Shares Magazine was totally revamped this week.

Out has gone the tabloidy style, and aticles on small caps, in has come long articles by market 'experts' and large cap reporting.

The Prospector has been axed.

I am disppointed with the changes, and wondered if anyone else here subscribed or bought Shares, and had a view they wold like to share?

I too have been very disappointed by the new format
Would have been sensible to make changes slowly and bring readers with you
I did like the section on the oil services sector the other day

But, it looks as boring as Investors Chronicle in its feel
I always thought Shares mag was a bit more lively than the IC
If i wanted the IC, would have bought that instead of shares mag

Unless it changes for the better soon, I will cancel my subscription and revert to buying the odd copy from Smiths.

I like the new format, less glitzy and sensationalist and more informative. e,g, forex feature.

Whats with the funny colour backgrounds & light colour text.

ok for the young folk no good for us oldies 60+.

I really hate the new format and doubt I will subscribe again when the time comes.

I picked up a copy in Birmingham yesterday for the trip north to Carlisle, flicked through it, and placed it straight back on the shelf.

Shares are simply failing to cater for the retail investor interested in small cap stocks anymore, IMO.

A great shame.

there is a balance ...... "retail investors" do not or should not invest solely in small cap companies, and I for one, certainly perceive some improvement in the content of the latest edition .... still much to be done to restore a decent balance, but a move in the right direction at least.

Cynic,

"retail investors" do not or should not invest solely in small cap companies"

-----

Why?

I have done reasonably well over the years investing in purely smallcaps, and have no desire to change, as it is my principal area of interest.

I believe it is an area where the retail investor can have a slight edge through research before a company grows and the general market catches on.


Shares Magazine was always a small cap magazine, it catered for a niche market not already provided for by the highbrow (IMO) Economist, and dry and largely mid and large cap commentator, the Investors Chronicle.

Shares has now moved up to a position in between the Economist and IC (IMO), and one wonders where their market will come from, given that these two already have loyal readerships.

The loss of the old Shares has left a gap in the market, it will be interesting to see if it's filled, and if so, by whom.

Moneyweek is the closest, but would need to report on more companies than it currently does, and, maybe, and more likely, Tom Winnifrith's t1ps may spot the opportunity?

I very rarely post on these boards but feel I must this time, I thought I would give the new version of the mag a few weeks to see if I got used to it, which I have not. The previous style was much better and I will have to seriously consider whether to renew my subscription which I will do if it does not improve.

Can you believe in the letters page they've printed a congratulatory "letter" from a reader telling them how wonderful the new format is?! I guess that particular reader must get their copy in braile.

Noticed the self-congratulatory we beat the market on "Plays". However strangely, their "hot tips for 2008" have not been updated. Could this be because nearly all of them went down by 20% or more hitting the "stop loss". Some are down by over 50%.

Queen1,

LOL!

Not surprised by such a letter, but, IF it's genuine, you have to wonder if the person bought the mag before, and if so, why?

The content has completely changed, so if you like it now, why did you buy it before?

My guess is they will not revert back and are trying to tough it out hoping readers will stay loyal.

I think their circulation will fall due to them not listening to their loyal customers, but instead relying on "market reserch"

Yes, I noticed that too queen. Very selective of the many emails they must have received.

A terrible, if not cynical attempt at manipulation.

ok, found a copy of the year beginning tips. Here's a table (rough and ready back of fag pack calculations) They had stops of 20% so I've put if they would have been stopped out at any point. Out of 20 tips 4 fell by more than half and 18 fell below the stops. Pretty poor especially given how much the market has come back. Not clever enough to work out the total % loss. Two shares had some kind of consolidation so wrote con for those. Couldn't be bothered to trace them!

company tipped at Price now +/- stopped?
Barclays 523 449 -15% -20%
Cattles 293.5 244.5 -17% -20%
ITE 159.5 148 -7% --
Lloyds 471.75 429 -9% -20%
Morgan S 1121 1044 -6% -20%
Nat Grid 820.5 700 -13% --
Next 16.74 1298 -22% -20%
S Cross 537.5 367 -32% -20%
Unilever 1746 1768 +1%
Xtrata 3604 4204 +17%
2 ergo 177 205 +15%
Ashley H 129.5 157 +20%
CVS 241.5 258.5 +7%
Deb free 202 97 97 -52% -20%
FDM 125 98.5 -21% -20%
Fundel 596.5 285 -52% -20%
Haike 117.5 97 -18% -20%
Machtech 396.5 292 -26% -20%
Plant Impact 52 50.5 -3%
Protherics 53.5 47 -11%
Begbies 102.25 117 +15%
Bluwater 13 5 -60% -20%
Coolabi 34.5 19.5 -42% -20%
Egdon 223 16 ? ? (con)
Lidco 8.5 11.75 +35% -20%
Payzone 70.25 47.75 -32% -20%
Petrolina 12.25 ? (con) -20%
Petroneft 29 32 +10%
Scisys 37 41 +11% -20%
Wagon 32 16 -50% -20%

have just noticed free demo is a cherished old format from nov 07 !ive got my refund and the first moneyweek has arrived ,think it may be ok .

I think this weeks edition was better than the few previous. I think the content has slightly more depth to it than the previous magazines. The layout is improving and the contrast between the founts and paper slightly better.

I will wait and see for a few more weeks.

To be fair this weeks edition was a slight improvement. The sector report on house builders was very good, and feature on pharmaceutical was interesting, as was some article in Directors deals for a change. I also like the table of Broker views, but not the analysts in action.

The problem is overall the magazine has a dull feel to it, which seems intended to appeal to a different section.

What they need to do is give more space to the chartest, at least back to two pages, and re-introduce the Trading plays section, I feel this has been a big loss, and should have been expanded along with the chartest.

As for the letter of praise "what a joke" they must have searched for that one.

I'm still subscibing until the end of my contract in August, but wouldn't renew because the way they have gone about this change tells me how much they think of the current readers "not alot" I will subscribe to IC........

ps..... has anyone noticed how the brokers updates on the trading thread have been stopped, I wonder if this has something to do with the analysts recommendations they are so keen to use in the mag now.

never mind I will look elsewhere on the internet.

OK -I do see some improvements, or rather returns of sections in this weeks mag...

Back in is a section called Explorer thats details O&G and Mineral plays...
Back is Calender...


Seems slightly more on smaller caps (4 pages of news) and this weeks feature is Mobile Comms so nearly all firms (WIN, 2ERGO etc) are small caps.


Still has the stupid Analyst section taking about 8 pages though...
Will hang on for now..

I must say that i am far from being impressed,
If somebody can point out the improvements I'd like to hear about them.
Out of a possible 10,I would give it a 3

Stegegro,

I haven't seen this week's edition, but judging by what you say, they are gradually putting back some of the old popular features, and now the Prospector page seems to have returned, albeit under a new name, to save face no doubt!

This has now become shambolic (IMO), It's become Shares mag's equivalent of the 10p tax rate fiasco, IMO.

What a shame that they lost subscribers such as myself by taking out the mining / oil and smallcap features, and now they seem to be slowly putting them back in after weeks of protest!

I wonder how much they paid the "market researchers"?

I have now received an email inviting me to review the next four editions of the magazine free online!

Hmmm.

If you want to win back long term subscribers that cancelled when you stripped out all the small cap and mining / resource content they originally bought the magazine for!, maybe a good idea is to mail one out and let's see if it has improved since the initial revamp?

I would suggest paying subscribers,and ex subscribers, are the best market research you will ever get!