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New On The Newsstand
By Bill Mills - August
2003
For paintball players, 2003 has marked
a banner year in new choices when it comes to print publications with three
new magazines hitting the stands in just the first half of the year.
 Portal
Paintball was first up, and probably the most dramatic, as it speaks to
a whole new audience. Billed as the premier Iberoamerican publication,
Portal Paintball is focusing on a paintball market that is difficult to
reach with other magazines. Iberoamerica refers to Spain, Purtugal,
Brizail, Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and other countries which speak primarily
Spanish or Portuguese. As such, the magazine is bilingual.
Each article is headlined and has copy in both Spanish and Portuguese.
Inside are similar topics to most international paintball magazines – tournament
news, the top pro players and teams, and paintball technology, in depth
paintgun reviews with disassembly photos and tests including shot groupings
and velocity consistency graphs. While the magazine does (and should)
have more coverage of Central and South American as well as Southern European
events often missed by other publications, it doesn’t neglect the mainstream
US and European events that are newsworthy to its readers. Also impressive
is Portal’s game diagrams with 3 dimensional field renderings to show player
movements when discussing tactics. Portal Paintball is a larger European
format magazine, printed with a glossy cover and pages in full color on
a thick eggshell finish paperstock.
 The
2003 NPPL Super 7 Las Vegas tournament saw the launch of SPLAT magazine.
Unlike a number of start-ups in the paintball magazine trade, SPLAT kicked
off with a bit of a leg up, because while it is a new publication, it isn’t
from a new publisher. Michael Neveux and John Balik are known in
the bodybuilding world as publishers of Ironman Magazine. Their new
foray into paintball isn’t just a lark though, Neveux has played paintball
on and off for years, and he quickly found experienced paintball writer
Chris Iaquinta to fill the role of SPLAT’s editor. SPLAT is printed
in full color on glossy stock and full of bright color photography, with
snappy captions. Topics covered range from player tips and product
reviews to coverage of major US events and clothing and product photoshoots
with fitness models. Also included are some not so piantball topics
geared to the interests of many of todays players – reviews of new music
and video games. One of the advantages of coming from an established
publisher is that SPLAT is available in many newsstand locations, in addition
to select paintball stores throughout the US, and by subscription.
 Launching
at the 2003 International Amateur Open was Paintball Nation Magazine.
Rather than coming from a magazine publisher, Paintball Nation had a different
genesis, spawning from the successful paintball forum site, PBNation.com.
Paintball Nation is printed in a size literally halfway between standard
US and European formats, on full color, glossy paper. Paintball Nation
tackles its presentation of the sport from a different perspective.
The premier issue didn’t focus on pro players or the pro circuits in the
US or abroad, instead covering player tips, products, and regional tournament
and scenario events. For readers who have had enough of seeing the
same dozen or so players featured in issue after issue of other magazines,
this may come as a refreshing change. While the initial introductory
issue was available for free, Paintball Nation Magazine is also carried
at select paintball stores, and editor Jonathan Knapp announced at the
2003 Paintball Industry Conference that a major national retail chain distribution
deal was in the works.
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