Sports publisher Athlon will this fall launch a monthly magazine that will be distributed inside daily papers across the country and reach 7 million people.

As part of the birth of Athlon Sports, two prominent area media execs are joining the 43-year-old media conglomerate. One of them, Stephen Duggan – the former co-CEO of Alpha Media, the publisher of Maxim and other titles – has acquired an undisclosed minority stake in Athlon and been named president of the company.

Jerry Lyles has come on board as senior vice president of publisher relations, the same title he previously held at Cool Springs-based Publishing Group of America. (Before leading Alpha, Duggan also worked at PGA.)

Nashville-based Athlon says its new product will be the largest sports magazine in the country and “reorder the highly competitive sports category” by reaching a mass audience beyond the stable of sports or men’s lifestyle magazines. It will also be by far the widest-reaching product in the Athlon stable; the company’s core NFL, college football and fantasy football publications have a combined circulation of about 900,000.

"Athlon Sports is a breakthrough media launch," said CEO Chuck Allen. "We are launching the largest sports title in the country without the circulation and distribution costs that are crippling many traditional magazines, and we offer advertisers the scale to reach an estimated 25+ million sports fans each month."

An Athlon spokeswoman said existing writers and editors will produce Athlon Sports. The company will be making public the names of the papers that will carry the magazine in the coming months.