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League Publications Ltd
League Publications Ltd
League Publications Limited (LPL) was established in August 1990 to produce League Express, a weekly Rugby League Newspaper. The company is now the largest media company in the world devoted exclusively to Rugby League.
Contact Us
You can contact us by post, telephone, fax or email in connection
with any of our titles (Rugby Leaguer & League Express, Rugby
League World and TOTALRL.COM) or any other matters related to our
business, using the details shown below.
Postal Address:
League Publications Ltd
Wellington House
Briggate
Brighouse
West Yorkshire
HD6 1DN, United Kingdom
Telephone: 01484 401895
Fax: 01484 401995
E-mail
Who's Who at League Publications Ltd
Company History
Back in 1990 Chairman Martyn Sadler and managing director Tim Butcher
believed that limited coverage of Rugby League every Monday morning
in the national newspapers had opened a niche market for a specialist
Rugby League title to be published each week on that day.
The very first edition of League Express, edited by Mike Rylance,
appeared on 10 September that year, and the front page headline
celebrated Sheffield Eagles' feat in forging a draw against Wigan
at Central Park.
Immediate success...
The immediate success of the new venture proved that League fans
had been crying out for good coverage of their sport.
The first six editions of League Express were printed by the Yorkshire
Weekly Newspaper Group at their Wakefield printing press, before
production was transferred to Bradford, to the Telegraph and Argus
press.
A new title is born...
At the start of the 1993/4 season Martyn Sadler became the managing
editor of League Express, and LPL decided to expand its production
with a new title - League Express Weekend - edited by Tim Butcher
and published each Friday during the season. In the years that followed
the Friday newspaper changed its title to Rugby League Weekend,
Super League Week, and then Total Rugby League.
Books, books, books...
In 1996, the first year of Super League, League Publications decided
to diversify into book publishing, producing its first yearbook
- Super League '96 - which gave an account of the first Super League
season. Two years later the yearbook was re-titled 'Rugby League
1998/9' to reflect a wider coverage of the game. Now in its ninth
edition, and sponsored by Gillette, the yearbook has become the
'must-have' definitive record of the Rugby League season. LPL has
also produced a range of other books on Rugby League, including
'The Rugby League World Cup', the first book ever to be published
charting the history of that competition, 'The Forbidden Game',
an account of the early history of French Rugby League written by
Mike Rylance, and 'Running With the Bulls', an account of the Bradford
Bulls' Championship winning season of 1997, written by Graham Clay.
Open Rugby to Rugby League World...
In 1998 LPL bought the long established monthly magazine 'Open Rugby'
from its founding editor Harry Edgar, and Graham Clay becoming the
new editor. From March 1999 the company changed the name of the
magazine to 'Rugby League World' as its circulation continued to
grow, and League Express returned to its original printing press,
with the Yorkshire Weekly Newspaper Group in Wakefield.
Going online...
At the end of the 2000 season LPL decided to convert Total Rugby
League into an online publication, TotalRL.com which launched on
1st March 2001 and has developed into one of the world's busiest
dedicated Rugby League sites attracting a well over one million
page impressions every month.
Backing the game...
League Publications has also been involved a range of sponsorships,
showing the company's commitment to and confidence in the grassroots
of Rugby League, including backing for the BARLA National Cup, and
the 2001 Rugby League Legends Series. LPL has also worked with the
Rugby Football League on producing Big Match Programmes for the
Challenge Cup, the NFP Grand Final, and for Test matches and other
representative games, including the 2000 Lincoln Financial Group
Rugby League World Cup. In 2002 Rugby League World Magazine sponsored
the Great Britain team against Australia in the first Test Match
played in Sydney for a decade, and has also sponsored the England
team in the European Nations Cup. TotalRL.com has also been the
main sponsor of the rapidly expanding summer Rugby League Conference
competition since 2002.
New beginnings...
In May 2002, LPL acquired the 'Rugby Leaguer' newspaper, a
weekly title with over 50 years history. The Leaguer and League
Express subsequently merged to create 'Rugby Leaguer & League
Express' from Monday 20th May 2002, a new weekly paper dedicated
to Rugby League, combining the best elements from both previous
publications.
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