New York Times to launch sports magazine in 2006

The New York Times plans to publish a sports magazine that will run four times in 2006.

The debut of PLAY: The New York Times Sports Magazine will be Feb. 5, which is also the day of one of the biggest U.S. sports events _ the NFL football Super Bowl. Three additional issues are set to run next autumn. The magazine will be distributed in all editions of the newspaper.

Mark Bryant, a former editor of Outside magazine, will edit PLAY.

"PLAY is going to be an ambitious magazine that celebrates, instructs and gets behind the scenes to show how sports are really played today," Bryant said. "It is a magazine for all sports enthusiasts, from serious fans to those who lean more toward playing sports than watching them."

The magazine will be available online at NYTimes.com. More than 150,000 copies of PLAY will be nationally distributed outside New York, AP reported. V.A.