talkSPORT To Launch Digital Magazine

National commercial speech radio station talkSPORT is to launch a digital magazine aimed at extending the brand beyond radio.

Titled talkSPORT Magazine, the weekly online-only publication will be delivered to subscribers’ in-boxes once a week. Readers will be able to sign up for delivery of the magazine by e-mail or access it through the station’s website, talkSPORT.net.

The title has been under construction for the past year and has a provisional launch date of summer Q3 2008.

James Mallinson, former publisher of Dennis’s Monkey has been brought in as publisher with the editorial team being lead by author and former editor-at-large of Loaded and Maxim magazines, Bill Borrows.

Duncan Stafford, who has won awards for his design work on titles such as Arena and FHM, has been recruited to fill the role of art director.

Mallinson said: “talkSPORT will be the first radio station to create a digital magazine. We are taking the brand values of the station and distilling them in a magazine format.

“Newsstand titles have recently been using the strength of their brand to launch radio stations so it makes perfect sense for one of the UK’s biggest radio brands to create its own magazine title.”

The latest RAJAR figures, for the first quarter of 2008, show that nationally, TalkSPORT had a weekly reach of nearly 2.5 million listeners, following a year on year increase of around 5.5% (see BBC Radio 2 Sees Weekly Reach Increase).

talkSPORT: 020 7959 7800 www.talksport.net