What If? (magazine)


What If? Magazine was a Canadian magazine, that covered music, art, literature, film, writing and popular culture. Unlike celebrity-focused publications, WI's primary concentration was on Canadian up-and-coming artists with a heavy focus on youth and young adult audiences. The publication was notable for their heavy encouragement and publishing of reader-created material.

Cover art

The magazine features reader-made artwork on the cover, from paintings to drawings to photography.

Content and Frequency

It published 4 issues each year that are available on newsstands for approximately two months.

Note from the Editor

The article that opens the magazine comes from Mike Leslie, the managing editor, who discusses literature and writing techniques, but more generally focuses on literature and art as a rule. The whole section typically runs two to three pages long.

Reviews

There are several sections of reviews, rated in the style of European magazines by assessing in terms of number of stars.
The sections are:
There are also several review pages online. This section is managed and contributed to by entertainment editor Chelsey Cosh.
The online review sections are:
In Spring 2010, What If? was redesigned and relaunched, changing the look and feel of the publication — increasing picture sizes and making a number of columns' word count shorter. The change was sponsored by the Government of Canada through the Canada Magazine Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage.
In Fall 2010, the magazine shut down losing any funds to be able to carry the magazine on any longer.

Website

The magazine's website whatifmagazine.com provided users with regular content, unabridged versions of edited material from the magazine, breaking news, original audio/video programming, entertainment exclusives, and serves as an archive for past magazine interviews, columns and photos.