] After several near-deaths and consequent re-births, Shift
] magazine, the financially troubled but influential tech
] culture magazine, may have given up the ghost for good.
]
] The board of directors of St. Joseph Media, which
] controls Shift's publishing company, Multi-Vision
] Publishing Inc., yesterday announced that the magazine's
] upcoming March issue, already printed, would be its last.
] It will be on newsstands in two weeks.
]
] "We thought we could improve the product and make it
] profitable once the technology sector recovered from the
] decline that it entered earlier in the year," St. Joseph
] group president Greg MacNeil said in a release.
]
] Staff were told of the decision yesterday morning, though
] editor Neil Morton and associate publisher Kevin Siu
] found out last Thursday.
]
] "I didn't see it coming at all," said a shocked associate
] editor Jose Lourenco. "Things were going great ... ad
] sales were picking up and we were planning ahead to
] expand certain things."