Magazine Subscriptions?

[mattlanta]

I'm just wondering whether or not you guys subscribe to any magazines. It can be about anything. Basketball, bodybuilding, gaming, and other stuff (Playboy, FHM). I'm letting all my subscriptions run out, and by this fall, I'm looking to make a new 'lineup' of magazines.

Right now, my 'lineup' of magazine subscriptions are:

Sport Illustrated - I think they really lost their best writer in Rick Reilly. I'd usually go to the last page of the magazine (Life of Reilly) first before I'd read anything else. His replacements don't even come close with the type of writing that Reilly brought to Sport Illustrated. What's worse is, he left Sports Illustrated to become a journalist/writer over at the next magazine I subscribe to. I don't plan on renewing my subscription with SI. They've gone downhill, and I think there are better options out there.

ESPN - Their magazine writers aren't as good as SI's, but they do have some things going for them. For one, if you subscribe to ESPN Insider online, you can get a free subscription of ESPN The Magazine which IMO is the best deal out there. Without ESPN Insider, I would never even think of reading ESPN.com, but now I read it every time I use the computer, and I even had it as my homepage at one point or the other. I plan on renewing this subscription because Rick Reilly now writes for the magazine (every two weeks), and I get to have access to the Insider.

Electronic Gaming Monthly - I got this for free. I signed up for free membership through the CheapAssGamer Forums, and they sent me other free stuff that I didn't want (weekly business newspapers and all that junk). I guess free is free, and I can't complain. I subscribed to this magazine when I just got my 360 for Christmas. So around New Year's, I started looking into getting more games, so I decided to subscribe to this. It ain't bad, but when I get it in the mail, I usually just leave it in the bathroom to read for when, you know.

I'm looking into subscribing to these magazines, tell me what you think about some of them. Again, I'm only looking to subscribe to them, doesn't mean I have already subscribed. I want to know your opinions first before I do indeed subscribe:

-ESPN (No doubt I will be renewing my brother's subscription or even starting my own if need be. I explained why above.)

-Sporting News (Heard they were really strict to what they talked about. More sports articles than anything else like what SI has in their 'Players' feature and other tidbits. I have no clue though, and I always forget to look this magazine up when I visit somewhere like CVS).

-SLAM (How are their writers?)

-Iron Man (Bodybuilding Magazine. Got a free one in the mail, and to be honest, it had a lot of good articles about bodybuilding, nutrition, etc.)

-FHM/Playboy (Yes, I'm thinking about it. I don't think my parents would mind, but I'd just have to hide it from my dad who I'm worried might steal it if I were to subscribe to them).

That's just about it. If all goes according to plan, my brother will renew his subscription himself, so I wouldn't have to use my own money to subscribe to the ESPN magazines meaning I can choose three more magazines to subscribe to. I was thinking Sporting News, SLAM, and FHM/Playboy.

Edited July 26, 2008 by Libid21

[AtLaS]

I absolutely love SLAM magazine. I've had a subscription since I was 12, so for the past 10 years. They have a section called "trash talk" where readers send in their reviews of the previous issue and criticize or complement the previous issue about what they liked or didn't like. They also have the Slamadamonth and a poster in every mag. Their articles are very in depth and the writers are very informative. It's not only about their role in basketball either, it will often talk about how the player grew up into where he is now. If you ever read the Baron Davis story, it's a great one, he went through a lot. I've never had a subscription to ESPN or SI, but all the articles I've read are nowhere near as good as SLAM's. Plus, it's a cheap subscription.

They also always have articles about unknown high school players. I read about Amare Stoudemire before anyone knew about him, and they even had a 4 page full article with Louis Williams during his junior year of high school. I definitely recommend the mag, it's nothing but basketball in an entire magazine.

Edited July 30, 2008 by AtLaS

[mattlanta]

I absolutely love SLAM magazine. I've had a subscription since I was 12, so for the past 10 years. They have a section called "trash talk" where readers send in their reviews of the previous issue and criticize or complement the previous issue about what they liked or didn't like. They also have the Slamadamonth and a poster in every mag. Their articles are very in depth and the writers are very informative. It's not only about their role in basketball either, it will often talk about how the player grew up into where he is now. If you ever read the Baron Davis story, it's a great one, he went through a lot. I've never had a subscription to ESPN or SI, but all the articles I've read are nowhere near as good as SLAM's. Plus, it's a cheap subscription.

They also always have articles about unknown high school players. I read about Amare Stoudemire before anyone knew about him, and they even had a 4 page full article with Louis Williams during his junior year of high school. I definitely recommend the mag, it's nothing but basketball in an entire magazine.

I'm pretty sure they have that in all the magazines out there. Hehe, thanks for the review though. Now I'm definitely subscribing to the SLAM magazines.