The first issue of Flagrant magazine.

It’s no secret that the U.S. sports media is overwhelmingly male, with one example of that coming from the latest (2018) sixth edition of the Associated Press Sports Editors Racial and Gender Report Card giving the APSE newspapers and websites their fifth-consecutive F for gender hiring practices. That makes it notable to see a new sports publication founded by women, and that’s what new basketball magazine Flagrant is.

The first issue of the magazine was announced in January and just came out; it’s already in the hands of some of those who preordered, and it’s available at FlagrantMag.com. The magazine will host its official launch party Thursday night in Portland, and will be available at Deadstock Coffee and Laundry PDX in Portland afterwards. Here’s more from their release:

Founded by Editor-In-Chief Ashtyn Butuso, Creative Directors Brazilia Morales and Bethany Marrie Ito, and Director of Design Alex Haigh, the publication will add a fresh female voice to the overwhelmingly male corps of basketball media. Flagrant’s aim is not to maintain a feminine voice exclusively, but to cater to women and men by covering topics they both find interesting.

“As an all-female crew we are used to hoops; jumping through them, watching them, playing them, and we want to embrace that,” said Flagrant Editor-In-Chief Ashtyn Butuso. “We are the only female-founded magazine that focuses on telling the untold stories of everyone from the fans to the pros.”

…Flagrant is an all-inclusive platform that seeks to create community around a collective love of basketball. Beyond bringing the stories of the game to life for its readers, the magazine will focus heavily on design – making its issues keepsakes for all who cherish sport, art and culture.

Starting a new print magazine in 2020 is also interesting, given the challenges so many magazines are facing. But a design focus and an approach that sounds quite different from a lot of what’s out there are certainly ways to stand out. And the reception to Flagrant‘s first issue seems solid so far:

And after all those “death of print” pieces out there, they’ve also come up with a funny “death of digital” wallpaper:

We’ll see where Flagrant goes from here, but it’s definitely interesting to see a female-founded print magazine entering the basketball coverage scene.

[Photo via Jake McGrady on Twitter]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.