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Millman will become Editor-in-Chief
of ESPN The Magazine on June 15 |
ESPN yesterday announced that ESPN The Magazine Senior Deputy Editor Chad Millman will become the new Editor-in-Chief, effective June 15. Millman's promotion coincides with the impending relocation of the magazine's editorial operations from N.Y. to Bristol, Conn. Current Editor-in-Chief Gary Belsky will remain with the publication as Editor-at-Large through January, assisting Millman during the transition period (
ESPN). In Chicago, Phil Rosenthal notes Millman started working for ESPN in '98 as an associate editor "shortly after the magazine's launch," and he has "been there ever since, save for one year he spent hoping to cash in on the dot-com boom." Throughout his time at ESPN, Millman "has overseen NFL coverage, edited erstwhile columnist Rick Reilly and, perhaps most notably, introduced coverage of gambling and the culture of sports betting" to the magazine. Millman said, "It is a massive industry and it is the prism through which almost all people, whether they bet or not, view sports. You look at a game, and there's an underdog and there's a favorite, and you only know that because of who's setting the line and what the professionals are saying about it." Rosenthal notes ESPN The Magazine last summer "began to anchor each issue with a single topic." Millman: "What magazines can do better than anyone else can do, especially if you're coming out every other week, is dive into a topic. When it works, it really, really works. The problem is, when it doesn't work, it's light." The magazine during Q1 this year "racked up a 24.2 percent increase in ad dollars from the same period a year earlier, per industry stats," and has a "total paid and verified circulation of 2.065 million copies" (
CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 4/13).
WHO'S COMING WITH ME? In N.Y., Keith Kelly reports Walt Disney Co. "appears to be having a heap of trouble convincing the New York staff of ESPN the Magazine to move three hours north to the corporate campus in Bristol." Nearly half the staff of close to 100 is "quitting the twice-a-month sports magazine rather than make the move." An ESPN spokesperson said, "There will be roughly 35 open positions when they move to Bristol" (N.Y. POST, 4/13).
