Times Mirror to Launch Magazine

Times Mirror said Monday that it will launch a trade magazine next spring covering the business of sports.

The move is part of Times Mirror’s effort to develop a trade magazine group. Last month, Times Mirror spent $75 million to buy Broadcasting magazine, the biggest trade publication for television and radio.

The new magazine, to be called Sports, Inc., is aimed at professional and amateur sports executives, agents, advertising executives, sponsors, league officials, team suppliers and journalists.

“There has never been a magazine that covers all of the business aspects of sports the way Broadcasting covers radio and television . . . and Advertising Age covers advertising,” said Herbert Schnall, vice president of Times Mirror’s magazine and book publishing group.

The closest competitors will be Sports Marketing, a 3-month-old magazine aimed at corporate sponsors of sporting events, Athletic Business, a magazine that covers manufacturing of athletic equipment, and Athletic Coach, a magazine aimed at high school coaches, according to Edward E. Fitzgerald, who will be editor and publisher of Sports, Inc.

Fitzgerald is a former editor-in-chief of Sport Magazine, a senior vice president of Doubleday & Co. and president of McCall Publishing Co. He was most recently chairman of Book-of-the-Month Club.

Fitzgerald said officials are hoping for a circulation of 10,000 to 20,000 after one year, and are projecting 50,000 after five years. The publication will be a glossy, with color, and will appear on selected newsstands, as does Advertising Age.