I've been following soccer for ten years, and I've been reading World Soccer since 95. Before I discovered Big Soccer, WS, the Sun, and team Web Sites were my main source of information. I live in the L.A. area and the first I heard of the HDC was from World Soccer. When I went to the opening game there, some people were handing out free copies of Soccer America. That was the first I'd ever heard of it. They should have about every other serious high school and college player on up reading it, like the Independent Rowing News for rowers. With the availability of FSW, Livescore.com, and all the other Web sites, you're right about the lack of immediacy in the magazine. It needs to be less news-oriented and more feature-oriented, like World Soccer. They could definitely copy some of its features, like Soccer Cities, and teach everybody about the soccer scenes in different American cities.
Handing out copies of SA at MLS games makes a lot of sense. They reach their prime target audience without buying any bogus mailing list.
Heck their mailing lists are the ones we used to want to buy. Now its Eurosport - and I bet that's a great list for them to have.
Focus on youth marketing. Future customers are teenagers now. What's the point in waiting for them to grow up and bank on them enjoying what MLS/media has to offer. Give kids what they want now - create heroes in the media, connect kids to thier passion of soccer, show the players what they have to look forward to on their home soil. It's features, profiles, personality through the media. Not score = Team X 1, Team Y 2. If baseball can be made exciting in the media, how can soccer not be?
Re: Other sports magazines? TransWorld Skateboarding, Thrasher, TransWorld Snowboarding, Surfer all have 60k plus subscribers on up to 200k circulation. Good paper, amazing photography, in-depth content and interviews. Also, every single one has a web site + web savvy readers that read news when it breaks; but buy and read the mags because they are exciting. TW Skateboarding made $40 million dollars in 2002 and is in the top 25 US titles for quantity of ad pages sold in 2003. There are less than half the number of skateboarders than there are soccer players in the US. Add in the number of fans (that don't actively play) and the US market size is/can be more than large enough to support a media outlet that gives us what we need - entertainment and excitement!
yes and no. you can count on a couple feature articles, but it seems to me they can make that copy more interesting. my magic wand would cut all the stats, tournaments, etc. we all get that here. drop it to 12 issues a year and focus on producing exciting content - half the issues, twice as thick. maybe leave in one or two special issues a year like one annual tournament schedule and the yellow pages - seperate the trade and the consumer completely.
I'm an admitted lurker and way late into this dialogue on soccer pubs (the thread has been one killer-quick, highly educational insight into the skinny of the soccer mag scene) . But I'm a marketing-research type and I do a good bit of magazine-positioning studies and readership surveys, etc. - mostly for mundane titles such as Progressive Farmer and Coastal Living whatever - I somewhat think I know my game magazine-biz wise. Yet I'm still puzzled as a nut-megged defender as to why there isn't a soccer pub in the US that hasn't truly taken a hill there buns-up-kneeling for the taking. SA has the good name, history, the brand identity, hell, they've got content deals with major digital media purveyors - Yahoo for one. I agree that their direction seems fragmented, but are they so rooted in the fanzine-cum-trade mode that they can't see? Maybe SA knows soccer but just don't know magazine marketing - Dunno. What tweaked me to respond to this thread was seeing reference to the skateboarding mags - I'm thinking that these pubs are chugging along their merry way producing what one would guess are decent balance sheets - and nobody, outside I suppose their affinity group or core target market, probably even knows these skateboard titles exist! Why isn't there a US soccer mag at least at a comparable level in terms of circulation/ad sales, etc. to these skateboarder mags?
I think SA could be that magazine. I first subscribed to it in the 70's and continued until 3 or 4 years ago, although I still pick it up in a bookstore when it's available. I think their problem is that they try to be all things to all people. Quite frankly, I don't want to pick up an issue that is all about soccer camps for the kiddies, or tournaments or even college selection. They can put all that crap in Soccermom Weekly. I want a publication that reinforces or generates interest in professional soccer (primarily US) and the national teams. I like to see it written in such a way and in such a style that even a non-soccer sports fan would browse through it. SA certainly has access to some of the best soccer writers in the States. ANd for being the prominent soccer pub in the US, I think ther coverage of the A-League and even PDL is very spotty. I've always felt that if our best soccer mag has such inconsistent coverage, how can we expect the non-soccer media to jump on board.
positioning It seems that for the past thirty years and still today, "America" is the thorn in the side of "Soccer America". Is there enough content in the US to support a twice-monthly soccer mag? They are the best we have and will flourish in the near future when professional soccer grows in the domestic marketplace.
Re: Re: Other sports magazines? I'm an editor at Transworld and grew up playing soccer. I completely agree with you. The numbers don't lie. There are certainly some obstacles, but I think a magazine like this would not only survive but help breath some life into the sport. Kids want to be cool, and how the mainstream media is portraying soccer right now ain't making kids too stoked on the sport. A Transworld-type soccer could create culture for the youth players and keep them hooked on the sport through their formative years.
With Soccer Digest gone, SA may pick up a few new subscribers. Although SD still accepts new subscriptions on the internet.
Re: Re: Re: Other sports magazines? So, if you're an editor there already, why aren't you starting something?
I don't subscribe to SA because it is too expensive. Besides, I can usually read through the whole thing while I am at Borders waiting on my wife to figure out what she wants to buy.
Where do you find SA on the newsstand? I didn't think their print run supported newsstand distribution any more.
I too have seen it at Borders, as well as Barned & Noble and a small international news/magazine shop up the street from my dorm.
Maybe they only do in the Northeast, because I've seen them in Hartford as well. Wait! I also used to find them in New Orleans as well. I think your place just has problems.
i pick up Soccer America every two weeks at barnes and noble. along with 442, world soccer, Soccer Italia and 90 minutes. even though soccer america's subscriptions are expensive, they are bi-weekly and if 442 was bi weekly it would be 80 dollars. but then again 442 takes about 4 hours to read. soccer america is about 30 minutes. ADVICE TO SA- more articles. plus i like SA because they put my letter in the latest issue. check it out. Scott Henley from Richmond, Va.
found this on http://www.bestdealmagazines.com/title.asp?title=SOCCER+AMERICA&AID=1668327&PID=1370960 Term: 1 Yr 50 Issues Newsstand Price: $93.75 List Price: $94.00 Sponsor's Contribution: $37.74 * Plus $4.69 processing fee You pay only: $60.95 thats an awesome price if you ask me. 50 issues for 61 bucks.
they actually sell out in the first day or two in richmond. i have to keep going back every day to see if they have the newest one.