The first edition of ‘Springbok’, a new digital magazine launched by the South African Rugby Union (SARU), went live on Friday.
‘Springbok’ is available free online at http://www.springbokmagazine.com and will be distributed through SARU’s existing and highly successful social media channels on Facebook and Twitter, as well as via e-mail to all members of the Springbok Supporters’ Club.
This means more than 1,000,000 “online” fans of South African rugby will have direct access to the new magazine, with the sharing component of social media making the possible footprint of the magazine much larger.
“We are constantly looking at improving the way we interact with supporters of the Springboks and our other national teams,” said SARU CEO Jurie Roux on Friday.
“I am sure the magazine will bring supporters even closer to their heroes and rising stars in our national teams as well as into other SARU activities, such as our very successful museum, The Springbok Experience, the Cell C Community Cup and the work of our High Performance and development departments.”
The first issue contains an interview with Springbok coach Heyneke Meyer, where he looks ahead to the forthcoming Test season, as well as features on the Junior Springboks, the Springbok Sevens and Women’s teams, the Springbok Experience and a look back at the second edition of the Cell C Community Cup.
The magazine is published by SARU in conjunction with Future Media Group (FMG), a specialist in digital media and online publishing.
‘Springbok’ will be released on the first Friday of every month and it’s back-end technology means it loads quickly load and is small in data size.
Because of the page design it is not formatted for smartphones. However, regular updates will be posted on Facebook (Springboks) and Twitter (@bokrugby).