League Magazine

Media Kit 2021-2022

League Magazine stemmed from another project I had in the first semester of my journalism program. In that semester, I had to create a fictional app and figure out the logistics of it. Through that project, I wanted to get into more fitness and exercise related content. Impact Magazine was also a large inspiration for this project.

The media kit was an important aspect to the overall magazine, and two classes were covered for both the physical magazine, the online website, and the media kit.

A media kit is used by potential advertisers, writers, photographers, or anyone that wants to work with a magazine.

The cover is a picture of Jared Velasquez, owner and head coach of Amplified Athletics. He also fought as an amateur boxer for many years before getting into coaching.

Velasquez was on the cover for my magazine as well. I wanted to be consistent, and I noticed the media kit for Impact Magazine utilized former covers for their media kit. It’s also a great shot (credit to Candace Ward, who shot this photo Velasquez supplied for me).

The readership was required on the second page; in fact, the layout of the media kit was made for us before we starting applying anything to the pages on Adobe InDesign.

I had to use an excel spreadsheet (supplied by my prof) to calculate the numbers for the readership, circulation, and the amount of money the magazine made – all made up of course.

All the photos on this page are from Hero Images, who I have modelled for in the past. They provide the photos for free for any model that appears on their shoots, so long as they aren’t monetized.

The content of the magazines was next, like the recurring sections and the columns on the magazine. The magazine I made did not contain these; however, I did include them in the table of contents.

While I only had to worry about a handful of pieces, it was a decent amount of work, so to come up with written work for columns and recurring sections would have been a challenge.

The stories I selected for the made-up issues are ones I wanted to pursue and still want to pursue. The story on Jon Amundson, whom I knew from my days a personal trainer, was one such story I want to do, but may do so for another class.

The issue count I chose was six, with a magazine appearing every two months. We also had to calculate the time between each magazine and come up with a timeframe for any advertising on that issue, stories appearing, and photos.

The photos on this page were all shot by me, except the photo of Jared Velasquez working with Bree Howling. That was supplied by him.

The circulation and advertising rates made up the next two pages.

Circulation had to stem from a number of options, but we had to pick two methods to circulate the magazine. I chose the “Take one/leave one” approach, and “Partnering.’

The ad rates came from that excel document I mentioned earlier. It was all made up, but there is formula that determines how to price out each page for advertising.

The photos I used for the circulation are stock photos from Pexels, and for the advertising I used a JPEG of my magazine and a photo from a photo shoot I was in with Hero Images.

The writer’s guidelines contained information for writers that wish to write for League Magazine, which was a mixture of made-up and real wishes.

The pricing was all made-up as well, but we received guidance on how to pay writers and photographers. It was interesting learning this as a journalist, and it made me more aware of pitching stories for magazines.

We had to supply a bunch of ads on the page, which we did not collaborate or talk with, so these are just who we would want to advertise with. I chose a few mental health facilities along with well known sports brands. The final story, Life is Training, made me shift from having entirely sports-themed ads to more mental health related ones. Our mental health plays into our wellbeing, so promoting it should be encouraged alongside our physical wellbeing.

The last page is a back page ad of sorts, and I chose a photo of myself posing in a stock photo for Hero Images.

The first issue of League Magazine was boxing focused, and so I wanted to keep that going by using this photo. Plus, I figure since I am the creator so to speak, I didn’t see any harm in having myself on the back for potential advertisers to see – still imaginary of course – it still made me think of what I would do if I had a magazine.