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Published on Tuesday, 28 September 2010 15:09
The largest monthly sports magazine in the United States is coming to Chicago and it can be yours for the small price of buying a weekday Sun-Times newspaper.
The Sun-Times Media Group has agreed to be among those inserting the new monthly sports magazine "Athlon Sports" inside all 47 of the daily & weekly newspapers they distribute. Thursday editions of the Chicago Sun-Times, Southtown-Star, Gary Post-Tribune, Courier-News in Elgin, Beacon-News in Aurora, Herald-News in Joliet, Naperville Sun, Lake County News-Sun will all carry the magazine, as will all of the weekly Pioneer Press and The Doings newspapers. The Chicago media giant has the exclusive rights to carry this exciting new magazine within the Chicagoland area.
The full color magazine will come out approximately the third Thursday of every month, with the debut issue coming inside the Chicago Sun-Times and its sister papers on October 21st.
Nationwide, approximately 7 million copies of "Athlon Sports" will be distributed within newspapers, which will make it the largest sports magazine in the country. Newspapers from coast to coast, including the New York Post, will carry the new magazine.
"Athlon Sports" will offer compelling articles on players, teams and coaches across multiple sports, including college and pro football, Major League Baseball, NBA, golf, racing, hockey, soccer, tennis, horse racing, Olympic sports, and even youth sports. The magazine will offer opinions, predictions and provide analyses of all sports.
The "Athlon Sports" magazine is published by Athlon Media/Athlon Sports Communications, Inc., a Nashville-based media company founded in 1967, although they also have offices in Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, New York and Atlanta. The company has been a leader in publishing sports magazines for decades. Once a year, Athlon Sports puts out 14 pre-season magazines that are found on magazines stands all across North America and Europe. The large annual magazines are in-depth looks at the upcoming seasons for Pro Football, Fantasy Football, National College Football, Big Ten Football, Southeastern Football, Atlantic Coast Football, Big 12 Football, Big East Football, Pac-10 Football, Baseball, College Basketball, Pro Basketball, Racing and Golf. According to the company, Athlon ranks #1 as a publisher for sports annuals, based on retail sales dollars and magazines sold.
The company also runs the website
AthlonSports.com, which provides daily updated sports coverage, including podcasts, online videos, and premium fantasy football content. The website also has a sports message board and an online store where rare autographed sports collectibles are sold.
Athlon Media's President & CEO Stephen Duggan and Senior VP Jerry Lyles have known Sun-Times Media CEO and Vice Chairman Jeremy Halbreich for a long time. They felt the connecting of Athlon with the Sun-Times Media's Chicagoland distribution power was a good fit. Jeremy Halbreich said in a statement today: "It makes sense for us to get together and offer our readers the best of both worlds: local sports and national sports coverage."
Advertising within "Athlon Sports" magazine will be handled initially in-house by Athlon. The allowing of local ads inside the magazine for individual markets is a possibility in the future. The adding of a few more markets in 2011, bringing its distribution level as high as 9 million, is also a possibility being looked at.
The name "Athlon" comes from the ancient Greek word meaning "contest."
