Sports Illustrated’s entire staff getting laid off

Another magazine seems to be on the brink:


I guess even making Martha Stewart their swimsuit cover "girl" for 2023 wasn't enough. Or maybe it was the last straw?

Yeah well, it all started when the word got out that most of their articles were being written by AI instead of people.

These brands were hijacked long ago. Sports Illustrated was cannon fodder for the Great Culture War. Something like it will return again, but not until the war is over and society is healing.

Don't mourn the death of these things, mourn the fact that it could have all been prevented but you chose to allow it to happen.

On a similar note, The LA Times is laying off 115 of it's staff today.

MailGuru said:

On a similar note, The LA Times is laying off 115 of it's staff today.

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That does not surprise me...or anyone.
Considering both the LA Times and San Diego Union-Tribune are both printed in Riverside now.

MacTwidget said:

That does not surprise me...or anyone.
Considering both the LA Times and San Diego Union-Tribune are both printed in Riverside now.

Click to expand...

Yep. Same here. The Orlando Sentinel (part of the Chicago Tribune/LA Times properties) is printed by Gannett (USA Today) over in Lakeland, Fl.

As the PrintPlanet turns, some sunlight on the horizon;

Sports Illustrated is getting a new publisher, a new operating arrangement and is potentially rehiring some of the staff members it laid off en masse in January.

Minute Media, the company that owns sports websites The Players' Tribune and Fansided, has reached a 10-year licensing agreement with Authentic Brands Group, and will continue publishing the iconic magazine founded in 1954.

"In the current era of digital, it’s still not trivial and quite difficult to build your own brand and get people to know and admire it," Asaf Peled, the chief executive of Minute Media, said in an interview with the New York Times. "So once you get the opportunity to work with and grow an iconic brand like Sports Illustrated, you take it."



Authentic Brands acquired Sports Illustrated in 2019 and had a licensing agreement with The Arena Group to publish its content in print and online. However, that deal was terminated after Arena missed a nearly $4 million payment early this year.

Shortly afterward, the company sent out an email to staff announcing a round of massive layoffs, which threatened to end publication of Sports Illustrated's print edition. Instead, Peled told the Times his company plans to expand the magazine's global publishing operations and hire back some of the employees who were laid off.

The companies declined to disclose financial terms but said the deal takes effect immediately.