Observer unveils monthly sports magazine

The Observer is to launch a new magazine called Observer Sports Monthly which will also be sold on the newsstand and be supported by an advertising campaign through Ogilvy & Mather.

The first issue of Observer Sports Monthly, coverdated May, will be launched this weekend.

The sixty-eight page magazine will be available free with The Observer on the first Sunday of every month.

However, the June issue will also be offered as a standalone title, although the newspaper refuses to reveal the cover price.

The magazine will be supported each month by a “significant” marketing spend, which will include a television, radio, flyposter and in-paper advertising campaign.

The campaign seeks to de monstrate how Observer Sports Monthly offers an original angle in what is a crowded market for sports coverage.

The magazine intends to present sports stories in a social or political context.

Marketing support also includes a sports calendar inserted in The Guardian on May 6, highlighting the issue dates of Observer Sports Monthly and 50p vouchers distributed at sporting events.

Observer Sports Monthly will be edited by Matt Tench, former editor of football title FourFourTwo magazine and deputy sports editor of The Independent and The Independent on Sunday.