The AFL last week entered into an agreement with Crocmedia to acquire the AFL Publications business responsible for the AFL Record publication from season 2019 onwards.
Crocmedia will produce all weekly match-day magazine content, including the AFL match day Record, AFLW publications, the AFL Season Guide, JLT Community Series, AFLX, International Rules Series, along with the AFL Finals and Toyota AFL Grand Final editions of the Record.
Crocmedia’s move into sports publishing comes after the closure of Inside Football magazine, which was published by the owners of 1116 SEN before it was taken over by Crocmedia earlier this year.
The AFL Record has been the official match program for more than 100 years. Since Essendon won the premiership in the Record’s inaugural year of 1912, it has continued to inform and entertain fans from generation to generation.
AFL general manager commercial Kylie Rogers said the agreement will ensure the AFL Record remains a core part of the match-day experience for footy fans.
“The AFL Record is an essential part of the experience of attending a footy match.
“Crocmedia is a leader in content production and publishing. It will ensure the AFL Record continues to evolve, grow and succeed,” Rogers said.
Having considered a number of opportunities, including a range of external options, the AFL has accepted a bid by Crocmedia based on its aspiration to ensure the AFL Record remains a key part of the game day experience.
“Crocmedia’s tender for this much-loved magazine was exceptional. They respect the heritage of being able to mark the goals down next to your favourite player, paired with a strong vision for its future innovation and national reach.
“We look forward to seeing the AFL Record remain an essential part of match day and where Crocmedia will take it,” Rogers added.
Crocmedia CEO Craig Hutchison (pictured) said the acquisition represented a key strategic opportunity to deepen Crocmedia’s AFL association.
“The AFL Record is one of the oldest magazines in Australia so it’s a great privilege to become its custodian into the future.
“It complements our broader suite of AFL assets including our flagship AFL Nation game-day call and allows us exciting opportunities to integrate our brand partners across multiple touchpoints to connect with footy fans.”
“We have aspirations to grow the Record’s reach while honouring its iconic past. We’ll continue to ensure that footy fans get all the insight, team stats, match previews and exclusive features that they’ve come to know and love – and that it remains a much-loved part of our footy fabric,” he added.
The AFL Record has been produced by AFL Media for the last seven years, having previously been licensed to Slattery Publishing.
The AFL Record will continue to be produced by AFL Media until the Toyota AFL Grand Final edition in 2018.