ESPN The Magazine premiered in March, touting itself as "not your father's sports magazine." And old-fashioned it is not. ESPN The Magazine hopes to fill the gap left by sports magazines oriented to the older reader with its "bold, youthful approach to graphics and photography and a 'let's have some fun' editorial twist."

According to Editor-in-Chief John Papanek, the magazine also distinguishes itself from the competition by looking ahead to the next two weeks rather than behind to last week's events. ESPN The Magazine focuses on "the Big 4" sports with regular departments on baseball, hockey, basketball and football, but also features articles on sports like in-line skating, bicycling and snowboarding.

ESPN is part of a growing trend in magazines toward complementing other media. ESPN, which is owned by the Walt Disney Company and the Hearst Corporation, hopes to more actively involve the sports fannot only in the magazine but in ESPN's other outlets. The magazine's typical reader watches sports on TV, regularly attends sporting events and actively participates in sports. According to the magazine, "Given the huge success of the ESPN Network and the myriad spinoffs of that name (ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPN Radio Network and ESPNET Sports Zone), ESPN has become the nation's authority on sports. ESPN The Magazine is the next logical extension of that franchise and is the brand's opportunity to reach and hold the young, active, upscale sports enthusiast."

ESPN's attention to the younger reader is visible in its preference for pictures over longer, more substantive articles. As one critic with The Bismark Tribune put it, "The obsession with doling out information in brief, bite-size nuggets makes the first issue of The Magazine seem more like USA Today with delusions of grandeur than the hipper version of [Sports Illustrated] that ESPN is obviously striving to be."

But folks, this is where the industry is headed and ESPN The Magazine is among those leading the way.