Inside Sport

the BBC Sport programme

Inside Sport was an Australian sport magazine published by nextmedia. It began publication in 1991 and produced its last issue in June 2020.

Australian television personality and model Nikki Visser appeared on the cover of Inside Sport four times: July 1996, July 1998, April 1999 and March 2002. The magazine also organised an annual national model contest—The Inside Sport Model Search—which ran from 1996 until 2008. Notable contestants included Visser, Nicky Whelan, Imogen Bailey and Jennifer Hawkins. In May 2007, the magazine's editors made the decision to cease using scantily clad 'sports models' to illustrate the cover and centre pages of each issue (many of the women featured were professional models or entertainment celebrities rather than actual athletes). Instead, a notable sportsperson, male or female, would adorn the cover each month. This decision was made to improve sales, which in mid 2007 had fallen to 23,000 per month (down from a monthly peak circulation of 80,000 in the late 1990s). The new policy was also intended to change the 'blokey' image of the magazine and to establish it as a serious sports publication rather than just another lad mag. However, in 2008, the November issue of Inside Sport attracted some criticism for featuring a photo of Australian swimming champion Stephanie Rice on its cover which was allegedly heavily airbrushed.

In May 2012, it was reported that sales for Inside Sport had increased by 7%, defying a current trend of declining sales for male orientated sports & lifestyle magazines. By November 2012, sales had increased by over 27%. In March 2014, it was reported that the magazine's readership had declined by over 21% in the previous 12 months. This was in contrast to the previous year (March 2015 to March 2016) when readership declined by 25%.