''ESPN The Magazine'' was an American monthly sports
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
published by the
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
sports network in
Bristol, Connecticut
Bristol is a suburban city located in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, southwest-west of Hartford. The city is also 120 miles southwest from Boston, and approximately 100 miles northeast of New York City. As of the 2020 census, th ...
. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998. Initially published every other week, it scaled back to 24 issues a year in early 2016, then became a monthly in its later days.
The main sports covered include
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...
,
National Basketball Association
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...
,
National Football League
The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...
,
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
,
college basketball
In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...
, and
college football
College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States.
Unlike most ...
. The magazine typically took a more lighthearted and humorous approach to sporting news compared with competitors such as ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'' and, previously, the ''
Sporting News''.
On April 30, 2019, ESPN announced they would cease paper publishing in September 2019. A multiplatform monthly story called ESPN Cover Story was launched to continue the magazine's legacy featuring a digital poster-style cover and profile in cover story fashion, including the continuation of
NEXT Athlete proclamations and
The Body Issue
''The Body Issue'' is an edition of '' ESPN The Magazine'' that features dozens of athletes in nude and semi-nude photographs, which is intended to rival the annual Swimsuit Issue from ''Sports Illustrated''. The first issue debuted on October 19 ...
.
Departments
Some of the regular departments, in their magazine order:
* Two Way:
Stuart Scott
Stuart Orlando Scott (July 19, 1965 – January 4, 2015) was an American sportscaster and anchor on ESPN, most notably on ''SportsCenter''. Well known for his hip-hop style and use of catchphrases, Scott was also a regular for the network i ...
answered questions from readers, giving his own opinions.
* The Biz: Peter Keating writes about the business side of sports and its effect on the sporting world.
* The Post: Looking back at the previous edition of the magazine with some of the readers' comments and updates on past stories.
* Zoom: One large "image of the week," occupying two pages.
* The Jump: A mix of different regular features, offering an alternative and usually humorous take on the current sporting scene.
* Outtakes: A transcript of an interview from ''
The Dan Patrick Show
''The Dan Patrick Show'' is a syndicated radio and television sports talk show, hosted by former ESPN personality Dan Patrick. It is currently produced by Patrick and is syndicated to radio stations by Premiere Radio Networks, within and indepe ...
'' with a sport star mostly talking about non sports issues.
Kenny Mayne succeeded Patrick in this regular feature.
* The Life of Reilly: Former ''
Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...
'' columnist
Rick Reilly
Richard Paul Reilly (born February 3, 1958) is an American sportswriter. Long known for being the "back page" columnist for ''Sports Illustrated'', Reilly moved to ESPN on June 1, 2008, where he was a featured columnist for ESPN.com and wrote t ...
gives his opinions on the sports world, and reports upon various "special interest" stories in sports.
*
NEXT Athlete: Yearly award given out to young rising star athletes.
* Athlete X: a feature that ran in the late 2000s where an anonymous athlete from various sports (MLB, NFL, and NASCAR) offered an insider's perspective.
Most of these departments and features were dropped after a 2011 editorial change. By 2016, only Zoom and The Biz still appeared regularly. There is also a recurring column that focuses on
Sabermetrics
Sabermetrics, or originally SABRmetrics, is the empirical analysis of baseball, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. Sabermetricians collect and summarize the relevant data from this in-game activity to answer specific ques ...
, as well as The Truth, a back-page editorial that focuses on controversial topics. The Big Ticket, similar to The Jump, was introduced when ESPN Mag became a monthly in Fall 2018.
The Body Issue
The annual "Body Issue", which debuted in 2009 as its answer to the ''
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue
The ''Sports Illustrated'' Swimsuit Issue is published annually by American magazine ''Sports Illustrated'' and features female fashion models, celebrities and athletes wearing swimwear in various locales around the world. The highly coveted co ...
'', features naked and scantily-clad athletes.
The "Body Issue" addresses the physical structure of the most popular athletes to show what parts of their body they see as almost "perfect".
See also
*''
ESPN Deportes La Revista
''ESPN Deportes La Revista'' () is a Spanish language magazine that focuses on sports from an Hispanic perspective. ''La Revista'' translates to "the Magazine", and ESPN Deportes (which means ESPN Sports) is the name of a Spanish-language sports c ...
'', a Spanish-language magazine
References
External links
''ESPN The Magazine''
{{ESPN
Sports magazines published in the United States
Monthly magazines published in the United States
Defunct magazines published in the United States
ESPN media outlets
Magazines established in 1998
Magazines disestablished in 2019
Magazines published in Connecticut