Display of the Week: Crazy? Crazy Brave? Or Strategically Genius?

Check out the picture below and tell me what you think. We're still in the middle of a pro football strike. And while there are rumors, and rumors of rumors of a resolution, if you were the historically beloved producer of sports annuals known as The Sporting News, would you put your editorial out before the resolution of the strike?

That's what the editors and circulation people at The Sporting News did. From the looks of it, the boys from Birmingham, Lindy's Sports Annuals aren't too far behind.

Does this make sense? Well, both publishers have been known to produce a second issue midway through the summer. This is done to prolong their exposure on the market and in many cases, almost doubled their circulation from when they produced just one annual and hoped that the magazine would stay on display until late August when the season began.

Maybe there will be a second issue and maybe it's editorial will be updated. Or, maybe this is a way for them to get a jump on their competitors who either don't produce a second issue, or are holding their print runs up until the strike is resolved and they can update their editorial.

What do you think? Will Sporting News get the jump on their competitors? Will this help them, or hurt them during this most difficult of pre-season releases?