First Issue Review – Inside Sport

The general sports magazine market is rather a puzzle at the moment. Although there are only a couple of mainstream titles, namely Total Sport and Sported! which are both published by Emap, it would appear a difficult arena to enter – a number of titles have struggled in the sector and been forced to close, the latest of which was Sky Sports Magazine which launched around this time last year and has already folded. Brackenbury Publishing however obviously believes there is room for another title and so has launched Inside Sport .

Like so many new magazines these days it appears that Inside Sport has looked for a convenient peg to hang a new lad’s lifestyle title from: masquerading as a serious special interest title, what we actually get is a series of features and interviews which could have been culled direct from a Loaded or FHM sports feature.

The cover shot immediately suggests the kind of title this is – where Total Sport or Sported would feature Paul Gascoigne or maybe Paul Ince, Inside Sport is emblazoned with…Dawn. Dawn, who apparently has no surname and certainly no sporting credentials, is a stunningly good-looking blonde whom Inside Sport decided to take some pictures of and stick on its front cover. Its a similar ploy to that of Amateur Photographer which is bought by teenage lads who are interested not in the scantily clad model on the front of course but because want to buy a new light meter and tripod.

As one would expect, the magazine’s opinion of what constitutes ‘sport’ is very broad: crazed American teenagers who have taken too many steroids, wild boar hunting and surfing. Forget football, rugby, cricket or golf – they are all far too boring for Inside Sport. Probably the only ‘normal’ sports piece in the entire publication is an interview with Paul Ince which is actually very good until it descends into patronising psycho-babble: “When Paul Ince wins the ball or harangues a teammate, he is retaliating, striking back, hitting against himself, proving that he is the man that everyone thought he could never be.”

The perfect bound glossy has a lively layout and features lots of full page and double spread colour photos. The ad:ed ratio for this 148-page title is 26:74 with advertisers including Esso, Fiesta, Midland Bank, Pulsar skates and the Royal Navy.