Magnetic’s insight manager Gareth Jones takes a look at the latest PAMCo figures and gets excited about the summer of sport ahead.

This year has been one of great change in many ways. One of the most exciting has been the return of live events. Glastonbury has made its triumphant return and the tennis is back on at Wimbledon, at least between rain delays.

In just the next month we will see England face India in the cricket, the Open at St. Andrews and the Women’s Euro finals, and I’m already counting down the days to the World cup. The world of sport offers advertisers a myriad ways of reaching consumers, from sponsorship to initiatives like Starling Bank’s foray into fantasy football ahead of the Women’s Euro finals.

Sport is a pastime that generates a huge amount of passion and interest both through participation and supporters, and magazine media brands cater to both. The magazine sector covers sports from cycling and football, motorbikes and golfing, to riding and rugby, sailing and shooting and lots more, delivering both advice for those looking to hone their skills and information for those who follow a sport.

The latest data release from PAMCo shows that six million people read sports magazine brands each month across digital and print. Three million enjoy their sport via print media and 5.5 million engage with the online content.

Sports titles resonate more with younger audiences, over indexing with 15-34s (129) and 35-54s (120). This varies a bit by gender, with a larger index for 15-34 women (144).

Sports titles are also great at reaching an ABC1 audience, with an index of 113.

While the PAMCo data gives us an indication of the size of the market, it doesn’t tell us the whole story as there are some magazine brands not measured which are major players in this area. In 2019 The Athletic launched in the UK having started out in the US in 2016. Four years later, The Athletic continues to produce incredible content for its subscribers with over 650k online visitors in May 2022 according to Ipsos iris data*. In fact, they ranked in the top 50 most visited sports websites.

Not only does our industry already offer some of the best resources for sports enthusiasts but the market even has new entrants with titles like Pitch Magazine launching in the UK, launched this month and demonstrating the ongoing demand for quality sports journalism.

*Ipsos iris