Has anyone else noticed the last two issues of Soccer America? More pages, a much improved front section (forget what they call it), more letters to the editors to allow the readers to sound off and debate (many letters in the latest issue re the Donovan 'should he go or should he stay' debate), and seemingly more articles all around, generally lifting the standard of the magazine. At least in my eyes. Their circulation must have gone up recently or maybe they're just investing more into content as opposed to something else. Whatever it is, so far it's working IMHO.
They've also introduced this "Youth Digest" section to add more coverage on the youth nats, college, and other youth soccer. Dan Woog always had an interesting piece, but this is probably, on balance, a good change. The only thing about the mag that I think could go is the "International" section. Anything in there is already way old news by the time the mag hits your mailbox. The internet's largely made an int'l update sort of section useless. Except for the "International" section, they seem to have figured out that the ease of finding news and updates on the net means that they need to offer more analysis and features. The formula seems pretty clear - more Ridge, less news.
I suspect they're just responding to both reader feedback and to the presence of 90 Minutes. The trick for magazines these day is to appear interactive.