[getbak]

So, it looks like the company that was publishing SI was only licensing the brand from its owner.

SI was originally owned by Time Warner and was part of their massive portfolio of publications. In 2018, Time Warner sold off its magazine business to Meredith Corporation, which mostly runs entertainment and "lifestyle" media content.

SI didn't really fit their profile, so Meredith flipped SI to Authentic Brands Group. ABG is a huge company that owns a wide variety of brands and handles licensing for many celebrities (both living - like Shaq - and dead - like Elvis and Marilyn Monroe).

As far as I can tell, ABG maintains a large portfolio of recognized brands that have seen better days, but still have some name recognition and marketability. ABG licenses their brands to other businesses who want that marketable name.

ABG licensed the publishing rights for SI to The Arena Group, while keeping control of the brand for other marketing ventures. The Arena Group missed their most-recent licensing payment, so ABG cancelled their contract.

All this likely means ABG will find someone to license it to and keep the brand alive.

Of course, brand aggregator companies like ABG are the reason why you can't trust established brand names anymore. Their products are likely being made by the same companies in the same factories as similar "no name" products.