SPORTS ILLUSTRATED entire staff is getting laid off

[Melensdad]

I'll admit that I was never really a fan of SI, occasionally I'd pick up an issue that covered the Olympic games and the swimsuit issue too. But never a regular reader of the magazine. I was more of a SPORTS AFIELD guy and used to subscribe to that one many years ago.

FULL STORY AT THE LINK:

Sports Illustrated’s entire staff told they are getting laid off

It is a dark day for sports journalism.

nypost.com

Sports Illustrated’s entire staff told they are getting laid off​

Miles Schachner​

It is a dark day for sports journalism.​

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The Arena Group alerted all Sports Illustrated staffers on Friday that their positions were being eliminated.​

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Richard Deitsch, a sports media reporter who left Sports Illustrated for the Athletic, posted on X the email that all employees received.​

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“Some employees will be terminated immediately, and paid in lieu of the applicable notice period under the [union contract],” the notice read. “Employees with a last working day of today will be contacted by the People team soon. Other employees will be expected to work through the end of the notice period, and will receive additional information shortly.”​

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The decision comes after the Authentic Brands Group, the licensing group that bought Sports Illustrated for $110 million from Meredith five years ago, terminated the agreement it holds with The Arena Group to publish the magazine in print and digital, per Front Office Sports.​

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The Sports Illustrated Union called upon Authentic to “ensure the continued publication of SI” in a statement following the announcement.​

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A George Mason fan holds up a Sports Illustrated magazine in 2006. AP​

“We have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this storied publication that we love, and to make sure our workers are treated fairly for the value they bring to this company. It is a fight we will continue,” Mitch Goldich, NFL editor and unit chair of the union, wrote.​

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They may get their wish — in some form.​

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“We are going to continue to operate Sports Illustrated,” The Arena Group’s Matt Lombardi said. “Either Arena or someone else is going to have the license to operate Sports Illustrated.”​

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The Arena Group missed a $2.8 million payment that breached the company’s Sports Illustrated licensing deal three weeks ago.​

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It is unclear whether ABG will establish a new operator or allow The Arena Group to renegotiate its current deal.​

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The magazine, first published in 1954, was owned by Time Inc. until 2018. . . . ​

 

[chowderman]

print anything is going dinosauric.....

 

[Melensdad]

print anything is going dinosauric.....

ENTIRE staff . . . so the brand is being sold . . . getting rid of the entire staff eliminates the need to negotiate with labor or management or editorial. It includes the INTERNET entity too.

SI has had an internet portal for decades, with stories and features and photos.

Someone new will operate the brand, in some new way.

 

[Melensdad]

Go woke, go broke?

 

[pirate_girl]

Go woke, go broke?


View attachment 173200

That's a woman, but I'm telling you, the average man won't go for that on the cover of SI.

 

[FrancSevin]

Go woke, go broke?


View attachment 173200

Actually;
She is quite pretty. However, about as appetizing as a cold salami on wheat with cheese and sauerkraut.

 

[m1west]

That woman and sport in the same sentence is an oxymoron

 

[FrancSevin]

Somehow, promoting an unhealthy lifestyle that leads to obesity doesn't align with "Sports"

 

[Melensdad]

Looks we have the real story. Or at least a seriously plausible theory. And it does seem to be ‘go woke, go broke’

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Get Woke, Go Broke: Mass Layoffs At Sports Illustrated After Publisher Loses License | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

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Get Woke, Go Broke: Mass Layoffs At Sports Illustrated After Publisher Loses License​

Sports Illustrated rights holder Arena Group has had its license to publish the magazine revoked by Authentic Brands Group after inability to make $3.75 million quarterly payment at the end of 2023. In other words, the publisher likely isn't bringing in enough profit to maintain the brand. Under contract, Arena Group is required to pay another $45 million to ABG because of the loss of the license. As a result, Sports Illustrated has been forced to layoff their entire staff while discussions are underway to salvage the arrangement.​

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In a statement, Sports Illustrated Union and The NewsGuild of New York vowed to “fight for every one of our colleagues.” But how could this have happened? One of the oldest and best known names in sports commentary is now essentially defunct.​

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The signs were all there.​

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The shutdown takes place only thee years after the company committed to major layoffs in 2020 back when they were run by Maven, shaving $27 million from their costs compared to 2018. Apparently, this wasn't enough and ownership was acquired by Arena Group. In November of 2023, SI was caught using fake journalists and AI generated content, further indicating that they were on the verge of going broke.​

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The true cause will be conveniently ignored by the corporate media, but the woes of Sports Illustrated began directly after they tied the publication to woke messaging. For example, the magazine began parading plus-sized (fat positivity) models in their sponsored runway shows and swimsuit additions in 2017. For a publication that is supposed to be focused on athletic excellence, the idea of fat positivity is an obvious anathema for their core readership. People who are incapable of athleticism in most arenas should not be used as representatives of the sporting world (or the pinnacle of beauty, for that matter).​

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The company then latched onto the feminist “equal pay” movement for women's sports, arguing that female athletes and clubs should be offered pay equal to male sports. The movement completely ignored the key factors of audience interest; male athletes tend to make more money because far more people are interested in watching men's sports.​

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Sports Illustrated also began featuring transgender women (men dressed as women) in their women's swimsuit editions, perpetuating the gender fluid ideology. This led to a conservative boycott of the magazine in 2023, and now, here they are, out of business.​

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The carnage falling upon woke companies in the past couple years has been relentless. Numerous Big Tech and entertainment platforms are suffering a string of layoffs and budget cuts and no one in the mainstream wants to acknowledge that the wokification of the corporate world is a primary contributor to their downfall.​

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The bottom line? The vast majority of American consumers do not want woke content and will not pay for it. Furthermore, the people that do want this kind of content are usually activists with no money to spend.​

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Despite this reality, companies continue to embrace far-left ideology and promote it through their products and marketing to their own detriment. This explains why the political left has been so hostile to free markets and the notion of catering to consumers – In a free market people can always walk away from woke businesses. It doesn't matter how much they saturate media with propaganda, all people have to do is not open their wallets.​

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In a socialist or ESG-based world, such companies would be fully supported by governments and tax dollars. In other words, you would be forced to pay for the transgender swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated, whether you want to or not. For now, thankfully, “Get Woke, Go Broke” is still a rule that widely applies.​

 

[m1west]

Its a special kind of stupid

 

[tommu56]

I worked for a magizine printer for almost 18 years and we saw the decline in page count way before 2010 we got bought out in 2014 printed till 2016 and they closed our plant so they had one foot in the grave anyway. and the woke desisions shoved them off the cliff!