Oh, dear...

Now, we're all in favour of new magazines and wish almost all of them well. And we know there are all kinds of audiences out there. And not everyone's taste is the same. But don't you have to wonder at the mentality of The Official CFL Magazine? It's on newsstands now and there is no other way of describing it except as old-fashioned cheesecake. It is largely pictures of professional football team cheerleaders.

It is the off-season, of course, and there's not much Canadian football to talk about. But if this magazine ever wants to get more than its current 6,500 subscribers, it may have to set its sights a wee bit higher.

The magazine is published by the Edmonton-based publishers of Report magazine (an advertorial business book built out of the ashes of the old Alberta Report). Apparently, last year (the cheerleader issue is issue 5) they convinced the CFL that what it needed was a magazine. Could this, embarrassing product be what the Canadian Football League had in mind?