Sports Illustrated's publisher terminates most of staff in mass layoff, union says

Yappi

Yappi

Go Buckeyes
Sports Illustrated employees were notified on Friday that a "significant number, if not all" of their jobs were set to be eliminated, according to a new statement from the publication's union.

The Sports Illustrated union posted on X: "This is another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group (previously The Maven) stewardship. We are calling on ABG to ensure the continued publication of SI and allow it to serve our audience in the way it has for nearly 70 years."
Click to expand...
abcnews.go.com

Sports Illustrated's publisher terminates most of staff in mass layoff, union says

Sports Illustrated staff faced mass layoffs on Friday, according to a statement from the publication's union.
abcnews.go.com abcnews.go.com
 
 
Sports Illustrated is simply a victim of their medium. Nobody really reads traditional print any longer. SI tried to get into internet news, and it struggled as ESPN and other news sites transitioned much easier to the internet. SI tried the sports TV channel but never had anything better than indoor lacrosse to really draw viewers and at some point ended.
 
SI also got caught this fall using AI to generate content with fake names in the by line, not a good look for what use to be the pinnacle of sports journalism in this country.

As a side story my mom thought the skill of intelligent reading & writing was one of the most important items in a person's educational development. For a Christmas present she would get me a subscription to SI and read it with me to make sure I understand what great journalists like Frank Deford, Dan Jenkins, and later Rick Reilley were conveying and to write my non-fiction papers in a similar fashion during HS and College. I also remember getting a phone call from someone doing a survey about SI reading habits, person on the other end was kind of shocked a young kid was a loyal reader; when asked my favorite column or story I read that year I said of course the swimsuit issue! The laugh on the other was awesome. To see this basically become a shell organization stinks. They could have adapted but private equity is only about $s and their content was not generating it.
 
Auggie said:
SI also got caught this fall using AI to generate content with fake names in the by line, not a good look for what use to be the pinnacle of sports journalism in this country.

As a side story my mom thought the skill of intelligent reading & writing was one of the most important items in a person's educational development. For a Christmas present she would get me a subscription to SI and read it with me to make sure I understand what great journalists like Frank Deford, Dan Jenkins, and later Rick Reilley were conveying and to write my non-fiction papers in a similar fashion during HS and College. I also remember getting a phone call from someone doing a survey about SI reading habits, person on the other end was kind of shocked a young kid was a loyal reader; when asked my favorite column or story I read that year I said of course the swimsuit issue! The laugh on the other was awesome. To see this basically become a shell organization stinks. They could have adapted but private equity is only about $s and their content was not generating it.
Click to expand...
I had subscriptions to SI and The Sporting News growing up.

I'll never forget the very first Swimsuit Issue arriving in the old mailbox. Hoochie Mama!
 
Here is my favorite SI cover



GEPTjYKW4AALOFi.jpeg
 
OldSoulon said:
I had subscriptions to SI and The Sporting News growing up.

I'll never forget the very first Swimsuit Issue arriving in the old mailbox. Hoochie Mama!
Click to expand...
It's been said that the swimsuit issue was the one thing keeping them afloat. A lot of subscriptions sold just for that one issue to be sent to someone's home without it looking 'suspicious' so they didn't have to go buy it at a store like a .

Anyways, found out that SI actually isn't the same SI that we remember from when we were younger, they basically licensed the name to a new publisher who destroyed the product, made it incredibly cheap, and basically unreadable. That AI generated article comment tracks with their downfall. There's nothing unique or worthwhile about SI now.
 
It’s sad but the inevitable result of how sports media is consumed. There’s so much more content and it’s specific to every team.
 
Sykotyk said:
It's been said that the swimsuit issue was the one thing keeping them afloat. A lot of subscriptions sold just for that one issue to be sent to someone's home without it looking 'suspicious' so they didn't have to go buy it at a store like a .

Anyways, found out that SI actually isn't the same SI that we remember from when we were younger, they basically licensed the name to a new publisher who destroyed the product, made it incredibly cheap, and basically unreadable. That AI generated article comment tracks with their downfall. There's nothing unique or worthwhile about SI now.
Click to expand...
use to have subscriptions to Sporting News and the SI..... gosh thats been a LONG time ago
 
My favorite cover is Boom Boom Mancini fighting at Warren’s Mollenkopf Stadium. I have a couple copies. I do believe Jay Burson is featured in the Faces in the Crowd in the back of that issue, IIRC.

Question on that cover: was that only put out regionally or was it national? Did SI even do regional covers or was it one cover nationally? Same with Chris Spielman on the Wheaties box in the early 80s. Was that just a regional print or did that run in the whole US?
 
Steel Valley FB said:
My favorite cover is Boom Boom Mancini fighting at Warren’s Mollenkopf Stadium. I have a couple copies. I do believe Jay Burson is featured in the Faces in the Crowd in the back of that issue, IIRC.

Question on that cover: was that only put out regionally or was it national? Did SI even do regional covers or was it one cover nationally? Same with Chris Spielman on the Wheaties box in the early 80s. Was that just a regional print or did that run in the whole US?
Click to expand...
I know for at least a few years the cover for March madness was regional. I believe they did similar things at times for NBA and NFL preview issues.
 
The biggest issue is that SI started as a way to show great sports photos of the time. With old televisions (and many people still with old black and whites a lot of times), this was the way to see a game in a whole new way. You didn't get these views even from attending. Newspapers, aside from some major papers and USA Today, printed in black-and-white in 20-100dpi.

Now almost all newspapers print in color. And much better resolution. Televisions got better. The flat screens, digital, and now HD. Internet has exploded. Cameras have improved remarkably. The appeal of SI faded into 'just another sports news site/magazine'. And in the I-need-it-now reality, waiting for SI to get any coverage of sports is fruitless.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top