Excellent but.......

I am(was) a charter subsciber to ESPN magazine and loved it for the information and terrific BIG photographs. I only recently let my subscription expire because I couldn't keep up and found myself reading only a couple of sections. It is a pretty BIG magazine with lots and lots of sports information.Having much more edge than its competitor, SI, this magazine takes work to get into, especially if you are from the baby boomer generation or older. The layout is ,well , out there, somewhere between hep(I know people don't say that anymore) and outright spacey. The visual layout is herky jerky much like those edgy camera shots that conform to the principle that there are no rules. The layout does take some getting used to but once you've adjusted the articles are pretty good. Another problem I found with the magazine(most news mags) is that reading about last weeks major sports event is a little anti-climatic after a week long media campaign. They do give you a different angle but by this time you may have had enough about last weeks big event. It also takes alot of time to keep up with issues, they just keep coming and there is (too) much to read. Some of the best featurers are Dan Patricks Outtakes which can be hilarious and In the Crosshairs where they breakdown a player and his equipment. If you have the time this is probably the finest muti-sports magazine around, so, throw out your SI subscription and get into all your favorite ESPN talking heads in print form. Besides,they will probably send you one of those ESPN The Magazine logoed sweatshirts or something.

Not Quite a Major League Prospect

More a human interest magazine than a gritty sports log, ESPN the magazine is big and flashy, yet somehow falls a little short on substance. Boasting a glossy in-your-face layout interspersed with a seemingly endless array of full-page ads, the publication suffers an acute case of Sportscenter-itis. In other words, it attempts to capture the humor and substance of ESPN's flagship news program. The one ingredient missing from the formula, however, is timeliness. There's just no way for a periodical to compete with the up to the minute reporting of cable television. Therefore, the focus of ESPN the magazine leans toward that of feature articles.

The features, while generally well-written, often read like puff pieces which pump up the reputation of the latest flash-in-the-pan "superstar". While the occasional in-depth story pops up from time to time, the majority leave the reader hungry for more. Overall, the quality of the features and photos falls a little short of the standard set by Sports Illustrated. If it's statistics you want, you'll be better off sticking with Sports Weekly (formerly Baseball Weekly). Basically, ESPN the magazine is pleasant, disposable entertainment. If you want depth, however, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Mostly Frivolous

I have been a subscriber of ESPN the Magazine for over a year and I'm sorely disappointed in it. Most of the magazine is frivolous short material that provides very little information and it does a relatively poor job of bringing sporting events or athletes to life. I find particularly annoying the numerous pieces that are supposed to be humorous but are instead banal and pointless. I find reading it mostly a waste of time.

Unfortunately I'm stuck with my subscription for now. I certainly won't be renewing it.