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Farewell Press Releases, SwimNews Magazine is Back

Dec 14, 2013  - Nikki Dryden

Farewell Press Releases, SwimNews Magazine is Back
“The simple press release should have died years ago. In my mind they’re dead already,” Frank DeMaria, PR guru.

What many international readers of SwimNews.com do not know is that for almost 40 years, SwimNews magazine was published in print format with original content not available online. Filled with stories from a team of about a dozen writers the magazine was published up to 10 times a year and sent to readers across Canada and around the world.

When the magazine debuted in February 1974, Nick Thierry, the founder and editor, originally published the first issue as SWIM Canada. In 1995, SwimNews.com was launched, making it one of the oldest swimming sites on the Internet. Created by Marco Chiesa, Nick's business partner and photographer, the site won a number of awards when it debuted almost 20 years ago. In 1997, the magazine was renamed SwimNews, shifting from strictly Canadian content to cover the world of swimming.

In October 2012, Nick passed away. The last print issue of SwimNews magazine was published in December 2012. It was also the first issue published in e-format, available as an iPad App on iTunes.

Today we launch SwimNews magazine online. Over the ensuing months, the website will begin to take on the magazine's format, including Making Waves, Letters to the Editor, and Backwash. Content will also follow the magazine's original style, articles by swimmers and coaches, for swimmers and coaches. While a press release may have shaped some stories over the decades, the magazine didn't reprint press releases and call them news and we certainly won't start now.

As it always has, SwimNews magazine will bring you in depth interviews and analysis with the world's top swimmers and coaches, investigative topics on governance, doping and abuse, and training pieces on dryland and nutrition. The team's mission is quality over quantity, which means we won't post the same news stories everyday and we certainly won't re-post information without content or commentary. When we do post we hope you find it worth reading, and more importantly, discussing and debating on deck.

For your xmas training camp reading pleasure
 
We will release seven new stories this month from our writing team as well as delve into our archives for more stories to get you fired up and inspire your daily work outs. We are excited to welcome two new writers to the team: Casey Barrett and Erin Gaeckle. Casey is not only an Olympic 200 flyer, but he is also an Emmy and Peabody award winning writer and producer. He shares two pieces on two of the fastest women in history from his blog CapandGoogles, including “Assassin's Eyes: Katie Ledecky: The most fearsome swimmer since Phelps...” and “The Afterlife of Perfection: Misty Hyman and the business of perfection.” Erin, who is a junior at Tennessee and makes her writing debut, shares her unique perspective on one of the last and perhaps most controversial merging of women's and men's teams in the SEC.

SwimNews alums, Olympians Adam Sioui and Joanne Malar are back. Adam provides his take on Canada Cup and the Big Splash awards. Joanne, who is also a holistic nutritionist, shares her expertise on the top five health tips for swimmers in “Out of the nutritional box.”

Our editorial piece, “Lest We Forget: What happened with the swimsuits anyway?” examines FINA's role in the suit debacle and my story on Safe4Athletes asks if our sport is doing enough to protect swimmers from abusive coaches (96 and counting have been banned by USA Swimming). While this piece looks at the situation in the US, be sure that in the future we will be looking at Canada and the rest of the world too.

One of the only remaining independent publishers in the sport, SwimNews has never shied away from controversy or criticism. We have always provided insight into and analysis of the most compelling swimmers, coaches and defining moments of our sport and we hope you will join us here each month. We love swimming, and we believe SwimNews will be the place where our community can discuss what we all love.

Do you think you have what it takes to join the SwimNews team? Got a story idea? Have a comment, question or concern? Then send us an email at swimnewsATswimnews.com.