Shift Calls it Quits 176
MCS writes "Shift Magazine announced that it is closing down after 10 years. Biggest reason is that within this 10 year period they only turned profit on one issue. I remember at one point that they even had their own TV show -- the magazine was different then it competitors (Wired) as it focused more on the impact of technology and the social generation of those who lived in it. This can be seen in such issues as 'The Simpson Generation' and 'Seven Days without Tech'. Many of these articles are available online at their website Shift.com "
Reminds me of Suck.com (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Reminds me of Suck.com (Score:4, Insightful)
Not the politically correct explanation, but... (Score:1, Interesting)
Because they don't appeal to the large amount of people.
I've never seen Shift, and it sounds like it was a pretty boring rag to begin with [and maybe deserved to die], but if they were trying to target a geek audience, they faced one big hurdle that is damned near insurmountable: People with really high IQs populate only the very far end of the bell curve, i.e., for all intents and purposes, PEOPLE WITH REALLY HIGH IQs DON'T EXIST!!!
The overwhelming majority of people are of very average intelligence [clustered beneath the zenith of the bell curve], and are entertained by a very average quality of entertainment. The critical mass just isn't there to do much beyond that. [And besides, anyone who is smart enough to entertain really intelligent people ought to be doing something more productive with his life than masquerading as a glorified court jester.]
Re:Not the politically correct explanation, but... (Score:1)
Yeah, they should be doing something really important like janitoring data for some moronic company that talks about TCO and ROI. Maybe they should be miserable shmoes like you. You are a really smart troll right ?
Re:Not the politically correct explanation, but... (Score:2)
There's a market for entertaining smart people. It's a different market though, that plays to different rules. One could say "smart" rules, where the basic tenets that average people have devised for marketing simply don't work.
That said, I think Shift was more aligned with what are termed Pseudo-Intellectuals, which is to say, people of average intelligence who think having gone to college made them smart. This is a broader, but oh so pickey market. Particularly among the young.
10 years is actually a pretty good run among this crowd. Although Vanity Fair has managed a lot longer.
As an aside, Court Jester is one of the grand jobs of the truely intelligent, one to which all aspire. It is thought of with awe and reverence. Those who can hold that job sucessfully for more than a year or two are demigods. I'm not making this up.
But then, you'ld have to be smart enough to understand that.
KFG
the magazine was different THEN it competitors (Score:2, Informative)
Re:the magazine was different THEN it competitors (Score:1)
That being said, it drives me KooKoo.
Re:Reminds me of Suck.com (Score:2)
-aiabx
Re:Reminds me of Suck.com (Score:1)
A Damn Shame (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:A Damn Shame (Score:1)
Oh well (Score:1)
They actually profiled my software, it's a bummer! (Score:3, Interesting)
No Wonder (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:No Wonder (Score:2)
Haven't you ever heard the phrase, 'Quitters never win'? Well, they are just one of them. =P
Re:No Wonder (Score:5, Interesting)
Canadian magazines, books, etc not only have difficulty breaking into the states, but they can barely maintain recognition in Canada.
The competition comes from southern cultural import (infestation) into Canada. Additionally, our population is too small and cannot support special interest magazines.
Any Canadian publication, book, film, band, musician, actor, etc that makes it in the states generally succeeds, but unfortunately there is great talent just buried away and hidden in our igloos;)
BTW, Shift was a well put together magazine (that threw good schmooze parties to boot;), that with American backing probably would have done very well. It's a shame to seem them go. Go look at their web site to see what they were all about.
Re:No Wonder (Score:1, Flamebait)
I seem to remember a certain John Roberts, back when he was a long-hair who went by J.D. Roberts, spinning videos for City-TV. Now he's all: "Mister President, blah blah blah."
Never mind Mike Myers, Jim Carey, Avril Lavigne, Michael J. Fox, Lorne Michaels, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Wayne Newton, Skinny Puppy, Rush, Sum 41, Pamela Anderson, etc. etc.
If enough people liked Shift, it would still be around today. Save your sucking and whining for your mommy.
Hmm.... (Score:1, Insightful)
Shift? (Score:5, Interesting)
No, this isn't a troll. I can't say that I've ever seen this mag. I've never seen it referenced anywhere. I've just plain never heard of it.
Sorry to hear they couldn't make it.
Re:Shift? (Score:2)
Re:Shift? (Score:2)
But I'm not really sorry to hear they couldn't make it. Not trolling here - I just think that most geek rags are a joke. 2600 is they way geeks communicate - not wired, or shift etc...
I been doing this for almost 20 years. Magazines? I read car craft, rider, network computing, popular science, scientific america, and packet. Sometimes browse thru comp world, info week etc... But NEVER looked at a wired or the like - never. Geeks don't care about the social aspects of tech. They only want to know how it works and how to fix it when it breaks. These wannabe geek mags should just give it up or start doing something real...
IMHO
Duke
Not true. (Score:2)
Computer folks, like all specialists, possess their own culture. We do indeed like to read about it and discuss it.
Re:Shift? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Shift? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Shift? (Score:1)
Only twice (Score:1)
Good airplane reading though. I would have bought more if I saw it anywhere.
Ouch, that hurts (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ouch, that hurts (Score:1)
Re:Ouch, that hurts - a suggestion (Score:1)
Before filing Chapter 11, send a line to Slashdot!
"Chapter 11" is a US filing, this was a Canadian company.
So what youre telling me... (Score:2)
NOT the economy... (Score:5, Insightful)
Before anyone bleats that this is "the economy" just think for a second.
10 YEARS and only ONE ISSUE turned a profit. This was a cash sink before
Maybe the "sad" reason is really simple....
Do you know anyone who _ever_ paid money for it ?
Right on the money ;) (Score:3)
I've never even heard of this magazine...
so no, I don't know anyone who paid for it. And without any recognition, how do they expect to sell?
Seriously, I find it amazing that this magazine is being compared to wired- simply because even when I didn't want to I was constantly having wired shoved down my throat- a friend had it on his coffee table, some one sent me a link to one of their stories, I google William Gibson and I get his articles for wired.
Shift.....?
Good lord, how did they last 10 years!?
Re:NOT the economy... (Score:1)
Re:NOT the economy... (Score:1)
Re:NOT the economy... (Score:2, Interesting)
I did, every month or so. While Shift wasn't as popular as Wired, I always thought it was a better magazine (less hype, more meat). Plus the fact that it was Canadian was an added bonus (at least to a Canuck like me).
That said, I'm not surprised they decided to call it quits. This has happened before (it disappeared from newsstands for a few months back in 2000, for example), and even lately it's been hard to find it at local bookstores.
Re:NOT the economy... (Score:1)
and they threw really kickass parties in Toronto.
their website is still up -- check it out at shift.com [shift.com]
But what about... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:But what about... (Score:2)
Shift happens (Score:1, Funny)
You'd think they'd announce its death right when they STARTED publishing, so at least they would have some publicity during the time the magazine is actualyl on sale.
Still no micropayment solution around (Score:1)
Re:Still no micropayment solution around (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Still no micropayment solution around (Score:1)
Re:Still no micropayment solution around (Score:2)
Re:Still no micropayment solution around (Score:2, Informative)
part of the challenge (Score:3, Informative)
While I was a huge fan of Shift from its inception, when it tried to branch off into the American market (1997?) I knew it was heading for hard times. It never took off in the States, and had too much investment to make it feasible in the smaller Canadian market. I for one think it's a terrible shame to see this thoughtful magazine lifted from shelves.
Re:part of the challenge (Score:1, Funny)
you know, as opposed to those rivers that flow both upstream and downstream...
shift did kick ass though, up there with tokion, mondo2000, and vice. shame to see it go.
Worst. Grammar. Ever. (Score:1, Interesting)
Shift who? (Score:1, Redundant)
Maybe it is no wonder that it shut down?
Re:Shift who? (Score:2)
Re:Shift who? (Score:1)
Can you dig it? (Score:5, Funny)
uh, what? Oh, sorry.
Oy (Score:2)
-B
Blink. Blink. (Score:2, Interesting)
Of course, I stopped reading Wired years ago when I realized that I was apparently too old to appreciate the crazy page layouts they used.
Re:Blink. Blink. (Score:1)
Re: Wired and big business articles (Score:2)
For the first few years, I appreciated Wired magazine because it seemed like they explored new technology-related ideas in depth, often before they became realized in a commercial product. They also generally began featuring one really good interview with a C.E.O. or other "bigwig" of a tech-related company that produced products or services we all use. Unlike a Newsweek style interview, though, they'd ask the questions that the "geek crowd" really wanted to know the answers to.
IMHO, Wired's big failing was getting caught up in "techno-lust", to the point where every overpriced gadget was featured - whether it had real value or not. They tried too hard to be "cool" with the techno-savvy crowd, and wasted too much effort on strange cover art and layouts, rather than dispensing useful information.
With the dot-com boom, you could practically track Wired's downward spiral into the mess. Every month, they were telling me about some multi-thousand dollar new watch I "had to have", or some imported set of loudspeakers shaped like rare art that some Finnish or German engineer swore made music sound more "life-like" than anything else on the market. Whatever.....
That's when I quit renewing or reading....
Re:Blink. Blink. (Score:1)
To this day I consider WIRED to be totally irrelevant.
Re:Blink. Blink. (Score:2)
When we asked him why he made the magazine look so bad he said "But that's the way Wired does it. It must be cool".
Re:Blink. Blink. (Score:1)
Strange they covered the Dow breaking 10000 again the other way...
Wired: The Magazine for Absolut Poseurs.
Wired commenced to suck when Conde Nast bought it. (Score:2, Insightful)
When Conde Nast bought them, CN turned Wired into pure culture -- a pretty-pictures magazine like Conde Nast Traveler and all their other publications. They slimmed it down, changed to cheaper paper, and quit carrying intelligent commentary in favor of "this is the new cool thing, it costs $n,000 and can be bought at x." When Nicholas Negroponte quit writing his back-page column, I stopped buying Wired, and I've barely looked at it since.
Defining Moments in Digital Culture (Score:5, Interesting)
Doesn't it make you feel all warm and fuzzy?
Too bad they couldn't forsee their immienent doom.Re:Defining Moments in Digital Culture (Score:2)
No more Shift???? (Score:4, Funny)
oh, wait, you meant the magazine that hardly anyone read because most of us didnt know it existed.
In other news that doesnt change your life, Borka-Morka.com shut down 7 years ago and I spilt some milk this morning.
Re:No more Shift???? (Score:1)
Or switch your keyboard to some funny forign keyboard that has @ somewhere else.
Hmm prehaps I took that question a little too seriously
You know what they say... (Score:2)
Shift happens...
I'm sorry - it may be my fault (Score:2)
Shift was a faily good read, but it always felt like they were either trying to be like Wired, or trying not to be like Wired. It is too bad that they could not reach critical mass. I think they could have done some interesting things.
Re:I'm sorry - it may be my fault (Score:2, Funny)
I may be no economics major... (Score:1, Redundant)
But if you can't make a profit, then things aren't going great, you shouldn't be expanding, and you should foresee yourself out of a job.
Perhaps 10 years of somehow avoiding death made them feel a bit too immortal.
Who is shift? (Score:2)
So from the description... (Score:4, Interesting)
Of course, Wired's been a huge money sink for most of it's existence - and that's with the much larger US market to work with and bigger circulation numbers. Shift never seems to have made any real run south of the border, never was profitable, and appealed to a small segment of a small market in a small country.
I think it's amazing they survived this long, quite frankly. It's been tough enough for media companies to thrive anyway, especially one as limited as they seem to have been. There's a number of Canadian magazines that I'm aware of - some I even read occasionally. I never heard of Shift, though. That may say a little something about what their chances were right there. But at 10 years, they predated the dotcom boom and bust alike. Not many other media properties would have been allowed to lose money that long.
SHIF(f)T - An Inside History (Score:2)
= = =
SHI(f)T - An Inside History
SHI(f)T started out as a make-work project for idle rich kids and a tax shelter for their parents.
It began its life as a wannabe literary magazine for "young writers", accepting the rejects from respected literary magazines with a mandate to discover new writers and fiction and aiming to, "Kick in the teeth of the literary establishment." Instead the literary establishment kicked SHI(f)Ts teeth in so far that they were coming out the other end.
Meeting no financial success, after 3 issues the magazine rebranded itself "the voice of an unsettled generation," still focusing on disaffected artists under 35.
With losses mounting, a few issues later they changed the focus of the magazine to "New Media and Culture" writing about the new technology of CD-ROMs, wrapped up in Doug Coupland fever, Generation-X hype and breaking their ban on coverage of anyone over 35.
With the magazine failing in its infancy and the parents of SHI(f)T's founders no longer willing to indefinitely pour unlimited funds into the fiscal black hole the project had become, the magazine looked south and decided to again relaunch and rebrand itself as Canada's version of Wired (that's actually how they promoted it). The magazine then boosted circulation by more than 500%, losing even more money, with an eye to being acquired based on high circulation numbers. The printing spree was funded by last-ditch investments from family and government artistic grants.
The parents/investors used their business connections with entertainment lawyer Michael Levine (called the Michael Ovitz of Canada) and the president of one of Canada's oldest and largest publishers, Maclean-Hunter (which was looking for new properties aimed at young people) to engineer a minority investment stake, using Wired as a benchmark to value the magazine. Insiders reported that the magazine used false subscriber numbers that were at least double the real number to garner the deal.
A year later the deal was dead, with Maclean-Hunter ceasing support for the still-floundering magazine.
Enter white knight and multi-millionaire Richard Szalwinski, founder of digital film, video and animation software company Discreet Logic (now the Discreet division of CAD/CAM software giant Autodesk).
With money to burn and a newly acquired publishing company looking for media properties, Szalwinski bought the magazine and made the founders instant millionaires.
Internal politics went crazy and the new general manager of the magazine brought in by Szalwinski cleaned house, getting rid of the good (such as new editor Laas Turnbull) along with the bad. Among the ousted was the co-founder of the magazine.
Szalwinski lost his shirt in a disastrous attempt to launch the magazine in the USA as a Wired competitor in 1999 and by this time, freelance contributors had not been paid for months. A year later, on the brink of bankruptcy, he sold the magazine back to co-founder Andrew Heintzman who financed it slashing the already-dismal salaries of employees by as much as 1/3 and asked them to pay into an employee ownership plan to help rescue the company. Most of the young, inexperienced, idealistic staffers agreed but some who didn't were laid off or fired "with cause." This still failed to buoy the sinking magazine's fortunes.
Facing bankruptcy, the employees sold the magazine to MultiVision publishing who thought they could leverage the SHI(f)T brand to relaunch the magazine. The new SHI(f)T's redesign was unreadable and the "unified" look they created made it difficult to know what you were looking at when you flipped through it. They recently killed its columns, saying they were "too long" at 800 words, eliminating the only remaining compelling content since the columnists were knowledgeable. And now they have finally decided to put the tired publication out of its misery.
Although some truly excellent writers have come through SHI(f)T, they were great in spite of it, not because of it. The majority were simply horrid. You can find some of both varieties around Slashdot (no names). The only thing that is sad about the death of this magazine is that a number of people who depended on it for part or all of their income will now be unemployed or scrambling to find some way of making up the sudden loss of revenue.
The magazine was a horribly mismanaged ego-trip at almost every stage that could never really decide if it wanted to be an arts, entertainment or technology magazine, and was master of none of these domains. Even staffers and contributors made dismissive, derisive comments about the magazine, its direction and content throughout its life, but as long as they were being paid (and even if they were not) a paycheck is a paycheck.
It proclaimed itself as Canadian but for the majority of its life it focused on American media, entertainment products and personalities, often almost indistinguishable from private label retail catalogs that masquerade as magazines.
It was a pseudo-intellectual, vapid fanboy, hype-machine wank, that preyed on the greed and fed the egos of just about everyone they duped to invest in it.
And, as we have seen time and again, the founders are laughing all the way to the bank.
Re:SHI(f)T - An Inside History (Score:2)
It was supposed to be SHI(f)T
It's a Friday night. Give me a break.
It was a piece of Shift (Score:2, Interesting)
Shift magazine never had a shining moment, save for the plastic wrapping.
Re:It was a piece of Shift (Score:2, Informative)
As much as you think Shift was ass, it was the only decent mass-media outlet in Canada for exploration of digital culture issues. Shift had a long and rocky history, having nearly died at least once before, but the writers, editors, and artists behind it were dedicated, enthusiastic, and (debatably) insightful.
The big question for me at this point is who will fill the void for a uniquely Canadian view on the intersection of culture and technology? We don't have half as many mags up here as in the U.S., and there really aren't any alternatives at this point. I'm not sold on dead-tree publications, so if there are some outstanding Canadian web-based mags out there, I'm all ears.
Re:It was a piece of Shift (Score:2, Insightful)
Secondly, (re: "The big question for me at this point is who will fill the void for a uniquely Canadian view on the intersection of culture and technology?"), if there's a need, it will be filled. That's the nature of the marketplace (and no, I'm not one of those Ayn Rand-toting uber capitalists). One of the problems with Shift (imho) was that it actually wasn't very much of anything: not very deep, not convincingly stupid, not particularly Canadian. The good news (if you're still reading this, and I apologize if my opinion is a bit acidic...I've had too much coffee) is that society always gets what it wants. Dreams do come true; the problem is that the reality of our day-to-day wishes is less profound and exhalted than we'd like to think.
Re:It was a piece of Shift (Score:2)
I am. And Canadian too. The anti-MacDonalds Sims article is one of the goofiest things I've ever read. If you don't like MacDonalds, then don't eat there. End of story.
Re:It was a piece of Shift (Score:1)
Arf.
it was inevitable (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:it was inevitable (Score:1)
Yeah, didn't Vice also defect from Montreal to NYC? They also made smart moves like opening the Vice store and their distribution model was different, it's free in your local hip Queen St. W record or clothing store. I'm sure your aware of this but I'm just pointing it out to others. I can say for certain but if Shift used those methods it would have been a different magazine.
Oh, and an important point I'd like to make is just because a company doesn't turn a profit doesn't mean their product is without value. In fact if people find value in a product and it can't find a way to be profitable it outlines a problem with the system in general. Not that think Shift couldn't have been profitable but the circumstances are likely very complex.
Re:it was inevitable (Score:1)
shameful but i have to say it (Score:5, Insightful)
i am a print designer. i own TONS (if stacked and weighed) of LPs. I love the feel of magazines and books and the album jackets and small stapled indie mags
so there's the dilema. print has been made unreasonable in terms of cost vs. distribution capability - it is now a luxury, one supported by twice the contents' length in advertisements. but we just don't want to let print, in all its kinky and enticing forms, go.
if you don't believe me, ask joe somebody whether they want a printed computer manual or a manual stored in the OS via Help, etc. Even though the digitized version would be easier to update, with audio and video descriptions or tutorials, a highly integrated/linked system, etc. - most average people will tell you they want a nice big indexed print copy.
its going to be a while before this is bred out of us
Re:shameful but i have to say it (Score:1)
Re:shameful but i have to say it (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps to tech news, which tends to update faster than the medium its on. But for me, and I'm 32, so take that as what you will, print will always be actually preferable for "longer" reads because of the fact that paper is easier on the eyes than a monitor.
I don't care what your resolution is, how pretty your fonts are, and what theme(s) you are using, a monitor will tire your eyes out much quicker than reading a book.
I'm sure this has to do with the fact that monitors project as opposed to reflect, but it makes a big difference to me.
So I'm one of those guys who still prints out the "HOW-To's" not b/c I dont' know how to find or read the digital copy, but b/c my optical senses prefer the printed one.
This is why we still have books, NYT bestsellers lists, and online booksellers.
Re:shameful but i have to say it (Score:2)
Re:shameful but i have to say it (Score:2)
shift calls it quits?! (Score:1)
Maybe "the Register" will buy it and (Score:1)
Subscription (Score:1)
bahhh (Score:1)
Silent F (Score:3, Funny)
Plus... they frequently hired Jon Katz. I'm just putting that on the table. ;)
Bye bye, Silent F. Hope the slashdot-spanking doesn't melt that last server.
This was still going??? (Score:1)
No great loss (sorry) (Score:2, Insightful)
(And I cant believe this warrants a Slashdot article, since I didn't think anyone outside of Canada had ever heard of the magazine!)
There goes my plan for shitf.com (Score:4, Interesting)
If anyone has a pile of Shift magazines, flip through them and find how many times they complained about the fact that the Atari 2600 version of PacMan sucked. Seriously -- it's been covered more than once. The writing seemed to be stuck in some kind of time-loop, like they were always looking back to the 1980s from around 1994. And smug? Don't get me started.
Anyway, I often mused about creating a parody publication called "Shitf", but now I guess I'll just let it go.
Shift we hardly knew ye (Score:1)
Feh (Score:2)
They also suffered from the usual fate of an internet magazine- print's always half a year behind.
"Wired Lite without any insight" is, er, "Wired". (Score:2)
In the opinion of this random bloke, Shift would be more fairly characterized as Wired-sans-pretension-sans-narcissism-sans-techno
In my opinion, Wired's steadfast embrace of the Whig view of history- that the new is inherently better than the old, was always it's Achilles heel.
To wit, Shift never made so bold (and idiotic) a proclamation as Wired's infamous " Kiss Your Browser Goodbye! [wired.com] exhortation, which predicted the imminent death of the web browser and the pending future domination of luminary upstarts like "Pointcast" (dead), "Marimba" (seriously hurting), "Backweb" (reinvented).
I'll miss Shift. And one day I'm sure I'll miss Wired, too, for very different reasons.
Too bad (Score:2)
Subscriber... (Score:2)
Re:Different *than*...different *than*... (Score:1)
Re:Economy (Score:1)
Someone a coupla days ago told me it would be this coming Tuesday...
Funny! (Score:2)
If I had mod points, I'd definitely give this a +1 Funny!