Embattled but critically praised Shift magazine has been sold to a group of employees.
Normal Net, a New York company that has invested in e-commerce, sold out to the employees after a sale to technology publisher Ziff-Davis fell through.
Shift chronicles the Internet culture. The Toronto-based magazine has been widely praised but has lost millions of dollars.
It dropped $30.6 million last year, according to the Calgary Herald.
Published reports also say it has missed payments to suppliers and freelance writers this summer, and that employees are looking for work elsewhere.
Founder Andrew Heintzman will return as president of Shift Multimedia.
He said the magazine will continue to be distributed in the U.S. and in Canada. He will also proceed with plans for ShiftTV and Shift Online.
Shift TV has already produced 13 shows based on the magazine. The shows have been sold to stations in Canada, Australia and Israel.
The employee buyout does not mean the magazine’s money troubles are over.
“We will be spending the coming months finding financial and strategic partners that can help up maximize [Shift’s] potential,” said Heintzman in a statement.
The eight-year-old publication started life as a literary magazine but switched to covering the culture of the Internet in 1994.
It was launched in the United States last fall, hoping to generate bigger circulation and advertising revenues.
In addition, Shift has a small office located within New York City.
The magazine got good buzz here, but Normal Net owner Richard Szalwinski was apparently unwilling to wait for better times. Szalwinski bought the magazine in 1996. He could not be reached for comment.
Editor-at-Large Clive Thompson told the Calgary Herald that Szalwinski was putting his money into e-commerce plays instead.
Normal Net had apparently planned to include Shift in its e-commerce plans at one point, but abandoned the idea.