*Disclaimer: I love JPG Magazine. I'm a subscriber and I had a photograph published in JPG a few issues ago. I bought the very first issue of JPG when it was an on-demand publishing venture through LuLu so, from a distance I watched it grow up and evolve into what it is now.

What in the world is up with JPG Magazine that makes it possible that any mention of JPG founders Heather Champ and Derek Powazek seem to have been deleted from both the current incarnation of the magazine and the history of it?

8020 has decided to rewrite the history of how JPG came into being, removing the original six issues from the site, and any mention of Derek and I. - Heather Powazek Champ

If I'm not mistaken 8020 was founded by Powazek and business partner Paul Cloutier and JPG Magazine's evolution from a quarterly, print on-demand work to a traditional subscription based one was their first project.

In the web 2.0 era where radical transparency is touted it seems awfully bizarre that this shakeup has thus far been terribly quiet. As a subscriber and someone with obviously deep interests in photography I'm concerned about the future of the magazine because it was Derek and Heather's baby and I wonder how it will progress without their vision. Truthfully though I kind of hope they start a new publication because clearly their vision of a photography magazine is a successful one and I think there is more than enough space and room in the market for another Chowazek publication

Update: From Derek Powazek's member profile on the JPG Magazine site

I founded JPG Magazine with my lovely wife, Heather Champ, in 2004. In 2006, we sold JPG to 8020 Publishing, which I also founded. I am no longer working for JPG/8020, but am still incredibly proud of the work we've done.

Update 2: Paul Cloutier is listed as JPG Magazine's publisher on the about page and in a thread in The Unofficial JPG Magazine Flickr Group Cloutier says

Hey guys, I'm JPG Magazine's publisher. Derek has indeed left the company to pursue other projects. He was a big part of getting us to where we are and we are all really proud of the work we did together.

We're all still hard at work at making JPG great and will continue to be a part of this community and forum to answer questions and let everyone know what is up.

Tags: photography, JPG Magazine, Heather Champ, Derek Powazek, 8020 Publishing