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?

Have just cancelled 2 years sub. Very sadly, it's hard getting advice in rural France. What can one say/think ? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Delusions of grandeur ? Need to be city slickers ? Deluded ? Over ruled by management ? Taken over by a multinational ? Hello Money Week, fingers crossed. Thanks for the tip.

Strawbs,

I agree, Moneyweek is no replacement for Shares, as shares had it's own unique niche in the market, but it is the closest light read for the private investor now, IMO.

Shares no longer covers the companies that I want to read about, small caps newcomers, and mining and resource stocks, and Moneyweek at least covers these, albeit not in such volume as shares used to.

Moneyweek is a light read, is easy on the eyes, and is around half the price of the new Shares. I have taken their free 4 edition offer, and will continue afterwards, as Moneyweek is also online as well.

For anyone interested in (mainly) junior mining stocks, with a sprinkling of AIM small cap news, there is a 6 weekly (ish) FREE magazine published by proactiveinvestors.com, the link to register to receive it is HERE

As I understand it there is no plan to charge for the mag in the future, so it's not an introductory offer to my knowledge.

This week's SHARES MAG
Oil Services sector
I have yet to look in depth at the remainder of the mag, but I did find this article both useful and informative.
This could have been easily improved by highlighting the mentioned companies within the body of the article.



I certainly miss the notes etc on the small companies, trading suggestions, chart comment and similar from the old style mag.
While I often ignored the specific comments, it regularly prompted me to see what thread might be running on the companies in question, some of which attracted my money, even if only to say "Goodbye!"

This aspect needs to be revived, not least because small companies the focus of many of the subscribers here.

This week's SHARES MAG
Metals
in its way, this article was also very interesting.
however, by focussing on just RIO, BHP and Ferrexpo, it very much missed the target for most readers and subscribers.
while there is nothing wrong with highlighting these big players, there several others that could/should have been mentioned.
in addition, there are a number of good quality minor miners(sorry) who are genuine producers (ORE happens to be my fave) whose prospects could have been usefully pointed up.

This week's SHARES MAG
Wetherspoon's
why would most subscribers be interested in a 2-page plug for this pub group?
it came across as a paid advertisement feature
perhaps it was!

Message to Petal

Being nosy really, I noticed you said you lived in rural France, I wondered which part, because I live close to Perigueux. As you may have noticed I'm as displeased with shares as you. Unfortunately I cant cancel subsciption because I paid in advance and have 4 month's to run, it want stop me ringing them on Monday and asking for a rebate. I think I know the answer though.

Having said that I still have to read the whole mag this week, because I have been out all day playing Golf, but I did notice there is still no trading section. Amazing really when you consider the amazing growth of investors trading indices and companies with CFD & SB accounts. Would think an increase to 25% of mag would be justified with trading plays, never mind they know best!

Have just checked back issues for IC, and they do have a subscription serveces to Europe for 184 a year, about the same as Shares I think.

spifire43,

I rang and cancelled, and they offered me a rebate straight away, and were friendly about it.

In the highly unlikely event the mag returns to the format and content I bought it for, I would re-subscribe, ut it's a trader's mag now featuring large caps that people trade, rather than invest in, IMO.

Andy

Pleased to hear that, I will call them Monday and subsribe to IC instead. it's very sad really because I have made some very good investments using Shares in the past.

Where has the charisma gone? Shares is now the literary equivalent of a cold, rainy Monday morning.

What is there to attract readers to this magazine? I liked to read the old editions for entertainment as well as ideas/introductions to companys which I'd research further and perhaps invest.

SHARES MAG DOES NOT NEED TO LOOK LIKE A DREARY BUSINESS DOCUMENT!

Ill like to beg to differ Im in favour of the new style which has a more serious appeal although agree ex div page is a miss at least there seems to be a lot less
of the endless twaddle on CFD Spread Betting etc type articles Im sure if people emailed the management with their ideas on the type of articles they wanted someone would take note ,they dont want their readers to leave in droves I like
the sector approaches also which take more detailed line .Also take out sub to
Moneyweek dont forget that 6/7 pages taken up with cars.boats,houses most people cant afford,but its a lighter read...

martynz,

we are communicating with the management via these threads.

If you like the mag now, presumably you didn't buy it before!

I say that because we have suffered an entire change in content, and I doubt people that bought for articles on new companies, small caps, and miners / gas & oilers etc. etc. are too enamoured with the new 'serious' and drab waffle about economics and markets, which is a weekly rehash of reports avilable daily in the current news media.

bought the IC this week, and it's better then this week's Sharesa IMO, becauase they feauture more company news, rather than economic.

Moneyweeek does include pages of advertisment features, as you rightly say, but at least it's a light read and features news on smaller companies, the sort most AIM investros want to read...

You can read about large caps everywhere.

Moneyweek is not a replacement for the old Shares, just it's nearest comparison, IMO.

Why fix something that was not broken. I hate the new look, just does not seem as eye catching as before, and many useful sections gone.

ValueMax summed up the recent Shares Mag changes in one sentence

"SHARES MAG DOES NOT NEED TO LOOK LIKE A DREARY BUSINESS DOCUMENT!"

Im afraid now it does look like a dreary business document. If major changes are not made this coming Thursday, Ill be joining the droves of readers and subscribers who have abandoned ship and canceled subscriptions.

I really don`t understand what they are trying to do. Driving away lots of existing subscribers and readers in favor of what !

Heres a suggestion for the Shares Team : Ask your readers and subscription holders what they would like to see in the mag and what should be changed. Take a survey. Do your own research instead of hiring a faceless marketing company who feed you a load of rubbish about what you should put in the mag.

They're going to lose my custom as well if changes back are not aparent this week.

Edited by MoneyAm

If you wish to advertise products in which you are personally involved please speak to our advertising dept.

Share above views. A disaster..... boring !!! Will take wise advice given above and ask for a refund.

Share above views. A disaster..... boring !!! Will take wise advice given above and ask for a refund.

Big day tomorrow ... will there be a change in format ??

Yes : My subscription maintained

No: My subscription canceled

evilratboy,

Although there may be a few cosmetic touches, it won' return to it's original format, that has gone forever, IMO.

Whoever made the decision would not want to lose face.

Andy, they have 2 options then

1. Lose face
2. Lose subscriptions and loyal readers

What a farce this is. I just dont understand why they didnt poll EXISTING readers and subscribers on how they wanted the magazine to look.

A week on and im still just as pis%%ed off about this.