Two years ago, Sports Illustrated launched a new magazine, designed specifically for women, and it landed with a collective thud, leading some to wonder if such a venture might not fly.
Well, with some retooling, a new, more manageable title and a better sense of its market, SI is trying again with a quarterly publication, Sports Illustrated for Women, which hits newsstands Thursday.
Sandra Bailey, editor of the new magazine, said the period between the last magazine in the fall of 1997 and this week's publication was a time for figuring out what worked best for the audience it was trying to serve.
"We haven't been away and we haven't forgotten the audience," said Bailey, who is also assistant managing editor of SI.
Bailey said the research revealed that while the target group for the first issues, published under the unwieldy name, Sports Illustrated Women/Sport, was women aged 18-34, the more likely concentration of readers was women in the 16-25 age group, who were probably participating in sports themselves.
"We found that the girls who are now playing sports are the ones that are the most interested in reading about them," Bailey said. "Once women have been out of college and start to move on, they tend to view sports as personal fitness types of things."
Bailey said the new women's magazine will have a greater emphasis on matters such as health and nutrition, subjects that were largely missing from the first try. There will be recurring features on the progress of Olympic athletes, as well as previews for women's sports seasons, as in the current issue, which looks ahead to track, tennis, lacrosse and other sports.
Bailey said the presence of the new magazine will not preclude the main book's covering women's sports, and may actually open the door for more of those items in Sports Illustrated.
If that's true, then Sports Illustrated for Women will be a welcome addition to the publishing landscape.
A better morning plan
Watching the rerun of the late ESPN "SportsCenter" the next morning has become an important ritual for many, but when breaking news occurs, such as yesterday's death of Joe DiMaggio, the morning program can become rather dated quickly.
Though news of DiMaggio's death started airing on other media outlets around 8 a.m., "SportsCenter" didn't have a package until an hour later. Anchor Bob Ley, who came in early to prepare for the 6: 30 p.m. show, came on at 10 and was host of a 30-minute retrospective, followed by the first 30 minutes of the previous night's "SportsCenter."
If you fancy yourself as the worldwide leader in sports, as ESPN bills itself, that kind of piecemeal work just won't do, especially when there are other big events, like the announcement of NCAA tournament brackets.
Things happen during a day, and ESPN should come up with a better way to cover them. Maybe the answer is to reshow the previous night's "SportsCenter" until 10 a.m., then either simulcast ESPNEWS or create a new show, "SportsCenter AM," let's say, to catch things that happen. That's what a good news gatherer does, after all.
Blazing trails
The Portland Trail Blazers are getting good notices for becoming the first NBA team to air a game on high definition television, as their contest with Minnesota last Friday, was seen in some local sports bars and other establishments.
What the Blazers should really get credit for is perhaps the best constant score and time boxes in all of sports. Not only do Portland telecasts show how much time is left in the game and what the score is, but they also manage to place the 24-second clock on screen for the entire time, without being intrusive.
The next time you see Blazers highlights on a show, notice how clean the screen is, then ask yourself why all the channels that carry basketball don't follow suit.
Pub Date: 3/09/99