Can you opt-out of the magazine and keep the insider? The magazine goes straight from the mailbox to the recycling bin every time.

"I also am not sure how I get two copies while not having paid for the Insider in over 4 years (I still don't want the thing)."

You're not the only one. For a year straight I was getting 2 copies with my Insider subscription. Then, I called to cancel my subscription to the Insider and the magazine and still get the magazine every 2 weeks. What gives? If it weren't for the Bill Simmons article I would never read it... oh wait I read the Simmons article online. I never read it.

I live in an apartment with my sister. She got a subscription as a gift one year. The bastard still comes, and just sits in a pile of unread The Mags on a table. There's like 10 of em just sitting there. Its complete crap

Hilarious. You guys all subscribe to a gay men's magazine!

Probably 90% of ESPN the Magazine "subscribers" do so in order to get Insider, according to the Bureau of Making Up Statistics Out Of My Ass.

A major reason why I've never subscribed to Insider, or even given it a free trial, despite several enticing aspects like true real-time scores is the automatic ESPN The Magazine subscription.

On sickdeals.com, my wife told me that I can have a years subscription for $5.95. Even at that price I told her NO!

If ESPN is literally giving this shit away, why are they still producing it? It's obvious they aren't making money by substriptions. I'm guessing they just want to flaunt it as another entitenty as the self proclaimed "World Wide Leader in Sports".

Ignoring the various incarnations of "sucks" and the roundabout homophobia, the post makes an excellent point about that Brandon Webb piece. It makes no sense for a publication that comes out once every two weeks to have that much lag time. If I were to guess, Buster did the work then Webb went into a mini-funk, and they held the story while Buster did 1,000 ESPN radio spots.

It's written for the reading skills of about a 10th grader. I can't believe they pay a lot of people a lot of money to produce dreck like that.

Have they ever read SI in the 70's and 80's?

So it's more like a poorly written, teenbeat gay teen and gay illiterate adult queer ADD male magazine.

It comes once every 2 weeks

I had the same problem with the Magazine. I contacted ESPN, and while they told me that I could not cancel the magazine, I could have it donated to the military. Mine now goes to a US military base in the United Arab Emirates. I know they appreciate it much more than I ever would. You guys might want to consider the same thing.

Awhile ago, I got one of those $6 subscriptions because it was a cheap way to get Insider. Somehow, I haven't gotten (or paid for) the mag for 6 months, but still have Insider access. Weeeee!

Here's why they continue to produce, some of you receive two copies, and they sell annual subscriptions for dirt cheap rates...

ADVERTISING.

Media agencies like to place one ad buy that goes across multiple platforms (TV, online, radio, print), and that, in a nutshell, is the ESPN business model.

Without "THE MAG" (aka "THE RAG"), they have no print component, thereby sacrificing ad dollars.

The reason you get two copies of the mag is so they can claim a higher number of subscribers and, in turn, higher distribution.

They don't care if you don't pay for it. They just need to keep you in their subscriber database so they can sell their audience.


Hating ESPN since 2002,

Cecil from Cecil Twp.

Recently I received the latest Men's Journal and thought to myself 'what's with the dude on the cover'...and then I read this. Coincidence? I think not!

To this day the best thing about that damn ESPN Mag is/was the commercial aired during initial launch...you know...the one with the chick that says "esspinnn."

Makes for good radio during my sports reports.