I have no beef with Sports Illustrated, but they made their bed when they went ‘woke’ with the transgender swimsuit edition. It was the most straightforward edition of that publication, and they ruined it. Many ‘Bud Light’ comparisons are being made because the magazine announced that virtually all staff will be fired. The revenue isn’t there to sustain the brand, so this Friday was like the Red Wedding for a lot of people (via Washington Post):
Devastating news. I grew up reading SI cover to cover. It was a huge influence on me wanting to pursue a career in sports journalism and dive deeper on the stories I wanted to tell.
— Vince Z. Mercogliano (@vzmercogliano) January 19, 2024
Another harsh reminder of how fragile this industry is — and how badly we need reader support. https://t.co/Atyv2aNni2
Sports Illustrated’s entire staff told they are getting laid off https://t.co/ibU9r5Rtvo pic.twitter.com/jT2J40Tnl7
— New York Post Sports (@nypostsports) January 19, 2024
Very sad news..
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) January 19, 2024
The entire staff of Sports Illustrated was notified on Friday that their jobs were being eliminated.
The future of the media business is quite bleak. https://t.co/qzB4vfb2dV pic.twitter.com/74PnZYQktu
Sports Illustrated Bud Lite’d themselves. Nobody wants to see trans dudes and fat chicks in the swimsuit edition. https://t.co/Go2Qrq36VW
— Buzz Patterson (@BuzzPatterson) January 19, 2024
Much of the staff of Sports Illustrated, and possibly all remaining writers and editors, received layoff notices Friday, which could spell the end of a publication that for decades was the gold standard of sports journalism.
The union of the staff tweeted Friday that it would continue to fight for the publication of the magazine but that its future is now in the hands of the magazine’s owner, Authentic Brands Group.
“This is another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group (previously The Maven) stewardship,” the union said in a statement. “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.”
The layoffs come amid an ongoing dispute between Authentic Brands Group and the Arena Group, the two companies atop an unusual ownership structure for Sports Illustrated. ABG, which owns the brand, is a licensing company that owns the brands of celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and Elvis Presley. Arena Group pays ABG $15 million a year for the rights to publish Sports Illustrated in print and online.
Earlier this month, the Arena Group missed a $3.75 million payment to ABG, which ABG said violated the terms of its licensing deal. An SEC filing Thursday said Arena’s publishing license was terminated.
It's a tough break, though Sports Illustrated isn’t the only media company facing tough times. The Washington Post ironically wrote about the layoffs and is also a dumpster fire. Sports journalism should have adhered to the Jordan rule—a nuanced approach or an outright aversion to weighing in on specific political issues. Fans don’t pack stadiums over a player’s position on abortion. It’s annoying but tolerable for the leagues I watch. Soccer is more left-wing, as we saw with the antics of the U.S. women’s national team, but that's not why I avoid the sport. I've never liked soccer.
While it’s maddening to see yet another disappointing New York Giants season, we were warned about the intense friction inside the coach and coordinator’s room throughout the season. Jay Glazer, who covered the Giants for 30 years, dropped that nugget mid-season, and he turned out to be right. Giants Defensive Coordinator Wink Martindale left acrimoniously, cussing out head coach Brian Daboll and absconding to Florida. There was finally a clean break with his contract, but not before the details about how the pair could not work together. Who is telling the truth? There are leakers feeding the New York sports media from all sides. It’s up to you, the fans, to decide based on who they find credible. There was no ‘woke’ nonsense—just a saga of how things devolved as the season concluded.
Ninety minutes down the Jersey Turnpike in Philadelphia, they’re reeling from a disastrous end to their season, becoming the first NFL team to start 10-1 and finish with fewer than 12 wins. They lost five of their last six games despite having the easiest schedule in the entire league to close the season. That city’s sports writing corps is apoplectic, with calls to fire head coach Nick Sirianni, who took this team to the Super Bowl last year, along with discussions about whether franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts was worth the $250+ million bag he was given at the end of the 2022 season. Locker room issues, coaching dysfunction, and a complete breakdown in the offensive and defensive schemes have dominated the discussion in the City of Brotherly Love. Again, there are no politics or ‘woke’ stuff to be threaded here, but I’m sure someone at Deadspin will try, though I don’t know where the hook is.
Sports Illustrated and other publications could have survived if they just stuck to writing about sports. And yes, with the equal pay issue, there was a way to thread this needle. HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel did this well. You jump the shark when you start to tolerate science fiction, like biological men thinking they're women.