Mr. Magazine

I had to spell it out. 7,000,000 is the total circulation figure for the first issue of the new sports magazine Athlon Sports. The newspaper-inserted-magazine’s first issue, sporting the First Family of Football (The Manning Family) will make its debut inside ink on paper newspapers on Oct. 18. Athlon Sports is one of two new publications arriving to the nation’s news(stands)papers this fall. Dash, a food monthly published by the granddaddy of newspaper-inserted-magazines Parade, will make its debut in November.

Althon Sports will be the largest launch this year and the magazine will be one leg of a multi-layered stool that includes a three weekly “Athlon Sports Extra Innings” sports pages distributed and ready to print in the host newspapers in addition to a web feed and presence. The goal of the Extra Innings is to “enhance current sports editorial in print and drive readers online.” Extra Innings will focus on Inside College Football, Inside Pro Football and Inside NASCAR for now.

Athlon Sports is the first newspaper-distributed-magazine aimed mainly at a male audience. The others such as Parade, USA Weekend, American Profile, Relish, Spry and Healthy Style are all aimed mainly at a female audience.

Stephen Duggan, CEO of Athlon Sports is going to be one of the featured keynote speakers at the Magazine Innovation Center’s first ACT Experience during which he will answer the question “7 Million Circ Launch — Why Now?” Three of the talking points of his speech will be, “Go big or go home,” “Crazy? I hope not,” and “Newspapers… A growth story.”

Mr. Duggan will be joined by 13 other keynote speakers at the three day event held on the campus of The University of Mississippi at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media. For more details on all the speakers and the schedule of the ACT Experience events click here.