I have been a subscriber of ESPN the Magazine for over a year and I'm sorely disappointed in it. Most of the magazine is frivolous short material that provides very little information and it does a relatively poor job of bringing sporting events or athletes to life. I find particularly annoying the numerous pieces that are supposed to be humorous but are instead banal and pointless. I find reading it mostly a waste of time.

Unfortunately I'm stuck with my subscription for now. I certainly won't be renewing it.

I agree with the reviewer that said ESPN the Magazine is for readers with short attention spans. That doesn't make it a bad magazine; it just means they cater to their target market. The Magazine differentiates itself from SI by looking ahead to upcoming events rather than looking back. For the most part the writing is solid and written in the same offbeat style that has made Sportscenter such a hit. In short, it's not the greatest magazine but it serves as a good compliment to SI.

Some interesting articles, and small bursts of that ESPN sass you're used to, but in a chaotic format that is almost unreadable.

In-depth articles are rare.

If this mag wasn't so cheap to subscribe to, no one would be reading it. In short, there are better options available.

Although nothing can quite capture the essence of ESPN television, ESPN the Magazine comes close. Moreso than Sports Illustrated, ESPN takes you closer than ever to athletes and their lives.
While SI comes out weekly, ESPN comes out biweekly, which gives the writers more time to create and expand on stories. There are more succint, witty, and personal articles that you will find in this magazine than any sporting mag. The only weakness is that there are no articles here that will win any top awards. Still, ESPN the Magazine is a great magazine to own.

I am a very avid sports fan and voracious magazine reader as well as a long-time (well, 5 year) subscriber to Sports Illustrated. About two years ago I picked up a copy of ESPN the Magazine, and I immediately subscribed--and now I am not going to re-subscribe to SI. ESPN is a much better magazine for one simple reason: SI tends contain mainly articles simply re-hashing the week's sporting events, but ESPN does not have any articles like that. I like ESPN way more because in this age of 50 million sports channels and super-fast information access, by the time SI gets to my mailbox I have either already watched all of the events I was interested it or read about them online, so why do I want to read an article telling me what I already know? ESPN focuses on providing unique perspectives from a player or owner or team or fan or whatever, not just running down what was already covered on SportsCenter! Plus, the writing style is geared more to my age group (26) than the stodgier style of Sports Illustrated.

Oh, and don't be put off by ESPN the Mag's large size. This was the main reason I didn't buy it when it first came out, but I got used to the larger format very quickly. It really is no big deal!