Shifter

Journalist Mário Rui André launched Shifter in 2013 while in college. At the time, social media was peaking, and there was a growing interest in topics such as technology and marketing. André knew there wasn't any publication covering these topics in Portugal.

The topics interested his friends and colleagues, and they gathered to write about the consequences, social changes, and challenges brought on by the new forms of communication and the evolution of technology.

With time, Shifter started covering music, films, and culture through essays, interviews, and features, and became a website about the intersection of technology, society, and culture worldwide. It also issues a quarterly print issue called Shifter magazine.

For a while, Shifter was associated with journalism produced by college students. In 2020, it was relaunched with a "more adult" and professional tone and focused on in-depth writing and essays. It publishes articles about topics such as performative activism, the blockchain, or prison reform, attracting 420,000 page views annually.

Shifter's sources of revenue come from consultancy services and content development done for other organisations. In 2020, the outlet was the recipient of the Journalism Emergency Relief Fund granted by Google to support the production of original journalism for local communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.