New Sports Title To Tackle Fickle Teen Sector
A new lifestyle magazine aimed at 15-24 year olds will make its debut this month, as Red Hot Publishing begins distribution of FFWD magazine, a free offering combining sport, fashion and health for the notoriously fickle youth market.
The new title takes the form of a glossy A5 magazine, distributed free to readers through sports and clothing stores to target a fashion conscious youth audience from its first issue on 25 November.
The title will initially run as a quarterly magazine, with the second issue published in April. However, Red Hot are confident that FFWD will become a monthly offering shortly after its second issue.
The first issue features exclusive coverage of David Beckham’s new basketball shoe, building on the publishing house’s strong relationship with sports brand Adidas. The magazine features articles on high-profile sports stars, with a remit to cover everything from basketball to snowboarding, with a focus on exciting new ‘extreme’ sports such as BMX and skating.
The title builds on the popularity of sister title RWD, which caters for urban music fans with content covering hip hop and rap music, as well as less commercial drum and bass and US house artists.
Commenting on the launch of FFWD, Red Hot’s editorial director Matt Mason said: “RWD has become a phenomenal brand in its own right, everyone who has come through in the last few years has been in RWD first, from Lemar to Dizzee Rascal to Miss Dynamite and we were getting more and more sports brands associate themselves with RWD, so it occurred to us if you’re a kid then you either want to be a pop star or you want to be a footballer.”
He added: “Everyone is passionate about either sport or music, and there is a real lack of lifestyle and fashion edge titles in that marketplace, and where we’ve grown the business with RWD we think there is room for a sports title.”
FFWD is the latest magazine to attempt to attract image conscious youngsters with a mix of music sport and fashion. Earlier this year publishers Parallel Sky sought to create a niche movies, style and music bible for an altogether more discerning reader with Blink magazine. However, the title was forced to close in September ahead of a redesign and improved distribution channels following a disappointing performance in its first four months of production (see Blink Forced To Redesign After Less Than Six Months).
Juicy magazine was also launched this year in an attempt to preach “urban style and culture” values to a readership similar to that of deceased lifestyle titles Sleaze and The Face. Run by a small editorial team and published independently, the title was billed as featuring “all of the Juiciest elements of urban culture from break-dancing to sneakers” (see Juicy New Title To Poach Sleaze And Face Readers).
Red Hot Publishing: 0870 774 5619
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