Magazine stands are littered with sports publications of every stripe, but The New York Times Co. believes there’s room for one more — as an insert in its Sunday newspaper starting Super Bowl Sunday on Feb. 5, 2006.
Dubbed “Play,” the four-color magazine will reach the Times’ 1.5 million Sunday circulation, plus 150,000 upscale readers who will receive the magazine free via a separate mailing, the company said. Advertising rates are set at the same $95,000 per page as the Times Magazine, making it one of the pricier pieces of real estate in sports print media.
Media buyers said a high-end sports publication with the Times’ pedigree could attract substantial advertising interest. “It probably makes sense given the demographics of The New York Times in general and given its additional kind of content that perhaps others are not covering,” said Linda Jefferson, senior vice president of Burrell Communications Group, a Chicago-based agency whose clients include Lexus, just the kind of ritzy advertiser that Play will pursue.
Play will publish four times in 2006, with the remaining three issues coming out in the fall. In 2007 there will be six issues, three each in the spring and fall.
“This is a call from editors … who really believe there is an opportunity to expand our journalism in the sports arena in a more in-depth way,” said Jyll Holzman, the paper’s senior vice president of advertising. She said the Times will tap its client base along with new companies, but doubted that Play would have much effect on Sports Illustrated, whose readership among the general-interest sports magazines most resembles the Times’ upscale and educated skew.
Employing a format similar to its regular Sunday magazine, Play will emphasize stylish writing, large photos and features aimed largely at what Times executives term “the serious spectator,” typically a man in his 20s through 40s who is as likely to be found snowboarding as watching the Winter Olympics.
Pegged to the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics, Play’s launch issue is likely to include profiles, lifestyle and travel features, “insider” tales and “departments” with smaller stories.
“We see this as kind of an elegant thinking person’s sports magazine,” said its editor, Mark Bryant. “Traditionally sports magazines have been aimed at either participants or spectators. … Our feeling is the Times reader who watches football on Sunday is the same person who went for a long run to train for a race or when he goes along on a business trip takes along his golf clubs.”
Andrew Grossman is a writer in New York.
