Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 120, July 2019 | Page 12

Happy 10
th
It started with two runners having a chat during an early morning training run in Johannesburg in 2007. Having just skimmed
the latest edition of the only running magazine then available in South Africa, they both said they had found little in the mag
to interest them, as it was mostly beginner-oriented ‘how-to’ content. The conversation basically
went, “I think there’s a gap in the market for a running magazine that
really gives the core South African running community the
content they’re looking for,” said the first runner. “I
agree, and I’ve actually been thinking about doing
it,” said the second. “Me too, so let’s do it!” came the
immediate response. – BY MANFRED SEIDLER
T
hose two runners were Mike Bray and Arthur Valasis, and the result
of that conversation was the birth of Modern Athlete some two years
later, when the first edition was handed out at the 2009 Comrades
Marathon Expo. Today, you sit here reading the 120 th edition of the mag, as
Modern Athlete celebrates not only its 10th birthday, but also being the biggest
circulating running magazine in SA.
The magazine has come a long way since that first edition, which was entirely
printed on newspaper-like paper stock, including the cover, hence some readers
referred to it as a newspaper in the first few years. Over the years the mag
changed size a few times, first going bigger to tabloid newspaper size – thus really
living up to the slogan of being SA’s biggest running publication – then eventually
being decreased to a standard A4 size, all on glossy paper. Today, the mag has
gone 100% digital and is only available online, but still has the largest circulation
figure of all running mags in SA.
TRYING SOMETHING DIFFERENT
The Modern Athlete model was quite simple, and spectacularly successful. From
the word go, Mike, Arthur and their other partners decided to make inspiration
the focus of the magazine. Most of the content was stories of runners, be they
competing for line honours at the front end of races, or those who are overcoming
their own personal challenges through running, plus features on events and clubs.
The core running community of licenced club athletes was starving for content
of such a nature, and the mag proved an instant hit. Ten years later, inspirational
story-telling remains the editorial focus of the mag.
The big question was distribution, because producing yet another mag to sit on
the already cluttered magazine shelves in the shops was no guarantee of success.
Then Mike and Arthur came across the publication, Joburg Child, a tabloid-sized
free-to-market monthly publication aimed at the parenting and child-care market,
which was distributed free mostly through schools, day care centres and paediatric
medical practices, as well as some retail outlets. They found out that there were
also Cape Town and Durban editions, all with impressively large circulation figures,
and completely funded by advertising sales within the mags.
They immediately spotted an opportunity to distribute the new mag via running
clubs, sports medicine health practitioners and events, and the mag was launched
with a print-run of 30,000 copies. The initial plan was to produce a Gauteng edition,
then roll out Cape and KZN editions, but within a few months this plan changed,
thanks to feedback from advertisers requesting that the mag go national in order
for their adverts to have a national audience. This was done from October 2009
onwards, which is also when current editor Sean Falconer joined the editorial team,
initially working alongside Michelle Pieters.
Sean had worked at Runner’s World magazine for nine years, as both as Deputy
Editor and Online Editor, but had decided to leave because he did not agree with
the direction the magazine was going. A brief stint at a media and marketing
company in the Cape followed, before he approached Mike about working on
Modern Athlete. “I always wanted to get back into the running side of publishing,”
says Sean. “A running friend of mine mentioned the new magazine to me, so I
had a look online, and within minutes I had mailed Mike. Two days later I was on
a plane to Joburg for an interview, and I have been with the brand now for nearly
10 years. From day one I bought into the editorial focus of this magazine, and I still
love this job.”
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ISSUE 120 JULY 2019 / www.modernathlete.co.za