{
  "id": 9012103,
  "title": "Popverse is shutting down this month",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/21/popverse-is-shutting-down-this-month",
  "topic": "culture",
  "section": "Culture",
  "published": "2026-09-21T15:37:54.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The A.V. Club",
    "slug": "the-a-v-club",
    "url": "https://www.avclub.com/popverse-shutting-down-september"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Comics culture website The Beat has reported that popverse, a popular news source for comics, TV and movie content, will cease operations by the end of this month. Writer Heidi MacDonald announced the news, citing writer Trent Cannon's Bluesky post as the source of information. Cannon stated that his latest PopJump piece, which covered the passing of Optimus Prime voice actor Peter Cullen, would be his final column. He added that the decision to end his column was not due to its success, but because he and his fellow staff members were laid off. MacDonald noted that popverse's traffic has been strong, yet the company's parent, RELX, a multinational data and analytics firm, appears to be abandoning the site just weeks before the October 8 New York Comic Con. MacDonald praised other dedicated comics-focused publications like The Beat, AIPT, Comic Book Club, Comicon, Graphic Policy, and ICv2, which continue to provide original daily reporting. The A.V. Club expressed sympathy for the popverse writers and editors who have experienced corporate indifference and greed firsthand.",
  "summary": "Another source for original pop culture writing bites the dust.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}