Sky Sports Magazine First Issue Review

Probably not what everyone wanted, but there is a new men’s magazine on the market. Sky Sports Magazine from Haymarket Magazines retails at £2.25 and is another in the seemingly endless line of sporting magazines that have emerged on the market over recent years. Sky Sports Magazine is a general sports magazine that roughly copies the format of BSkyB’s sports channels.

Main articles in this month’s issue include; an interview with Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, a feature on what it feels like to be hit by boxer Mike Tyson, a preview of the forthcoming Australia versus West Indies test series and an interview with England cricket captain Mike Atherton on the future of English cricket.

Despite some reservation about yet another sports related men’s magazine, Sky Sports Magazine does deliver something new. While it could be said that it is just a rehashed version of EMAP’s Total Sport, there does seem to be something new in the magazine. The articles are well written and should appeal to average sport fans as well as the armchair sport fanatic. The target audience is the same as Total Sport’s plus Sky Sports’ (the satellite station) regular audience.

Sky Sports Magazine is perfect bound and has 148 pages. There are 28 pages of advertisements, 3 of which are classified. The ad:ed ratio is 19:81. Main advertisers are; Nike, Holsten Pills, Littlewoods Pools, Ford, Virgin Radio and Gillette.