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Shoot, or Shoot Monthly, was a football magazine published in the UK by IPC Media. After nearly 40 years, it ceased publication at the end of June 2008, but the brand was bought by Pedigree Group who re-launched Shoot as an online magazine.

Introduction

The magazine began publication as a weekly in 1969 ^[1] and was primarily targeted at teenage football fans. In an era before older fans had glossy monthly magazines such as Four Four Two targeted at them, Shoot was arguably the most popular football magazine in the UK, remaining the strongest magazine in this market until the mid 1990s.

In its heyday it was known for the quality of its news stories and articles on all aspects of football in England and Scotland. The magazine was also known for its "Star Writer" features. Each season a selection of big-name First Division players were signed up to write columns, including such star names as Kevin Keegan, Bryan Robson and Charlie Nicholas. This feature continues in the current monthly incarnation of the magazine, with stars such as Joe Cole and Danny Mills penning regular columns.

The magazine also featured Paul Trevillion's famous You Are The Ref comic strip for many years. This strip was collected in book form in 2006. ^[2]

League ladders

The weekly magazine was also known for its annual free gift of "Shoot League Ladders", although it was not the only publication to use this style of promotion. This consisted of a thin card sheet on which were printed blank league tables for each division of The Football League, with a slit in the card alongside each position on the tables. Also given away were T-shaped "tabs" for each club in the league (printed in the appropriate team colours) which could be fitted into the slits to indicate where each team currently stood in the league table. As the season progressed and teams moved up and down the table, their tabs could be moved to new slits accordingly. Old league ladders are still regularly sold on eBay. ^[3]

Demise and rebirth

Shoot's circulation fell from approximately 120,000 copies per week in 1996 to 33,455 in Autumn 2007 ^[4], by which time it had changed to a monthly publication. However, sales still struggled in the face of massive competition from its long-term rival Match. It was relaunced once again as a weekly magazine in late February 2008 ^[5], however it's performance did not prove good enough to prevent publishers IPC from closing the magazine at the end of June 2008.^[6] The brand was acquired by Pedigree Group, who launched a new on-line version of the magazine.

References

External links

• Official Shoot website