''Inside Sports'' magazine was a major general interest sports magazine in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Launched in 1979 by

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

, it was designed as an edgier, monthly alternative to the longer-running ''

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 ''

SPORT Magazine ''Sport'' was an American sports magazine. Launched in September 1946 by New York-based publisher Macfadden Publications, ''Sport'' pioneered the generous use of color photography – it carried eight full-color plates in its first edition. '' ...

'' brands. In addition to 12 issues a year, it featured a "Swimsuit Spectacular" (''IS answer to the famous

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 cov ...

). In 1982, Inside Sports was acquired by

Evanston, Illinois Evanston ( ) is a city, suburb of Chicago. Located in Cook County, Illinois, United States, it is situated on the North Shore along Lake Michigan. Evanston is north of Downtown Chicago, bordered by Chicago to the south, Skokie to the west, Wil ...

-based Century Publishing (later renamed Lakeside Publishing). The magazine was resurrected by Editor-in-Chief Michael K. Herbert and ran successfully under the Century banner for nearly 20 years. Los Angeles Times columnist

Mike Downey Mike Downey (born August 9, 1951 in Chicago Heights, Illinois, and raised in the nearby village of Steger, Illinois) is a retired American newspaper columnist. From 2003 to 2008, Downey wrote the "In the Wake of the News" column for the ''Chica ...

wrote a monthly humor feature, "The Good Doctor." Later editors were Vince Aversano, Larry Burke and Ken Leiker. In June 1998, ''Inside Sports'' was sold by Century to Petersen Publishing Company, owner of longtime rival ''SPORT'', and merged the two magazines under the ''SPORT'' title. In the two years that followed, ''SPORT'' was bought by

emap plc Ascential plc, formerly EMAP, is a British business-to-business media business specialising in exhibitions & festivals and information services. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index. History Rich ...

and continued to struggle in the market, especially when ''

ESPN the Magazine ''ESPN The Magazine'' was an American monthly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998. Initially published every other week, it scaled back to 24 issues a year i ...

'' began filling ''Inside Sports old niche in 1998. In August 2000, after appearing every month for 54 years, ''SPORT'' magazine ceased publication, thus ending the lineage of ''Inside Sports''.

References

Monthly magazines published in the United States Sports magazines published in the United States Defunct magazines published in the United States Magazines established in 1979 Magazines disestablished in 1998 Magazines published in Illinois {{sport-mag-stub