Sports Illustrated is dead

[GirlySports]

What does a child use to decorate rooms nowadays

https://twitter.com/user/status/1748400297968271522

[Sainters7]

Sad, I had a membership for years in the 90s growing up (was usually a Christmas gift). Rick Reilly was always my favourite writer there. End of an era.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Sounds like it could be a negotiating tactic, though a very severe one.

[Locke]

Finally!! I knew I'd win this one ya bastards!

I'll dance on their grave!

[calgarygeologist]

Recently whenever I saw an SI article posted on my news feed it was some completely bogus rumor about stupid trades or signings or retired athletes coming back (like Big Ben making a returning this season.)

They became so ridiculously useless.

[ben voyonsdonc]

They ended up allowing a lot of fans to create “articles” under the Sports Illustrated banner which produced one of the most viral articles about Ohtani coming to the Jays. It was clearly on its last legs.

[troutman]

GQ just took over Pitcfork.

[albertGQ]

Originally Posted by troutman

GQ just took over Pitcfork.

I did?

[Barnet Flame]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

I did?

Yes

[Locke]

Originally Posted by albertGQ

I did?

Apparently.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

No surprise there. Any time I’d see SI articles on google when reading about the nfl or nhl, it was buzzfeed level stuff. They were all “this is what fans on twitter think of _____”. I assume they’d basically already bankrupt if that’s the kind of stuff they were putting on their site.

[Locke]

I will dance on Sports Illustrated's grave!

When I first started my business my wife thought I could use some magazines in the waiting room so she got me a subscription to SI for 3 months (Tax Season).

They sent me magazines, despite not being paid, for nearly 5 years.

I called them several times telling them to stop but they never did. I stopped paying them, but they never stopped mailing them.

And its a US publication. I DGAF about Baseball or Basketball or Football or NASCAR.

[Johnny Makarov]

They lasted longer than I expected. I thought they were done a decade ago. lol

One thing that still blows my mind is how is Yahoo Sports still around?

[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.

[Locke]

I wouldnt be surprised if my old office is still getting Sports Illustrated mailed to them.

Its been a decade and God only knows how many attempts to contact them telling them to stop.

Now if only I could stop ULINE catalogues.

They are sending catalogues in the name of a former tenant...4 tenants ago.

And he's dead.

Stop. Just stop it.