Visitors to the Fandom.com site today were told that the site has been purchased by a media company formed by Anthony Ferrante and 'several other industry veterans.'  They're announcing that a new site with a new name will launch soon incorporating some features from Fandom.  Also on the page were links to the Fandom Domains and discussion boards.  A number of the domains were unpopulated (Newsarama and the Star Trek site for two), the boards didn't have much activity, and graphics weren't loading on the pages we viewed, so it's clear that things are still very much in flux.  Comics Newsarama -- the excellent comic news site and former Fandom domain--has found new friends to replace the old.  It's part of the Comicon.com site, and web, mail order, and chain retailer Mile High Comics is the sole sponsor.  Ferrante is the former editor-in-chief of Eon Magazine -- a defunct webzine -- and more recently was the director of Surreal World -- a Real World meets Phantom Menace parody available on the Web.

 

As of this writing, the Fandomshop.com site is still down.  We had listed the problems in reviving the site in our article 'Fandom Shop Still Dead.' The gauntlet had hardly hit the ground when CMI Holdings CEO Ross Rojek called to let us know that the site would be up around May 7 (see 'Fandom Shop and NPO').   Meanwhile, the Nextplanetover.com site is still taking orders, although rumor has it that a shutdown may be coming as early as today.