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?

chessplayer,

My guess is circulation was falling, and as their niche was the AIM small cap market, they decided to make a quantum leap into the market served by the Economist and the Investors Chronicle, and the magazine now resembles a cross between the two IMO.

The problem is that the AIM smallcap investor finds those magazines dry (IMO) and therefore, don't buy them.

That leavses the market without a magazine that caters for the AIM smallcap sector, and an opportnity for someone.

I now receive moneyweek, and whilst it's no replacement for the original Shares, it is a good light read IMO, and only costs around half the price.

In addition there is the free proactiveinvestors magagine, which focuses soley on the small cap sector, mostly mining and oil, but does cover others too, but is only published every 4 - 6 weeks.

I now subscribe to moneyweek and have already prospered through SRB & SUN, my shares subscription runs out in september and I'll wait until then before I decide. I feel there has been a slight improvement in certain areas, but they do themselves no favours, the 2 most recent editions carried the same dates for ex-dividend stocks (28th may) and for dividend payment stocks (23rd may). So, was it a duplication of the stocks or, as in this case the dates were incorrect, but I had to check both editions to find out.
2517

2517,

I am going to check out this week's edition for the improvements you mention.

There have been some cosmetic improvements but my biggest issue with the magazine is this:

I wouldn't trust an analyst's recommendation as far as I could throw it. Every single one has some level of ulterior motive, however small. But the recommendations from Shares used to, I feel, be made in an unbiased way. But now, apart from the Plays of the Week, all of the articles are based on the views of analysts. Not just in the analysts section but in all areas of the magazine. The shares team no longer feel able or willing to provide a point of view, instead they dish up an amalgamation of analysts comments. There are no buy, hold or sell recommendations and the magazine is all the poorer for it.

Share magazine used to be something that I read cover to cover, now it just sits on the side unread. I have cancelled my subscription but I still receive a copy each week until next month. Having had last Thursday copy sitting unread by the computer I thought I would take look today to see if there was anything interesting in this issue.

Unfortunately the front page wasn't to encouraging, with a cover story on Analyst tips, and who had the best tips, very dull indeed and I flicked past with indecent haste. Maybe the analyst like to read about themselves, I can't imagine normal investors being that interested.

Then I noticed yet again shares giving themselves another pat on the back with there buy rating of HBOS last month, yes I think we have got the message now.

All in all a very dull read indeed, and I skipped through the issue in 30 minutes. I only managed to find one company worth looking into, Accsys Technologies AXS. It's a real shame because I really looked forward to the mag before the changes, I really can't imagine there are enough analyst buying this magazine to read article on themselves, and to see there faces in print to improve circulation figures. A small target readership indeed.

As I have cancelled subscription, this will be my last post on this blog, but good luck to others if this type of format floats your boat.

Maybe Queen1 set them thinking - we'll show you how OUR analysts are getting it right.
However, I note that when there is a BUY in any mag, you cannot buy at that price, for that was at least three days ago and if I take a subscription I have to wait until 12:30 - so i buy from the shop.

On the new format:
I guess it's marginally better now they've got rid of the grey text and reversed sections. What is wrong with plain black on white?, or a tint of no more than 5%.
I'm not keen on pretty photos I'd rather see a minimum of 5-years sp as it's very easy to forget what went on before.....and with so many co's it's not good.

What would I like? Something about the Execs - but not pages, please, the Good and Bad, perhaps? Then the Products - far too often news is all positive, with little regard to the inevitable disapointments. e.g. competitors, outstanding debts, etc.

It doesn't help that the Analysists managed to find a profit in Tanfield - yet this stock was a long-term "winner" for readers - so how come the Analysists failed to find the snags in this business? That the Boss (Stanley?) was involved in starting a competing business should have alerted them.....and even now the focus is on the "electric vehicles" yet this only represented 20% of the turnover....oh dear.

But what's undeniably daft is the Issue Number/Date in tiny reversed print on the cover - does no-one want to read this - so why not leave it OFF! If they think the Mag is attractive (by writing Shares in large letters), I think the date/issue is important enough to be maybe 10% of the size......or larger!

I cancelled during may and am STILL waiting for a refund

Snip,

Looks like your account was cancelled 1 year after your annual subscription was taken, therefore no refund would be due. I will e mail you with details.

Ian

I have returned a copy of an e mail from shares confirming cancellation in may. My 12 month sub was taken out in august

Snip,

I have replied to it earlier today.

Ian

thank you

What are Shares doing now? Having re-instated the very useful Diary page I see that this week's issue has once more failed to include it. This is really amateurish and extremely frustrating for subscribers. Every week it seems that parts of the magazine are chopped and changed and this, in my opinion, is a huge step backwards. Utter rubbish.

Well....I cannot even say anything...I have not received a copy of Shares magazine for 3 weeks now and I'm assured that there is nothing wrong with my subscription....possibly somebody nicking my copy ? :(

I am a new subscriber to Shares also and have just read all the above comments.

I must admit I found it a hard read at first but have now got used to it which is why I subscribed.

I have not received a copy from the distributors for 3 weeks either now, I received all the trial issues on time and since my subscription kicked in they have not been arriving

As an aside bjt, I notice that you reside In Birmingham.

If you are interested we meet quite regularly In the centre roughly once a month (see the "Birmingham Pie & Pint" thread) for all details.

Required field,

"possibly somebody nicking my copy ? :( "

-----

Judging by the last edition I flicked through in Borders, if they had, they would have returned it PDQ!

I was in Smiths on Waterloo Tuesday evening, and thought I would buy a copy to see if there had been any improvements.

First thing that struck me was how thin the magazine is now, and, after a brief flick through, I couldn't bring myself to part with 3.75 for a mag that would have been read before Woking.

I guess there is a downturn in advertising, and then the mag has to lose pages to compensate, but it seems half the mag it was a year ago, literally.


edit

To be fair, I picked up the IC, and after a brief flick through that, didn't buy it either, for the same reason.

For the small cap investor there is nothing to read now it seems.

Must agree with you Andy, it is not the read that it was and like you spent little time on the latest issue. I have a subscription with the FT for my core reading and cut out articles for future reference. For me the FT is a must and helps the mind reflect.

I didn't receive the mag for 3 weeks but now have received 2 by post in 2days.


My major grumble of is the quality of print, choice of founts and background page colour.

Before anybody says anything, I know I am old!

I,ve been taking the mag. for years and used to read every word , now a quick flick through and in the bin , can,t put my finger on exactly what has gone wrong but for one thing it is now borrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrring