With Lack of Competition, "Sport" Magazine Flourishes

"Sport," a free weekly magazine which launched in Paris three years ago and in London late last year, distributes more than 700,000 copies weekly in France and 320,000 in London, according to Eric Pfanner of the N.Y. TIMES.  Sport magazine Dir of Publishing Greg Miall indicated that the French edition is "already profitable, while the British version is on track to break even within three years."  Miall: "We're 10 and a half months old, and we've got BMW and Mercedes as advertisers. If you had asked me a year ago, I would have given my right arm for that."  Pfanner writes that since there are "no British or French weeklies comparable to Sports Illustrated," advertisers have had "fewer ways to reach sports fans with print ads in France and Britain, compared to America.” Most British and French sports fans get their sports news “via daily publications” like general interest papers in Britain or L’Equipe in France, “or from television or the Internet” (N.Y. TIMES, 8/13).