The Believer. Don't believe the hype.

The Believer is another Arts and Culture magazine. It's about $10 at your newsstand and it occasionally comes with a few perks such as stickers, post cards, or compilation CDs. For the most part, it's an interesting magazine with interesting columns and reviews. This cannot be said of it's website.

The Believer Online works as a large advertisement for the magazine. There is very little completed content (only 3 or 15 articles are available). But this is only one of the shortcomings of the site. 

The Believer Online is not interactive, it does not offer any audio or video components. In McLuhan terms, it is rather warm when compared to many other sites. One of the better qualities of the site is the "Online Only" content, which is archived and previously unpublished text. Right now there is a rereleased interview with David Foster Wallace. This is the most substantial piece within the "Online Only" section. The main problem with the site is it's lack of substance. Much like the website for The Montreal Mirror, The Believer tries to recreate the hard copy of the issue without observing or embracing electronic technology. It appears similar to The Walrus' website, but this is only in terms of structure- cascading menu, scrolling pages, etc. There is hardly an mystery to the site, and one can explore the entire site in only a few minutes. Moreover, they don't even focus on images or visuals. 

The Believer makes its aims apparent, Buy The Magazine! Their problem is that they don't fill the site with anything worth looking at so you quickly move on and forget about The Believer, both in its electronic and paper form. 

I rate this site 2 Mouse Clicks.