A sports editor who left a weekly newspaper to co-found a monthly magazine has seen its first edition printed.
Neil Beck left the Bath Chronicle in June to set up XtraTime, a free magazine covering sport serving areas of the West Country including Bristol, Bath, Swindon, Gloucester and Cheltenham.
The first edition, pictured below, has an initial circulation of 30,000 and is available at 500 distribution outlets across the region.
Features on the upcoming Rugby World Cup, London 2012 medallists and unsung sporting heroes from the area all feature.
Neil founded the magazine with Andrew Kerslake, who formerly wrote Bath City FC match reports for the Chronicle during Neil’s time there.
Andrew has also commentated on Gloucestershire and Somerset cricket matches for the BBC.
Neil served as the Chronicle’s head of sport for seven years, having begun his career on the Wiltshire Gazette & Herald in 2001.
He said: “I just felt this was an area of untapped potential in terms of in-depth features and people who don’t get coverage elsewhere.
“With the World Cup just around the corner, the Rio Olympics on the horizon and the area’s major football and rugby teams very much on the up, these are exciting times to be writing about and commenting on sport in our region.
“I have always believed that the West punches massively above its weight in that area and XtraTime cannot wait to showcase the achievements of sportsmen and women at all levels and across a variety of disciplines.”
The first 84-page edition of XtraTime includes 22 pages on the tournament and includes the thoughts of four members of the England squad that lifted the sport’s biggest prize in 2003 – Lewis Moody, Trevor Woodman, Phil Vickery and Lawrence Dallaglio – together with recently-retired ex-Wales forward Ryan Jones.
Interviews with Olympic gold medal-winning rower Helen Glover and swimmer Michael Jamieson, who took silver at the London Games three years ago, also feature along with a detailed look at the past, present and future of the Bristol Half Marathon.
It is hoped if the venture is successful the magazine could expand to cover other areas of the country in future.
Features, audio and video content are available at the magazine’s website, as well as its Twitter and Facebook channels.
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Wish them all the best. It could be the perfect niche product. The standard of sports coverage on regionals/weeklies is certainly suffering in the current climate.
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If anyone can pull this off Neil can. One of the genuine good guys with a great knowledge of (and passion for) sport. And a real professional to boot who knows the power of words and the importance of layout.
Good luck with it Neil – looking forward to picking up a copy.
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Johnners1712, have you seen the (West Country) Sunday Independent lately? Still amazing coverage of the regional sports scene with 40+pages every week. Reminds me of the long gone Saturday Pink ‘uns put together by a team of experts who really know their stuff. Having said that, good luck to this new publication, the more coverage of sport in the regions the better.
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Glad to hear it, Rambler. Sports coverage out this way is great, providing you’re a Norwich City fan.
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Good luck. nice to hear something positive.
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Brilliant – wishing it every success!
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Where can you get it?
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