Are fan mags doomed?

I remember growing up I'd always see advertisements for mags like "Blue and White Illustrated" or "Green and Gold Monthly," essentially Sporting News-sized newspapers that were sold as subscriptions and contained in-depth, if homerish, coverage of teams, probably to alums who were now out of the area or state mostly. Seemed like a thriving niche market.

In the age of Rivals.com and Scout.com, do these even exist anymore? Do those Web sites have print tie-ins?

Just curious since we talk so much about Rivals and Scout and the fan sites' impact on newspapers. Wondering how they've affected what just seems, to me, like a really antiquated publication type.

 

Rivals and Scout have bought up a lot of them and the ones that haven't been purchased have pretty much become on-line entities.

 

The fan mags that are also sent out to season ticket holders or alumni do incredibly well...

 

BWI still prints, but also has an extensive website. Think they're in the Rivals network.

As for the NFL, seems like quite a few of those weeklies have become in-house pubs owned and operated by the teams. (For instance, Shout! turned into Bills Digest a couple of years ago... it now has better 'insider' access, but one wonders about the level of censorship.)

 

they put out a magazine about an airport?

 

does sporting news exist anymore?

 

Click on the link...
http://bwi.rivals.com/
...and all will become clear.

(Or not, if you don't feel like adding to Rivals.com page views. They already have 2008 recruiting info posted. Yeesh.)