ESPN the Mag vs. SI

ESPN: The Mag is for readers with ADD.

 

Well, so is SI lately, hockeybeat. Especially with the stuff in the front of the magazine. I'm not trying to hate on SI. I still love it and read it every week. They do better profiles than ESPNTM, with less athlete hero worship.

 

Look for ESPN: The Mag to keep improving, at least in the feature well. They recently hired away a youngish editor from Esquire, Chris Berend, who's an excellent guy and the sort of editor that a writer would do well to hitch his horse to. (I believe Wright Thompson is part of Berend's stable.)

I also think they're going to go for the kill on SI, which they probably perceive as weak -- as weak as it's ever been, including in the cash-for-writers department. I wouldn't be surprised if ESPN makes a run at some of SI's remaining major talents.

(They may have already, but I don't get a lot of gossip in my attic in Ottawa.)

 

Mr Beat,

Sorry. You're close. It's actually an outlet for wirters with OCD.

YHS, YHS, YHS, YHS, YHS, etc, etc, etc

 

if espn the mag truly wants to take a run at si, it must stop immediately bs like the lebron-kimmel cover. yeah, si has dropped majorly in the past decade, but that espn cover was the worst i've ever seen, at any time, any place, anywhere. i'm sure 95% of the staff's editors were thinking, "what the f--- are we doing?'

 

I'm not a huge fan of ESPNTM, but I read it in the office or library. The best thing they have going for them is their willingness to try new design things. They come up with some really great stuff.

 

The writing is great, it's always been great....some of the best talent in the biz is there.

But when you get away from the real talent--Fleming, Bucher, Friend, Keown, Olney, Kurkjian, etc--there's not much there if you're over 23.

I read it the same way I read Playboy....love the articles, the rest of it seems sort of trite, to me.

 

There are articles in Playboy?

 

Apparently I've been missing out on a lot with The Mag. I guess I better pick it up again.

While SI has dropped off considerably, I still consider it the standard when it comes to sports journalism, which actually doesn't say a whole lot. It just doesn't have much competition from that standpoint, at least in my eyes.

 

I wish ESPN would tie in more with the mag, maybe a once a week hour-long show with a short video presentation on a couple of the stories and a discussion with a writer on the backstory. The recent Josh Hamilton and Ben Rothesberger imposter pieces would have been perfect for the format. I hate the way SportsCenter runs some of their features a few times over a two-week period. They really need a new producer to punch up those sappy person overcoming adversity stories. I tune out as soon as I hear the piano.

 

Will never fully warm up to ESPN The Mag because -- and you've no doubt heard this before -- the type is too small and/or hard to read. And don't blame it on my, er, maturity; it's the only magazine I get that I need to reach for the reading glasses. Fine with all the others, SI included. So it seems like it's a design thing (colored paper thing?).