A small Canadian publishing house has just scored an epic publishing touchdown. Dauphin Media Group (DMG) will be publishing the official magazine of the National Football League (NFL), appropriately named NFL Magazine.
The first issue of the monthly will launch with a collectors’ edition on newsstands in the U.S. and Canada on Dec. 13.
So how did a small Canadian outfit manage to score this massive licensing agreement win? Sam Yoon, DMG’s senior vice-president of business and legal affairs, admits it may appear to be an unexpected partnership. “You have other publishing companies like Wenner Media who are absolutely huge, [and] we’re a relatively small Canadian company,” he told Marketing. “But [the NFL] liked us and realized that we had the ability and capacity to do the magazine.”
Yoon said DMG submitted a business proposal to the NFL in July about starting a magazine “on the basis that the NFL had a multiplatform presence.” He added that DMG’s team includes passionate sports fans and that the NFL was “really impressed that we were coming in as a turnkey operation.”
Kevin LaForce, NFL vice-president of media strategy and business development, told Marketing that the NFL likes that DMG is a small company “because it allows us to be more nimble and flexible, which we struggled with in some of our discussions with the bigger guys. [DMG’s] ability to react quickly if we need to change things since it’s a monthly was of comfort to us.
“We liked the fact that the model we have with them allows us full control of all aspects of the magazine… whether editorial or sales or promotion marketing.”
Yoon added that while the NFL will have final approval in terms of the content, photos and direction of the magazine, DMG will “have the independence to be able to go out there and be creative, get some real heavy-hitting stories with impact, and stories that have depth and insider access for the passionate NFL fan.”
DMG will work with NFL properties such as its NFL Network and NFL.com to produce content.
NFL Magazine will be available by subscription and on newsstands. Quad/Graphics will print the magazine and Kable Distribution Services will distribute it. DMG’s fulfillment company is Palm Coast Data.
There will be 400,000 copies of the debut issue on newsstands. While the magazine will be available in major markets in Canada, Yoon said the primary distribution focus will be on the U.S.
In terms of a sales force, Yoon said there is an associate publisher–Paul Severini, formerly of Sporting News–working in New York, as well as a couple of additional sales people. He said the ad to edit ratio will be 40:60. DMG’s sales staff will be supported by NFL’s sales staff, said LaForce.
“We’ve got 20-plus corporate sponsors and business partners that we are going to ask them to speak to first for any sales opportunities, so that immediately opens up the pipeline to our business partners. Once they’ve had those conversations with our business partners, they’re free to try and sell the rest of the inventory,” said LaForce.
Yoon said DMG, which currently has offices in Toronto and New York, will maintain those offices, but is also looking to find an additional office in Los Angeles so that the sales and editorial team for NFL Magazine will be together. “The intention is to be operating on a fully staffed office in L.A. by Jan. 2,” he said.
