‘Mag 15:’ ESPN The Magazine counts down to its 15th anniversary with launch of digital rollout/landing page
It was on Monday, March 9, 1998 that we were printing, binding and shipping the Premier Issue of ESPN The Magazine — with a cover date of March 23, 1998.
Pause and reflect on this historical moment as we celebrate The Mag’s 15th anniversary.
To kick off the celebration and release of its upcoming “Mag 15 Issue” (on newsstands May 3), The Mag today will launch a landing page highlighting stories, coverage, photos, and more from issues spanning these last 15 years.
When asked what his 2013 self would say to his 1998 self about the evolution of the magazine, Editor-in-Chief Chad Millman said: “You should really take this Internet thing seriously. And then invent a sleek, wireless reading device. And here’s another tip: You have no idea how important headlines will be when 140 characters is all you get to sell your story on the website you launch, 140charactersorless.com. I’d also tell myself that the magazines will only evolve if you let great writers, photographers, editors and designers tell great stories and get out of their way.”
Beginning today at www.espn.com/mag15, each anniversary from 1998 through 2012 will be celebrated with its own “tab,” unveiled one by one throughout this next month. Each year will house the same set of content including:
• Poll, asking fans to pick their favorite moment of the year, from among five finalists.
• Four best Mag stories from that year, with new forewords written by the authors. We are creating the first on-line links for many of these stories.
• Slideshow of The Mag’s covers from that year.
• Almanac for that year, detailing all the major champions and record-breakers across sports, plus highlighting various pop-culture touchstones.
• Playlist: the tracks that gave sports its beat that year.
Once the “Mag 15” issue closes on April 25, the landing page will then transition to being a home for all the issue’s content including bonus videos and stories from years past.
