I remember, as a little kid, the anticipation and sheer joy involved in waiting for and finally acquiring a copy of the latest edition of the local cricket rag.

Times have changed - we deal almost exclusively with digital media now - but the tangibility of print media (books, magazines, newspapers) ensures that there’s a certain pleasure to be derived from consuming information in print, however fleeting and temporary that may be.

Recently Hugo wrote about football fanzines and the power they had (and their unfortunate decline). Today I’d like to introduce you to a soccer magazine with a different orientation: the New African Soccer magazine.

NAS are a UK-based publication offering an English-language magazine devoted to the African game.

To quote:

NAS aims to be more than just 48 pages of football analysis. We don’t want to just be about multi-millionaire footballers and beer ads. Our publisher can get interviews with any of the big names in African football but we’re also trying to build and give exposure to aspects of African football that get little coverage in the mainstream media - the national leagues, women’s and grassroots football - as well as providing a forum for honest and insightful journalism on issues relating to football and society.

You can download a digital version of the magazine from their website or ask them to ship the print version to you as soon as it becomes available.

NAS have had some problems in distribution which I think mainly has to do with the paradigm shift towards online news consumption what with the plethora of football news websites now available. It’s an interesting problem - how to increase subscriptions for a print-magazine in a sector where the majority of your target audience can’t wait for a monthly / fortnightly publication.

One option is to go the ICONS route - use your connections to source high-profile, insider coverage that few others have access to.

Whatever route NAS take, I wish them success. For a closer look at what they’re doing, you can download their Jan 08 issue here (PDF, 4MB).