New sport magazine - looking for feedback

A19B1C12

Hello all,

I was looking into creating a new sport magazine for Ireland and the premise behind the magazine is simple.

A monthly publication focused on the sports that Irish people are most interested (or seem to be most interested in) - GAA, soccer and rugby with pieces on tennis, golf, cycling, cricket when big worldwide events take place. The magazine will offer a round up of what is going on in each sport that month in both Ireland and around Europe.

For GAA it will be a summation of the Allianz Leagues and Championship matches month by month. Top scorers and other statistics included to keep your finger on the pulse.

Soccer - focus on the Premier League and Airtricity League with round-ups and league tables/top scorers/big news from around Europe & International matches

Rugby - RaboDirect 12, Top 14, H-Cup news and results/league tables etc

Magazine is based on previews and reviews/summaries of sporting events that the majority of people are interested in to help them keep their finger on the pulse.

This is a basic idea in its planning stages and I am trying to develop it further but would any of you feel there is a market for this or better still would any of you buy this if it was available for say a price of €2.50 in the newsagents or as a subscription of maybe €20 per year.

PaulPinnacle

johnb03 wrote: »

.... to help them keep their finger on the pulse.

I'm not sure I would describe 'once a month' as 'finger on the pulse' territory. They can get the same information weekly or daily through traditional print media (which is struggling as a business at the moment even for the established names) and up to the minute via online sources.

I'd suggest doing a far deeper analysis of the market before investing too much time or money into the venture, I just can't see the revenues you'd make even covering your overheads in the market as it stands at the moment. As someone who buys maybe 3 or 4 Newspapers over the course of a year (ironically enough most on days where I'm killing time before a sporting event) and who wouldn't even consider buying your magazine (despite being extremely interested in a variety of sports), do take care with this one.

Gloomtastic!

As above has stated, a very big hurdle you're going to face is deadlines for a monthly magazine.

You want the magazine to hit the newstands on the 1st of the month.
Distributors may take 3+ days getting the magazine to the newsagents.
Printers will take 5 working days to print your magazine and get it to the distributor
One designer will be able to produce about 8 pages in a working day. So for 30-odd pages of editorial you've got to have most of the copy ready a week or so before you go to the printers.

So your August issue will have sports news that will be relevant to the end of June/beginning July.

The other big hurdle you'll have is money. Magazines eat money at a horrendous rate.

If you're serious look at web as opposed to print. No print, paper and distribution costs or schedules mean you can publish news in real time and at a fraction of the cost.

Your only competition however will be all the national newspaper and television websites, with the huge resources available to them.

oregano

Hi, I get 442 magazine. It's obsolete even before it hits my iPad. But... The articles on footballs past, and interviews with less than famous football types, are never dated. The cover story is always dated, but I buy it for the interesting back stories, not to find out who Wayne Rooney is arguing with at the minute.

So I agree with the previous poster re finger on the pulse ... Aim maybe for the client who likes to read about sport, but more in depth, or from a new angle.

I can read about the Rabo and H Cup pretty much daily, for free, in the ITimes or similar. But I'd bother my arse reading about how Leinster changed from a team of also rans to what they are today...

Best of luck with it, it's well worth a 20 quid subscription if its got a usp in my opinion, the Irish are never sated with sport. I think I pay 442 28 stg a year...

Peterdalkey

With so much access to all kinds of news, including sports, in real-time on the web, for free, I see no opportunity. Traditional magazines/print media are in serious difficulties and most have failed in their efforts to sufficiently monetize their web offerings sufficiently to cover the costs of provision. Efforts to introduce pay-walls have crashed reader numbers and thus ad revenues, yet another vicious circle. High quality new content from established pundits might give you an edge but these guys want big bucks.