ESPN

The Magazine.

To give a good review of ESPN the Magazine it helps to understand the competition. The obvious competition is Sports Illustrated, but the real competition is ESPN.com. I know the main reason I subscribe to ESPN the Magazine is because subscribing to the magazine gives me free access to ESPN Insider. ESPN Insider is the part of ESPN.com that you have to pay for, and as more and more of the website became "exclusive content" I had to subscribe.

Earlier this year I was receiving Sports Illustrated magazines on a free trial for about 3 months. At the same time I was also receiving ESPN the Magazine. I thought I would like SI more because of its prestige and its superior writers. But, ESPN won me over with its larger size, which allows for great photos which you can't see in SI, and its TV style ability to keep my attention. ESPN has lots of quick entertaining articles. If you don't like one you can quickly skip to the next article, or the next on after that, sometimes all three are on the same page. Sports Ilustrated has writers who tell great stories, but it sometimes reads more like a book than a magazine.

I thought about getting a subscription to Sports Illustrated because I really like a couple of its writers, and I can't find fault with any of its writers, but while I was receiving my free trial I spent more time reading articles on SI.com than I spent reading the magazine. I spent even more time on ESPN.com. Another thing that doesn't help to sell magazines is the fact that almost all of the writers for these two magazines also write columns online, many even print the exact same article on their website and in the magazine.

So if you are wondering which is the better magazine it really depends on your preference, because the magazines are actually very different. But if you want to read sports articles that are updated with new information and opinions on today's events you need to check out ESPN.com, SI.com, or other sports websites like CBSSportsline.com. I know I usually check these sites even before I check my email, just so I can keep up with any new events and so I can see if any of my favorite writers have new articles.