In N.Y., Michael Shain asked in his "Media Ink" column
whether ESPN Senior VP/Exec Editor John Walsh will "put his
name on the masthead" of ESPN Magazine, and if he does,
"what job title will he give himself?" Walsh says "he
hasn't decided yet." Shain: "The question is of great
political importance for the staff of the magazine. What do
you call the man who pulls the strings?" Walsh "oversaw the
first full-dress, dry run earlier this month from which only
five final copies were printed" (N.Y. POST, 1/18).
LAUNCH DATE NEAR: With about two months until the March
11 "kickoff date" of ESPN Magazine, the "scrimmaging is
already well under way," according to Robin Pogrebin of the
N.Y. TIMES. Pogrebin: "ESPN (the scrappy rookie) and Sports
Illustrated (the reigning champion) are fighting over staff
members and design ideas while claiming cool indifference,
and other publishers are scrambling to get a piece of the
action by starting or revamping sports magazines of their
own" (N.Y. TIMES, 1/19). Michael MacCambridge, author of
"The Franchise," an unauthorized history of SI, said that
the competition "should improve SI." MacCambridge: "The
real danger for the readers of SI is that, in an attempt to
get the same kind of young, short-attention-span readers
that ESPN is going for, SI will give up the ground they have
staked out historically, the long bonus pieces in the back
of the magazine." SI Managing Editor Bill Colson: "I have
no intention of giving up the bonus piece" (Tim Whitmire,
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/18). CNBC's Barbara Monaco
examined the launch of ESPN Magazine. ESPN Magazine GM John
Skipper: "[SI] is written for a baby boom audience. It's
the magazine I grew up with. What we're interested in doing
is creating a magazine that the new generations of sports
fans will think they grew up with" ("Market Wrap," 1/19).
