The Mag

About The Mag

The Mag is an independent Newcastle United fanzine and fan website, published online at themag.co.uk, and the first fanzine ever produced for supporters of Newcastle United. Founded as a paper magazine in August 1988 by Mark Jensen and Chris Tait, it gave ordinary Newcastle fans a voice at a time when their only outlet was the letters page of the Sunday Sun. The print magazine ran for 26 years, producing 289 issues before the move to digital, and in November 2011 the publication added its website, which has since become, in its own words, "the largest independent network serving Newcastle United fans". Completely independent of Newcastle United Football Club, The Mag publishes fan news, opinion, forums, interviews and podcasts, and describes its mission in simple terms: to give a platform to all Newcastle United fans who want to have their say, whatever their viewpoint.

Founding in 1988

The first issue of The Mag was published in the summer of 1988, born of disillusionment with what was happening at Newcastle United. Paul Gascoigne, the most talented player of his generation, had just been sold, following Chris Waddle out of the door in 1985 and Peter Beardsley in 1987. As The Mag itself recalled decades later, a title-winning team could have been built around the three of them; instead, within a year of Gazza leaving, Newcastle United were relegated. Founders Mark Jensen and Chris Tait had worked together in local government. Jensen recalled that Tait showed him a copy of When Saturday Comes, which listed every club magazine and fanzine in its back pages: Sunderland had one, in Wise Men Say, and Newcastle did not. Jensen persuaded a reluctant Tait to have a go at producing one themselves. The two men had no idea what they were doing and no certainty that anyone would buy the thing, but issue one appeared in August 1988, making The Mag Newcastle United's first ever fanzine.

Giving fans a voice

Before The Mag, Newcastle supporters who wanted to speak to the wider fanbase had only the letters page of the Sunday Sun. The fanzine changed that overnight. From its first issue, it was there to publish what the fans were thinking - about the team, the ownership, the transfers, the direction of the club - without the filter of the mainstream press. The founders' philosophy has endured through the decades and the migration from paper to the internet: The Mag publishes articles it does not necessarily agree with, because it exists for all viewpoints, not only those that fall in line with its own thinking. That commitment to being a genuine platform, rather than a mouthpiece, is the thread that connects the photocopied pages of 1988 with the website of today.

The print era: 289 issues

The print version of The Mag ran from August 1988 until 2014, producing 289 issues over 26 years. For thousands of supporters, buying a copy on the walk up to St James' Park became part of the matchday ritual, the magazine sold once a month outside the ground. The print run at its height was sold in more than 450 newsagents across the north east, with subscriptions available worldwide, starting at ten issues a year. The end of the print edition was brought forward by distribution problems; as the publication's editor acknowledged at the time, the move from print to digital was always going to happen, but modern technology hastened it. The final print issue went on sale before a home game against Swansea. The influence of The Mag and its contemporaries at other clubs, the founders' supporters argue, should never be underestimated: Jensen and Tait gave the ordinary fan a voice long before radio phone-ins and social media existed.

The website

In November 2011 The Mag added its website, themag.co.uk, which the publication describes as a massive success, attracting thousands of readers every day. The site publishes original writing about Newcastle United, complemented by professional, high-quality design, and allows thousands of supporters to interact daily while keeping up with the latest news and views on the club. A redesigned website was soft-launched on 14 February 2019 - Valentine's Day, which the site noted was also Kevin Keegan's 68th birthday - after the best part of a year in planning and development, aiming for faster loading, easier navigation and a better experience for both visitors and writers. The website is free to read. Because The Mag is completely independent of NUFC, it can publish what it wants about the club, whether things are going well or not - an independence the publication regards as essential to its credibility with supporters.

The Mag Podcast

Alongside the website, The Mag produces The Mag Podcast, featuring regular hosts discussing the latest Newcastle United news, debates and fan opinion in unfiltered style. Recent episodes have covered topics such as the club's new badge and the quantum leaps of the post-takeover era, continuing the fanzine's tradition of fan-led conversation. The podcast extends the publication's reach to audio audiences and gives contributors another platform for the opinion and analysis that has always been The Mag's stock in trade.

Campaigning and fan activism

The Mag's independence has repeatedly put it at the heart of supporter campaigning. Founded in an era of fan discontent with the club's ownership and lack of ambition, it has remained a rallying point for supporters through the decades that followed. In April 2021 it signed up to help finance a bid for fans to buy a stake in Newcastle United, urging supporters to join the initiative. Through the long years of supporter discontent that preceded the club's eventual takeover, The Mag was a consistent voice for leadership, transparency and ambition at St James' Park - the same demands its first issue made in the summer of 1988.

Contact and community

The Mag maintains direct lines of communication with its readership, in keeping with its fanzine roots. It can be reached by telephone on +44 (0)191 432 4409, with dedicated email addresses for enquiries, the editor, letters and the shop at themag.co.uk. The letters tradition of the print era continues online, with fan contributions forming the backbone of the site's content. The publication invites all Newcastle United fans to have their say, and its extensive network of contacts and relationships, built over decades of covering the club, underpins its reporting.

Legacy

More than three and a half decades after Mark Jensen and Chris Tait produced an issue they had no idea how to make, The Mag remains the flagship of independent Newcastle United media. It has outlasted ownerships, relegations and promotions, the transformation of football's finances and the transformation of the media itself. From a paper magazine sold on street corners to a digital network with thousands of daily readers, its purpose has not changed: to entertain and inform the supporters of the club, and to make sure that whatever happens at Newcastle United, the fans always have somewhere to have their say.

A voice through the decades

The Mag's longevity means it has documented almost the entire modern history of Newcastle United from the supporters' perspective. It was founded in the despair of the late 1980s, when the sale of Paul Gascoigne followed the departures of Chris Waddle and Peter Beardsley and the club slid towards the relegation of the 1988/89 season. It chronicled everything that followed: the promotions and near-misses, the entertainers and the also-rans, the long years of supporter discontent with the club's ownership and the hunger for ambition, leadership and transparency that its first issue had demanded. When the print edition ended in 2014 after 289 issues, the website carried the torch; the 2019 relaunch of themag.co.uk, soft-launched on Valentine's Day after nearly a year of development, gave the publication a faster, more navigable home for its next chapter. In 2021 it lent its name to the campaign for supporters to buy a stake in the club. Through every era, the editorial philosophy set down by Mark Jensen and Chris Tait in 1988 has held: The Mag is there for all Newcastle United fans who want to have their say.