F.Y.I.

Online football publication to launch quarterly print edition

Online football publication Leopold Method will launch a quarterly print edition in November.

The announcement:  

Football publication Leopold Method has today announced it will be launching a quarterly print edition in November this year. This is a major step forward for the new media operation as it moves from being a collaboration of football writers to a publishing company.

Contributors for the first edition will include newly appointed Leopold Method editor Joe Gorman, award-winning writer Kate Cohen, SBS and Guardian Australia’s Richard Parkin, respected academic Ian Syson, The Cairns Post sports writer Vince Rugari, Leopold Method analyst Doug Kors, as well as publisher Shaun Mooney.

The first edition will cover topics on regional football, coaching and development, issues within women’s and Aboriginal football, the A-League’s marquee system and a historical narrative on a migrant community football club. The name of the high profile coach to be interviewed by Cohen will be announced in the coming days.

Mooney, who has been developing the Quarterly Edition since the start of this year, sees this as natural evolution for the online publication.

“We have probably broken the mould on how football is analysed in Australia with our long form writing,” said Mooney. “Moving our format into a quarterly print edition seems like the next logical step for us.

“The best way to describe the Quarterly Edition is a cross between the world renowned UK football publication the Blizzard and Australian current affairs journal Quarterly Essay. It will be more like a book than a magazine.”

Leopold Method has employed the services of Sydney-based publishing agency Xou Creative to produce the Quarterly Edition. For more than a decade, Xou Creative has been the ‘team behind the trade’, producing standout covers, typesets, and sales and marketing collateral for a range of publishers including Random House, University of Western Australia Press, Pan Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, NewSouth Books and Wiley. Xou Creative has worked with bestselling authors such as Di Morrissey, Matthew Reilly, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki, and Peter FitzSimons, Ted Prior and Robin Barker.

“We have chosen Xou Creative to manage the production process for us because they understand the needs of independent publishers. From my first meeting with them, they have worked on developing a product that will help ensure we are a sustainable publication for years to come,” said Mooney. “Xou Creative brings professionalism, quality design, a passion for publishing and vast experience to the project.”

Xou Creative’s publishing director, Rod Morrison, was drawn to the project due to Leopold Method’s determination to create a print edition in a publishing market that is moving mostly online.

“We were attracted by Leopold Method’s passion, dedication, outstanding journalism and vision. They’re also ambitious, boldly pushing forward with a quality publication in a challenging media landscape,” said Morrison.

Australian-based artist Jamie Osborne has been commissioned to produce a pencil sketch artwork for the cover of the Quarterly Edition. Osborne is renowned for his portraits of famous footballers such as David Beckham, Romario, Shinji Ono, Harry Kewell and various Socceroos.

“Because this will be more like a book than a magazine, I feel it’s important that we make it a collectors piece. Having Jamie’s beautiful artwork, along with stories that will last for years to come, makes this an item that people would be proud to have on their bookshelves.”

The format for the Quarterly Edition will be slightly larger than trade paperback. Each edition will be approximately 160-pages in single column format. Digital versions for each edition will also be available to purchase via iBooks, Amazon Kindle, Android and other formats.

Leopold Method was launched in December 2012 by Shaun Mooney, along with a group of like-minded writers. Within five months Leopold Method was finalist for 2013 FFDU ‘Football Website of the Year Award’, pitting it against SBS’s The World Game and FourFourTwo Australia. In 2014 the site was again a finalist for the same award.

Next week Leopold Method will announce a crowd funding campaign to help launch the print edition.

Source: Leopold Method press release.

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