Shift folds

February 20, 2003 6:15 AM

Shift given shaft - After over 10 years, it looks like Shift Magazine (founded by Evan Solomon and Andrew Heintzman and published by Multi-Vision Publishing Inc.) is going away...again. The last issue will hit newsstands the first week of March.
posted by boost ventilator (13 comments total)

I'm trying to claim Shift as a charitable donation on my tax return this year. I've subscribed for several years, including the 2000/2001 death-and-rebirth sequence, and couldn't tell you exactly how much I've paid to get X number of issues. It arrives, it doesn't arrive: I've kept renewing and reading when an issue does show up. Behold the power of intermittent reinforcement!
posted by maudlin at 6:28 AM on February 20, 2003

bummer that wired has gotten kind of lame. Perhaps someone will fill the void. Although Wired has improved a little since the acquisition.
posted by mecran01 at 7:50 AM on February 20, 2003

--smirk--
I am supposed to know what Shift is? I don't get magazines.
posted by internal at 7:58 AM on February 20, 2003

It'll be back, just like Spy.

Oh wait.
posted by PinkStainlessTail at 8:07 AM on February 20, 2003

Good riddance. More lag than mag.
posted by blamb at 8:26 AM on February 20, 2003

I love Shift. Very sad.
posted by y6y6y6 at 8:34 AM on February 20, 2003

There was nothing else like it. I guess even when it wasn't great, it was good. I'll miss it.
posted by jmcnally at 8:35 AM on February 20, 2003

Too bad it was WIRED Lite. All attitude, no substance.

Die SHIFT, die.
posted by johnnydark at 10:51 AM on February 20, 2003

[warning: self link!] Y'all should all be sure to read my article on Shift.com about Helen Jane, the Hollywood Blogger-for-hire, before the website disappears. And stay away from the brown acid.
posted by arielmeadow at 10:59 AM on February 20, 2003

Sad to see it go, especially considering I've only gotten about 2-3 issues out of my year long subscription. Me thinks you naysayers haven't really given it a good read.
posted by trillion at 12:16 PM on February 20, 2003

Sad. Shift is - or was - a terrific magazine. Whereas Wired started as a publication devoted to technoculture, it gradually turned into a gadget-catalogue and hitech-big-business journal. Shift stayed true to the (much more interesting) issues of design, internet society, and the way that emerging technology affects trends, ethics, art, and more. I too hope it returns soon.

My website ran an interview with Shift editor Neil Morton in 2001, just after the mag had been brought back from the brink. A couple of the things he said make Shift's loss all the more tragic, to me:

"I believe in Shift. The staff believes in Shift. The owners believe in Shift. The Shift community believes in Shift. So that's a pretty good starting point, eh? We'll be around for a long time."

"Wired is essentially a business magazine these days and tends to take a rah-rah approach to applications/gadgets. Shift doesn't do that. [...] We look at implications of tech, not applications. "
posted by Marquis at 1:59 PM on February 20, 2003

If any of you Shifters are reading this, please try to put up a site to track your writings going forward -- Shift was one of the only magazines around I still read from cover to cover, and that was simply on the quality of its writers and its editors.

Reading Shift reminded you that people still honestly believe that technology can improve the world for us all. You could always count on it for a fresh North American view on "digital culture" where normally the landscape is muddled by consumerism and gadget lust, and I'm really going to miss it.
posted by teradome at 2:44 PM on February 20, 2003

Webgrabber is a utility for OS X that can grab entire websites.

Shift is about 35mb.

I don't mind a little gadget lust.
posted by mecran01 at 6:07 PM on February 20, 2003