The magazine was established in December 1960 under the title
Back Stage, in a newspaper format covering theatre and commercial production. The owners were
Ira Eaker and
Allen Zwerdling. In the late 1980s, they sold the paper to
British Phonographic Industry and the newspaper was split into two in the summer of 1990. On July 6, 1990, the portion known as
Back Stage Shoot was spun off into a full, standalone publication,
BackStage/Shoot; while the original
Backstage continued on independently as well. The concept was to have the original
Backstage publication concentrate on actors, performing artists, and theatre, while
Shoot would continue to "serve the news and information needs of creative and production decision-makers at ad agencies, and executives & artisans in the production industry". To emphasize the change, the official
Back Stage tagline, "The complete service weekly for the communications and entertainment industry" was switched to "The Performing Arts Weekly." In 1994,
BackStage/Shoot was renamed simply
SHOOT. In 2005, the primary
Back Stage tagline changed from "The Performing Arts Weekly" to "The Actor's Resource", and sister publication
SHOOT (and ShootOnline.com) was sold to DCA Business Media LLC. The SHOOTonline website was launched that year, along with an electronic version of the publication. == References ==