast, who had little experience in, or feeling for the hobby market that the Fandom Shop served.  The result was, according to one posting, a situation where slow-moving overstock took up much more warehouse space than 'live' items.