A Playbill for Punching

Lamar Clark knows that the audience for a new boxing magazine isn't gigantic. It's tiny by major-media standards. That hasn't stopped him from launching Round1, which recently hit the streets with its second quarterly issue, in a run of 7,500 copies.

Round1 is a little magazine that's taking a different approach than The Ring and the few other remaining boxing periodicals in the U.S. For starters, it literally is little: the size of a folded 8.5-by-11 page, about 24 pages per issue. Clark solves the problem of attracting a boxing audience by giving it away for free, at New York boxing events like Broadway Boxing and Gotham Boxing shows. He thinks of it as a sort of Playbill for boxing. It doesn't cover results or big fights.

"It's more of a lifestyle magazine for the boxing fan," Clark says. His first issue looked at great New York fighters, and the second was a memorabilia issue. Future theme issues will look at fitness, and boxing in the world of entertainment.

Once you look inside Round1 another distinction is apparent. It looks great. By day, Clark is art director at a New York-based magazine, and it shows. The typography and design really pop. He licenses photography from Getty Images and Corbis (the last issue also had artwork from Leroy Neiman). He has an arrangement with the NYC-based roundcardgirlz.com, so the mag has no shortage of New York cheesecake. And it's all printed on luxuriously heavy, glossy paper stock. The writing ain't bad either, though there's not a lot of it. Steve Farhood is a contributing writer, and in the current issue his is the only real article, surrounded by quick hits, lists and visuals.

Clark hopes to expand beyond New York to Philadelphia and the casinos. That will depend on how well he can attract advertising. Current ads are for local gyms or promoters, though he says DirecTV is coming on as an advertiser. He thinks there are enough boxing fans to attract sponsors. But beyond allowing brand-name signage around the edges of rings, boxing hasn't always given advertisers the best forum.

"The numbers are there. I just think the outlet hasn't been presented the right way," he says. "They started advertising on guys' backs. It got that bad."

Clark's planned web site, www.round1mag.com, isn't up and running yet. He can be reached at round1@nyc.rr.com.