IT has been confirmed by the publishers that EX Magazine has now changed to a quarterly frequency.

Launched by Football World in November 2002 as a monthly throughout the football season (10 issues a year), the retro mag dedicated exclusively to former West Ham players and officials will now be produced four times a year.

The cover price and pagination are to remain unchanged at £3.00 for 44 pages. An annual subscription to EX is now just £12.00 (for four editions) in the UK.

Issue 44 (Autumn), on sale in early September, will be the first issue of the new frequency, with further editions scheduled for December (Winter), March (Spring) and June (Summer) each year from now onwards.

Explaining what he admits was a very difficult and reluctant decision, publisher/editor Tony McDonald said: "The change will no doubt disappoint some of our loyal readers who look forward to their monthly nostalgia fix. But it is simply not viable for us to publish 10 issues a year of what is, after all, still a very niche title.

"We have honestly given it our best shot to promote, sell and try to grow sales of EX over the best part of the last five years but, despite the loyal support of a hardcore of readers, sales in general have not matched our efforts.

"However, we remain committed to the EX brand and by cutting back on the number of magazines we publish, we will be concentrating more of our time and effort on producing books for the same target market of supporters who enjoy reading about West Ham players and managers of the past.

"The re-design of the EX website and the publication this week of our IN MY DAY book are the first products of our changing strategy, although we have numerous other West Ham-related books earmarked for the future. In November we will publish WEST HAM UNITED ­ THE MANAGERS in hardback.

"What we hope will happen is that people who purchase the IN MY DAY book, in particular, will become aware of EX, possibly for the first time . . . and then become regular readers as a result. Who knows, if the books generate plenty more readers for EX, then we would always re-consider the frequency of the magazine, but only if it was viable to do so.

McDonald continued: "Although we will be producing less issues of EX magazine, we remain convinced that the mag has a bright long-term future. In fact, by going quarterly, we have effectively secured its future.

"There are still so many ex-players out there we have yet to interview and, of course, they will increase by each passing season, so it¹s certainly not a case of us running out of ideas or subject matter. There is still an awful lot of entertaining nostalgia left in EX," he promised.

"I hope all of those readers who have supported EX with such loyalty and enthusiasm, many of them from issue 1, will understand the reasons behind our decision and continue to support us and our future publications."