| ESPN The Magazine | |
| Editor: | Alison Overholt |
| Editor Title: | Editor In Chief |
| Frequency: | Monthly |
| Total Circulation: | 2,144,483[1] |
| Circulation Year: | June 2018 |
| Category: | Sports |
| Company: | ESPN Inc. (The Walt Disney Company/Hearst Communications) |
| Firstdate: | November 3, 1998 |
| Lastdate: | September 2019 |
| Country: | United States |
| Based: | Bristol, Connecticut |
| Language: | English |
| Website: | http://insider.espn.com/insider/espn-the-magazine/ |
| Issn: | 1097-1998 |
ESPN The Magazine was an American monthly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut. The first issue was published on March 11, 1998.[2] [3] Initially published every other week, it scaled back to 24 issues a year in early 2016, then became a monthly in its later days.
The main sports covered include Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, college basketball, and college football. The magazine typically took a more lighthearted and humorous approach to sporting news compared with competitors such as Sports Illustrated and, previously, the Sporting News.
On April 30, 2019, ESPN announced that it would cease paper publishing in September of that year.[4] [5] A multiplatform monthly story called ESPN Cover Story was launched to continue the magazine's legacy featuring a digital poster-style cover and profile in cover story fashion, including the continuation of NEXT Athlete proclamations and The Body Issue, but these two features did not return.[6]
Some of the regular departments, in their magazine order:
Most of these departments and features were dropped after a 2011 editorial change. By 2016, only Zoom and The Biz still appeared regularly. There is also a recurring column that focuses on Sabermetrics, as well as The Truth, a back-page editorial that focuses on controversial topics. The Big Ticket, similar to The Jump, was introduced when ESPN Mag became a monthly in Fall 2018.
The annual "Body Issue", which debuted in 2009 as its answer to the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, features naked and scantily-clad athletes.[7] The "Body Issue" addresses the physical structure of the most popular athletes to show what parts of their body they see as almost "perfect".