Sports Illustrated employees left in limbo as publisher faces money troubles

[JohnS]

Sports Illustrated. Just the name itself no doubt evokes memories of many famous sports covers and stories since its inception in 1954. In recent years, this once might sports magazine that was a weekly staple of many American households, now comes out once a month and was recently involved in controversy over including stories generated by Artificial Intelligence. Now, it seems they are struggling to pay the bills. What's the future for this once iconic magazine?

Sports Illustrated employees left in limbo as publisher faces money troubles

The publisher of Sports Illustrated has notified employees it is planning to lay off a significant portion of the magazine's staff.(AP: Lawrence Jackson)

The jobs of people who produce Sports Illustrated have been left in limbo after the company that paid to maintain the iconic brand's print and digital products told staff that its licence had been revoked.

In an email to employees on Friday morning US time, the Arena Group, which operates Sports Illustrated and related properties, said that because of the revocation, "we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand".

Authentic Brands Group owns the Sports Illustrated brand and had been licencing it to Arena, and the company later said in a statement it intends to keep Sports Illustrated going.

The company is negotiating with Arena and other publishing entities to determine who will do that, according to a person with knowledge of the talks who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorised to speak publicly about them.

Until those negotiations are resolved, it is unclear which journalists would actually do the work of making Sports Illustrated. It was not clear how many jobs were affected.

Sports Illustrated's employee union said in a statement that the lay-offs initially announced by Arena would be a significant number and possibly all, of the NewsGuild workers represented.

"We have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this storied publication that we love, and to make sure our workers are treated fairly for the value they bring to this company. It is a fight we will continue," Mitch Goldich, NFL editor and unit chair, said in a statement.

The guild's statement also called for Authentic to "ensure the continued publication of SI and allow it to serve our audience in the way it has for nearly 70 years."

Authentic said it would do so, and that "we are confident that going forward the brand will continue to evolve and grow in a way that serves sports news readers, sports fans and consumers".

"We are committed to ensuring that the traditional ad-supported Sports Illustrated media pillar has best in class stewardship to preserve the complete integrity of the brand's legacy," the company said.

In a statement on Friday, the Arena Group said it was negotiating with Authentic about the licence, "with plans to sustain our commitment to delivering quality content throughout the ongoing discussions".

Arena admitted that it had failed to make a quarterly payment of $US3.75 million ($A5.68m) and Authentic had put it on notice that it intended to end the agreement.

As a result, Arena announced Thursday it would make a "significant reduction" in its workforce of more than 100 people.

Rocky road for iconic title

The Arena Group acquired publishing rights from Authentic in 2019 for at least 10 years. The group's stewardship of Sports Illustrated has had many hurdles since then.

In December, it fired chief executive officer Ross Levinsohn when the magazine's alleged use of AI-generated stories drew public backlash.

Sports Illustrated has had a rough six years.

It was acquired by Meredith Publishing in 2018 as part of the purchase of Time Inc., which started the magazine in 1954.

Less than a year later, Meredith sold the magazine's intellectual property to Authentic for $US110 million.

Authentic owns the intellectual property of many brands and stars, including Marilyn Monroe, Elvis Presley, Muhammad Ali and Reebok.

Once a weekly publication, Sports Illustrated was reduced to biweekly publishing in 2018 and became a monthly in 2020.

Associated Press

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-20/sports-illustrated-employees-left-in-limbo-as-publisher-faces-mo/103372116

[NSXCIGAR]

I can't be sure but this might have something to do with it. 

[Ford2112]

Woke Illustrated.

[ha_banos]

Good time to post our previous health secretary  (sorry Terese)

[BoliDan]

No surprise magazine companies that failed to stay relevant. SI was huge in the 90s and 00s. But I'm actually surprised any magazines are able to pay their writers. Who buys them? I don't even see magazines in waiting rooms anymore. They just figure you got your phone and can hop on the internet. I find it kind of sad that the novelty of tangible readings (books, mags, newspaper) is dying, at the same time I also get it. The anticipation for new stories in your mailbox will be missed, but being able to access all that information at anytime for no cost... can't compete. 

[ha_banos]

8 hours ago, BoliDan said:

No surprise magazine companies that failed to stay relevant. SI was huge in the 90s and 00s. But I'm actually surprised any magazines are able to pay their writers. Who buys them? I don't even see magazines in waiting rooms anymore. They just figure you got your phone and can hop on the internet. I find it kind of sad that the novelty of tangible readings (books, mags, newspaper) is dying, at the same time I also get it. The anticipation for new stories in your mailbox will be missed, but being able to access all that information at anytime for no cost... can't compete. 

There's got to be some breakthroughs in delivery though. The number of publications where the online delivery is covered in intrusive advertising is not useable on mobile platforms.

[Namisgr11]

12 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

Woke Illustrated.

Nah.  That's only one issue a year. I think the big factor has led to the demise of many, many newspapers and magazines, as they've become dated ways of disseminating stories and information that can reach more people and reach them much faster over the internet. My Dad subscribed to SI, and because of it I became an avid regular reader in the 1960s and kept that way until the '80s, when as soon as a sporting event would end the result could be gotten, and within a short time period afterwards re-caps and related stories would be digitally published.

It's a shame, because the caliber of the sports writing and photography in SI was second to none for probably 40 years.  It was a great run, until the explosion of digital sports media made it a bit of a dinosaur.

There are hundreds of iconic long-form stories and photographs published in SI over the decades.  Like this one by renown boxing and NFL photographer Neil Leifer:

[BrightonCorgi]

12 hours ago, Ford2112 said:

Woke Illustrated.

For sure that was the final nail to an inevitable destiny of printed magazines. Who wants to be insulted when reading? 

This signed Lance Armstrong SI cover is only SI related thing I own.

[Hoepssa]

Social media do changes a lot of media things, people quit buying newspapers/magazines, but I think the problem SI have is they lost the sense of writing good stories.

 

 

[La_Tigre]

13 hours ago, NSXCIGAR said:

I can't be sure but this might have something to do with it. 

- Here for this 😂😳😂