RIP SI Trends on Social Media-After Sports Illustrated Mass Layoffs Press Release

What an end to yet another era. Sports keeps evolving and transitioning, leaving some forms of content to be left forever behind. The latest victim? Longtime magazine and journal, Sports Illustrated. As soon as the news hits and starts to spread to all, RIP SI trends on social media with sports fans posting their favorite past covers.

Therefore, what is going on? What is the situation with Sports Illustrated? Well, things are not looking so good. The iconic mag is doing a massive layoff of literally ALL their employees. The end looks imminent.

Front Office Sports, reports this sudden news early on Friday morning. FOS reveals,

BREAKING: The Arena Group has given notice that it intends to lay off Sports Illustrated’s entire staff, according to an email obtained by FOS. The entire staff of Sports Illustrated was notified on Friday that their jobs were being eliminated.

What is in the email that employees received? FOS, was all over it, and shared its contents. The email reads:

“Some employees will be terminated immediately, and paid in lieu of the applicable notice period under the [the union contract]. 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.”

The End of Sports Illustrated… Or a New Chapter?

If you love SI, you are probably wondering if another aspect of your youth is gone for good. Well… it’s not… not exactly. Yes, there are problems, some financially, however, the powers that be that are in control of Sports Illustrated say they plan to help the sports magazine experience a much needed “evolution.”

FOS writer, A.J. Perez is covering this SI situation extensively. A.J. has obtained intel on the financial issues, as well as ‘next steps.’ Perez reveals,

“The Arena Group, which publishes SI, recently missed a $3.75 million payment to SI’s license holder, Authentic, leading Authentic to sever the deal. On Friday, Arena started laying off employees.

Authentic, the licensing group that purchased Sports Illustrated for $110 million from Meredith five years ago, has terminated the agreement it holds with The Arena Group to publish SI in print and digital, according to an email obtained by Front Office Sports. That move comes three weeks after Arena missed a $3.75 million payment that breached the company’s SIlicensing deal, which began in 2019. (Authentic’s notice of termination, meanwhile, triggered a $45 million fee due immediately to Authentic, according to an SEC filing on Friday.)

Authentic’s move to terminate Arena’s license and Arena’s eliminating SI’s staff signals a shift in the company that operates SI. [Furthermore] Authentic has had exploratory conversations with and reached out to multiple parties about the possibility of taking over Arena’s role with SI.

It’s unclear whether Authentic will indeed pursue the path of establishing a new operator or will now allow Arena to renegotiate its current deal. Sources tell, though, that Authentic’s goal is to move the process along as quickly as possible. One way or another, says one insider, ‘Authentic will see Sports Illustrated through a necessary evolution.’”

RIP SI Trends on Social Media-After Sports Illustrated Layoffs Press Release

An evolutionary action plan is definitely in order, with the journalistic struggles the brand is experiencing. With the invent of online media, writers testing AI (which is not good in terms of creativity, accuracy and value); and YouTube channels as well as podcasts; it’s been difficult for Sports Illustrated to maintain its tight grip on sports readers.

According to Pulse, via a LinkedIn post,

“The magazine market is in decline. Evidently the internet has had a part to play, but there are other influences that the wailing cries of print’s demise often leave out. Two that stand out above all others are the supply chain and the publishers’ faith in digital magazines.”

Just how bad is the decline? In one study of Magazine Statistics published by Dean Talbot of WordsRated:

“Total audiences for magazine companies have decreased by 38.56% within three years, as of 2022. 222.2 million adults read magazines (print and digital) as of 2021. There were 123.67 million subscriptions for the top 50 US magazines during the same year.”

No wonder SI is wanting transformation. Like other journals, it’s in survival mode.

RIP SI Trends on Social Media-After Sports Illustrated Mass Layoffs Press Release

However, SI plans to fight on. In a press release, Sports Illustrated states,

“Earlier today the workers of Sports Illustrated were notified that The Arena Group is planning to lay off a significant number, possibly all, of the Guild-represented workers at SI, a result of Authentic Brands Group (ABG) revoking Arena’s license to publish SI.

This is another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group (previously The Maven) stewardship. 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.

[Also] we expect The Arena Group to honor all the terms of our union contract and will fight for every one of our colleagues to be treated fairly.

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.”

Things look grim. Things look dire. Nonetheless, maybe SI has a little more “game” to play. We’ll keep you updated.

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