Via Starwars.com:
IN CELEBRATION OF STARWARS.COM’S 20TH ANNIVERSARY, MEMBERS OF LUCASFILM PAST AND PRESENT TELL ITS STORY.
November 26 will mark the 20th anniversary of StarWars.com. It’s somewhat hard to believe, considering the site originally launched in support of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition — itself a celebration of Star Wars’ same milestone. Over the years, StarWars.com has evolved in terms of content, size, and features. As the Internet changed, so has the StarWars.com team’s digital offerings. Staff members have moved on to become authors and work on Lucasfilm’s movies. Through it all, the site has remained a constant, delivering Star Wars content every day.
The story of StarWars.com is one of risk, failures, frustrations, huge successes, and innovation. (And Jawa garden gnomes.) In honor of our 20th anniversary, StarWars.com spoke to many of the people who contributed to the site over the years, and let them tell the story in their own words. Turns out, it’s a saga all its own.
The only official online Star Wars destination up until 1996 was on Twentieth Century Fox’s website. With the theatrical release of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Edition planned for January 1997 — which was considered a big, almost reckless risk by many internally — and George Lucas beginning production on the Star Wars prequels, Lucasfilm decided to create its own Star Wars website: StarWars.com. It would complement this new era of activity and provide an outlet to message directly to fans. The idea for the site came directly from Lucas himself.
Lynne Hale (director of publicity, 1986-): George has always been very conscious about the fans. He sent [advertising publicity supervisor] Charlie Lippincott to fan conventions before A New Hope came out, because he was the one that understood, intrinsically, the relationship with the fans — even before they were fans. George was very interested in having a direct communication with the fans.
Steve Sansweet (director of content management and later head of fan relations, 1996-2011): It was in 1995 when Lynne called me at the Wall Street Journal and asked if I knew of anybody who might be interested in a one-year-only job to go out and talk about the Special Editions at fan conventions. And, frankly, at that point I had been bureau chief in Los Angeles for the Journal for many, many years beyond the normal period of time. They were looking for me to do a different job [at the Journal] and I wasn’t interested, and I said [to Lynne], “Well, let’s talk,” and one thing led to another, and I joined Lucasfilm for a guaranteed one-year-only job. Which they then forgot to get rid of me for the next 15.
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