Hello. Welcome to the new home of The Sword, British Fencing’s membership magazine.
In comparison to five years ago, our members are now consuming our content in very different ways from before, engaging more with website news posts and articles. Some of our best performing news posts actually had more readers than any recent online issue of The Sword. Our Friday news round-up is also proving popular with members who want to keep up-to-date with what is happening in the world of GB fencing (don’t forget to sign up).
With the general shift to people reading things online, along with reduced member engagement with the published edition, we have been exploring alternative options to deliver a better service to our members in light of rising costs.
The Sword will continue here, providing longer form and more in-depth articles with the goal of better engaging our membership, and providing something different from the usual fencing news, which will continue to be published on the main BF website and across our social media channels.
The Sword still exists as a magazine, but in order that we can concentrate our limited resources on publishing timely features and articles and up-to-date information, the number of formal (magazine format) issues will come down to two a year, with one appearing around October, and the other in April. Many other sport national governing bodies and federations, in the UK and elsewhere, have been wrestling with similar issues and taken similar decisions.
We also offer a print-on-demand service will allow members to order hard copies of these issues. You can order the October issue in hard copy here, although it is not a cheap option – we are still looking for ways to make it more affordable. You can find back issues of The Sword here.
We hope you find everything here useful and informative. If there’s something you think should be here, get in touch. ⚔️