June 2002
QuakeMagic.com
Thirty-two pages of Earthquakes coverage, message-board conversation, interviews, the Magicians, community stories, and more.
Read the flipbook →From screen to stadium
The two editions were designed to work together. The website provided a living place for timely stories and coverage. The strongest material published online was then selected for the paper edition.
That printed publication was handed directly to supporters at San Jose Earthquakes home games, carrying the best of QuakeMagic.com from the screen into the stadium.
Preserved by the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine
The online edition survives
QuakeMagic.comMay 31, 2000
This archived view preserves QuakeMagic.com during its first year online. It shows the publication operating as a complete Earthquakes destination with original reporting, headlines, message boards, chat, video, team information, polls, and supporter features.
The capture also documents QuakeMagic.com's place in the Rivals sports network and confirms that the online edition was active by May 2000, working alongside the paper publication distributed at Earthquakes home games.
A surviving paper edition
QuakeMagic.com
May 2000
This original cover preserves the publication exactly as supporters saw it in print. The QuakeMagic.com masthead joined the web address and the paper edition under one identity.
The issue is physical evidence of the publication’s print-and-online model: original local soccer coverage moved between the website and a paper edition placed directly into the hands of fans.
Digital issue archive
Read QuakeMagic.com
Surviving issues are being added as their original PDFs are prepared for the web. Read every available edition directly in your browser.
How it worked
Online speed. Print permanence.
Online
Publish the coverage
QuakeMagic.com made it possible to publish Earthquakes stories online and reach readers beyond the limits of a paper schedule.
Editorial
Select the best
The strongest material from the online edition was chosen and prepared for the next printed issue.
Match day
Put it in fans’ hands
The paper edition was distributed at San Jose Earthquakes home games, connecting the publication directly with supporters.
The online edition
News, players, and fans—all in one place.
QuakeMagic.com was more than an online magazine. It became an active meeting place for the San Jose Earthquakes community.
An Active Bulletin Board
Supporters discussed the team, the matches, and the issues surrounding the club with other Earthquakes fans.
Predict the Score
Fans could win a QuakeMagic hat by correctly predicting the score of an Earthquakes game.
Players in the Chat Room
San Jose Earthquakes players visited the QuakeMagic chat room on Monday nights to talk directly with supporters.
Complete Match Coverage
Pre-game stories, match reports, player interviews, features, and continuing coverage gave fans a complete view of the team.
QuakeMagic Covered Everything
The coverage went far beyond match reports. QuakeMagic.com followed trade talk, published horoscopes, and created all kinds of original features around the team and its supporters. Its own cartoon team, the Magicians, became one of the publication’s most popular recurring features.
Matches, players, trades, cartoons, horoscopes, conversation, and community—QuakeMagic.com covered the whole Earthquakes world until December 2005, when MLS placed the San Jose club on hiatus and moved its players and coaching staff to Houston.
Made for match day
From the early web to the stadium.
QuakeMagic.com joined two forms of independent publishing at a moment when online soccer coverage was still developing. The website kept the coverage moving. The printed edition gave selected stories a physical life and placed them where the Earthquakes community came together: at home games.
The result was not a separate website and magazine. It was one publication using each format for what it did best.
Part of the SoccerMagic.com story
A bridge between print and digital publishing.
QuakeMagic.com continued the independent publishing tradition that began with Soccer Magic Magazine. It also represented the next step: original local soccer coverage created for the internet, refined for print, and shared directly with supporters.
After the Rivals era, QuakeMagic.com continued through an independent soccer network established by former Washington, D.C. team editor Martin Fernandez, with Nicholas Arellano playing an important role in the network's establishment. QuakeMagic later became affiliated with Lee Smith's Columbus-based MatchNight Network. That association ended in the summer of 2003, and QuakeMagic continued on its own course.
After QuakeMagic.com ended with the Earthquakes' departure from San Jose in December 2005, the SoccerMagic story entered a new chapter with the creation of Real San Jose.
Published online. Selected for print. Distributed at Earthquakes home games.