Women are playing and watching sports "as never
before," and in the coming months, corporate America will
"mount an unprecedented effort to tap them," according to
Kaufman & Gegax in NEWSWEEK. Male-oriented sports magazines
like SI and Outside have seen their female readership
increase by as much as 15% over the last five years, and
"they believe they can win over still more women if they
offer publications geared just to them." SI Woman is a new
Time Inc. publication set to test in April and Editor Sandy
Bailey said SI Woman will feature topics like abusive
coaches/tennis fathers, as well as "hands-on celebrity
advice about working out," and less on the "big four"
sports. Another new publication, Conde Nast Sports for
Women, is focusing on women more interested in "buffing up
than in making themselves over." Publisher Deanne Brown
adds that "Sports for Women" must meet "the very high
aesthetic standards" set by the industry. Brown: "That
doesn't mean if a female athlete was ugly we wouldn't put
her in the book. Just not on the cover" (NEWSWEEK, 2/10).
TIME'S LIFE: Time Inc., the publishing arm of Time
Warner, is profiled in the N.Y. TIMES. Time Inc. President
& CEO Don Logan, on SI: "I want people to broaden their
concept of what their magazine and business is all about.
Sports Illustrated is not just a magazine. It's a magazine
that's in the business of sports" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/3).
