FANS ARE FEARING SIONARA
Mass layoffs at iconic-but-drowning mag
The future of iconic magazine Sports Illustrated looked dire Friday after the publisher announced mass layoffs.
The Arena Group admitted to failing to make a $3.75 million quarterly licensing payment to Authentic Brands Group for the rights to publish Sports Illustrated.
The publicly traded Arena said Thursday it would make a “significant reduction” in its workforce of more than 100 journalists.
A spokesman added the company is in talks with Authentic Brands about regaining the license.
Once a weekly publication, SI was reduced to biweekly publishing in 2018 and became a monthly in 2020. Its website had a smattering of fresh stories Friday, suggesting a skeleton crew was still employed.
‘Will continue’
Meanwhile, SI’s annual Swimsuit edition — which launched the careers of supermodels from Cheryl Tiegs to Kate Upton — has been completed and will be released in the spring, a source close to the situation told The Post.
Authentic Brands, owned by Canadian billionaire Jamie Salter, insisted SI “will continue” — but did not say who would be at the helm.
SI has been practically rudderless since The Arena Group fired CEO Ross Levinsohn last month, after tech site Futurism found AIgenerated content that included bylines and photos of fake authors on Sports Illustrated’s site.
The company has received interest in a licensing deal for SI from Vox, Essence, Penske Media and former NBA star-turned-executive Junior Bridgeman, another source with knowledge told The Post.
“Authentic is here to ensure that the brand of Sports Illustrated, which includes its editorial arm, continues to thrive as it has for the past nearly 70 years,” the company said in a statement.
‘Unfathomable’
The magazine, begun in 1954, was owned by Time Inc. until 2018, when it was acquired by publishing giant Meredith, which quickly sold it to Authentic for $110 million.
Long considered a standard of excellence in sports journalism, it employed legendary sports writers like Frank Deford, Dan Jenkins, Peter Gammons, Sally Jenkins, Leigh Montville and Jim Murray.
Its iconic covers — which Michael Jordan graced a record 50 times — pictured the seminal moments in sports history, from the “Miracle on Ice” in 1980 to dubbing a 17-yearold high schooler named LeBron James “The Chosen One” in 2002.
“A Sports Illustrated cover was, for decades, the number one starmaking vehicle in sports,” ESPN’s Kevin Clark wrote on X. “It was what Carson was for a comedian or SNL was for a band. *Sports* is worse off without those things. That things got this bad this quickly is unfathomable and totally avoidable.”