U.K. magazine copies Boston magazine cover for February edition

The Bath Magazine, a United Kingdom publication that is an official partner of the Bath half-marathon, appears to have copied their most recent cover from Boston magazine.

Both covers feature running shoes arranged in the outline of a heart. The first cover was originally designed by the design staff at Boston magazine after the bombings at the Boston Marathon. The seemingly plagiarized cover has caused a stir on social media and the staff at Bath have released a statement on Facebook. They say the statement is also on their website, but their website was down with server problems at time of publication. The statement suggests that the magazine came up with the idea on their own, but the similarities between the two covers are striking.

Open letter to the Boston Magazine:

The Bath Magazine publisher Steve Miklos would like to offer his sincere apologies to anyone who found the similarity between our image and the Boston Magazine cover in any way upsetting, as clearly we did not wish to cause any offence.

We are proud to be supporters of the Bath Half marathon, and indeed members of our staff are running in this year’s race. Our intention was to create a front cover that reflected the twin themes of the inclusive nature of the Bath Half marathon and Valentine, this being our February issue. So we had the idea to feature a heart on the cover but with a running theme coupled with the message on loving the Bath Half. We started to search for an image from the usual stock libraries, then we decided to create our own.

We invited runners to lend their trainers for our photograph and interviewed them about their motives for running the half marathon. You can read some of these moving and inspirational tales inside the magazine.

Mr Miklos said: “Late in the process of creating our front cover we were made aware of the Boston Magazine cover, and while we were inspired by it, we realize we have made an error of judgment by not fully realising its connotations in the States.”

“On a personal note, I ran the half marathon last year during which time I met many runners, each with their own battle to fight and individually determined to finish. Some had suffered personal tragedies and were doing what they could to raise money and beat their own demons.

“I am running the Bath Half on March 2nd and as well as supporting many of our local charities, the magazine will be making a contribution to the Boston One Fund.”

Please accept our apology from one community to another and accept that our intentions were well meant.

Boston magazine has responded by noting their cover was intended to raise money for One Fund and said “[we] hope that if you were so bold as to borrow our idea, you will also borrow the spirit of that cover — and make a significant donation to the One Fund in the name of those who were unable to finish the race.”

Bath says they will be reprinting with a new cover.

Following an overwhelming response to our @BathHalf cover and out of respect to #Boston we are reprinting the Feb cover with a fresh image.

— The Bath Magazine (@TheBathMagazine) January 29, 2014

Super cool cover design! @TheBathMagazine h/t @lmennies pic.twitter.com/TFGAJTFDZz

— Luke O’Neil (@lukeoneil47) January 28, 2014

Hey Bath, who died in your marathon? @TheBathMagazine @bathhalf

— S.I. Rosenbaum (@sirosenbaum) January 28, 2014