ESPN The Magazine was an American monthly sports magazine published by the ESPN sports network in Bristol, Connecticut. The first issue, with the cover line "NEXT.," was published on March 11, 1998 (cover date March 23, 1998), and featured Kobe Bryant of the NBA, MLB's Alex Rodriguez, Kordell Stewart of the NFL, and Eric Lindros of the NHL.[2][3][4] Initially published every other week, it scaled back to 24 issues a year in early 2016, then became a monthly in its later days.
The main sports covered include Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, National Football League, National Hockey League, college basketball, and college football. The magazine typically took a more lighthearted and humorous approach to sporting news compared with competitors such as Sports Illustrated and, previously, the Sporting News.
On April 30, 2019, ESPN announced that it would cease paper publishing in September of that year.[5]