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Though this isn’t only a football story, we’re sort of compelled to mention it because we’re sort of on the payroll.
Our friends at Sporting News are re-launching the magazine in September. The new version will be a twice-per-month magazine-style publication, “with more color, better paper and a slew of name columnists.” (That leaves us out.)
The new Sporting News, which will keep its $3.99 cover price, will be supplemented by a 32-page Sporting News Today, delivered by e-mail every morning to subscribers. Sporting News Today will debut on July 23.
“People know the brand, they just know it as an old brand, something their father read,” publisher Ed Baker told the New York Times. “We’re creating a new Sporting News, modernizing and contemporizing it in a way that makes sense for today’s rabid die-hard sports fan.”
Contributors will include former Cowboys quarterback and FOX analyst Troy Aikman, former MLB pitcher Ron Darling, Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner, and soon-to-be-former Deadspin editor Will Leitch, who actually worked for Sporting News before landing in his current gig.
At a time when media companies that previously made all their money via ink and paper are trying to figure out how to deal with this new world of information gathering and dissemination, Sporting News looks to have found a way to re-invigorate the brand — and to re-introduce it to the coming generations to whom the concept of a home-delivered newspaper will eventually sound as ridiculous as the concept of home-delivered milk and/or home-delivered health care.
June 10th, 2008 at 9:38 am
The Sporting News has been dead for years just like Sport magazine and Inside Sport magazine. Not even a failed radio syndication or the hiring of internet writers will bring The Sporting News back.
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June 10th, 2008 at 9:45 am
That is probably a good idea… I love reading a week old magazine everytime the new one arrives. It makes their predictions almost as good as Florio’s. Reading the mag’s ‘preview’ of the playoffs, draft, etc is always after the event occurs; so the magazine has been pretty much a fish wrap for years…
Florio do you get any kick backs if I order a new subscription through your site?
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June 10th, 2008 at 10:02 am
Can’t wait to hear the golden inside info from Hank (last place Yankees) Steinbrenner. Worst father to son handover since Jay Snider took over the Flyers.
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June 10th, 2008 at 10:59 am
Kevin, the handoff of the Boston Celtics from Don Gaston to his son Paul was so bad that Globe columnist coined the phrase “Thanksdad” as Paul’s nickname.
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June 10th, 2008 at 11:53 am
People still read sports related print magazines? I’m guessing 95% of remaining subscribers are doctor, dentist, and chiropractor offices.
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June 10th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
In my opinion the content of The Sporting News has been superior to Sports Illustrated and ESPN the magazine. Their failure has been on the business side. They haven’t transitioned as well to the electronic age (e.g., no “live” scoring updates on their web site) and have lagged far behind their competition at marketing their product. The new management should look at developing stronger business partnerships - TV, radio, and web - to develop their brand name in to a more well known product.
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June 10th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
transitioning to the new improved fish wrap.
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June 10th, 2008 at 4:29 pm
The demise of the Sporting News is really sad…I was a subscriber for over 10 years, finally letting it lapse when I was over in Iraq. It was a great magazine, but the quality has gone downhill over the past 10 years. It used to be that you always got to read about your team every week - regardless of what team it was and what week it was. The big four were covered. Then, other than football, they kept dwingling down the content, to where your team wasn’t guaranteed ink. Finally, they did it with football as well.
I still read their football preview magazines, but I wish they could go back to the rich, deep content they had in the late ’90s.
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