A magazine about women’s sport has been launched in a bid to “redress the balance” of coverage in mainstream publications.
The first issue of Sportswoman, out now, features interviews with Olympic rowing gold-medallist Katherine Grainger, Britain’s first senior football manager Shelley Kerr and Paralympian Libby Clegg.
The magazine is hoping to offer advertisers “a targeted audience and a high degree of relevance partnered with high-quality, valued content” through an engaged print product at a time when digital ad-blocking is on the rise (shown in Reuters’ Digital News Report).
A spokesperson said: “Our aim is to redress the balance in coverage of women’s sport… there are some fantastic stories which just aren’t being told just now in some mainstream publications due a lack of space or interest.
“The lack of coverage celebrating these achievements leads to a lack of role models which is undoubtedly one of the issues which sees young women less likely to be involved in life-enhancing sport.
“It also leads in turn to a paucity of sponsorship investment in women’s sport… Although some big brands have woken up to the potential and power of women’s sport, there is still plenty of room for growth in the female sports market.”
The glossy print product is distributed for free across Scotland. A digital edition is also available to download and an associated website at sportswomanmag.co.uk will carry news stories.
The magazine is being published by former daily newspaper executive Derek Watson and is hoping to reach a distribution of 20,000 by 2017.
Watson said: “There is a groundswell of support for a print publication that can deliver inspirational sports stories to an audience which just isn’t being catered for at the moment.”
Editor-at-large Myrid Ramsay, a former daily newspaper executive, said the magazine was a “welcome and much-needed development in the evolving improvement in coverage of women’s sport”.
She added: “There are inspirational stories happening across Scotland every day. Now there is a platform for those stories to be shared to inspire girls and women to take up sport, any sport, and to enjoy what it can bring to life.
“It’s an exciting time for women in sport in Scotland.”
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