The Bath Magazine, which covers the UK city of Bath, posted an official apology to Boston Magazine on its Facebook page on Wednesday. After publishing a cover to promote the Bath Half Marathon that was strikingly similar to Boston Magazine’s cover after the Boston Marathon bombings, Bostonians rebuked the Bath publication, and Boston Magazine editors asked the Bath mag to make a donation to the One Fund, which has distributed millions of dollars to victims of the bombings. Both covers feature dozens of pairs of sneakers lined up to make the shape of a heart. On Wednesday, The Bath Magazine tweeted:

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


The note on its Facebook page said, “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. … 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.’’ The apology goes on to quote Miklos as saying, “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.’’ The magazine tweeted that the apology had been posted on its website as well, but The Bath Magazine site was down for most of the day.