- Sport. End of an era: Sports Illustrated faces uncertain future as entire staff receives layoff notices
- Gymnastics. Olivia Dunne's LSU Tigers victory sparks discussion of intentional underscoring
Sports Illustrated magazine, one of the world's leading sports magazines, especially in the United States, has announced the dismissal of between a third and all of its staff in what appears to be a perhaps final step in the medium's crisis.
The publication had been owned since 2019 by Authentics Brand Group, a brand management company, which bought it from Meredith Corporation, which in turn had acquired it from parent publisher Time Inc. for 110 million dollars.
It had then licensed the management of Sports Illustrated to The Arena Group. Now, The Arena Group has failed to make a payment of 3.75 million dollars, resulting in the layoffs.
The episode is yet another milestone in the crisis of a medium once synonymous with quality and careful reporting. Created in 1954 as the sports version of the famous publications 'Time' and 'Life', during the 60s, 70s and 80s it gained prestige for the depth of its news coverage, which logically focused above all on the most popular sports in the US.
As well as having been the spearhead for the entry of European soccer into the US, but in the first years of the 21st century the company did not manage to adapt correctly to the digital evolution. The various acquisitions by different companies ended up turning it into the brand image of other projects, such as sportswear or hospitality businesses.
Readers of the publication expressed their displeasure in letters and social networks with the loss of quality of the publication and its use of clickbait in social networks, but the definitive image crisis came in November 2023 when the magazine 'Futurism' denounced that the publication was generating information created by Artificial Intelligence without warning its readers.
Information which, moreover, did not appear to be supervised, as it sometimes included obvious inconsistencies.
Moreover, they were signed by fictitious editors, whose faces appeared in image banks and whose biographies were non-existent. The magazine first denied the allegations and then attributed these reports to an external company - AdVon - which had assured them that they had been written by humans.
The Arena Group then dismissed Ross Levinshon as the magazine's executive editor, along with other executives, although The Arena Group said the changes were unrelated to the allegations. Levinshon had previously replaced a quarter of the staff with part-time contract workers.
The future of the publication that made globally popular such actions as the choice of Sportsman of the Year - though very much linked to the US environment - or of the 20th Century - Muhammad Ali - its summer special on swimming costumes and made a success of its front page appearance is uncertain.
It is undecided whether ABG will seek a new manager for Sports Illustrated, take over its management directly, or whether these developments will be the end of the publication. The SI workers' union pointed out the harsh nature of the development in a statement.
"It's another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group management. We call on ABG to guarantee SI's publication and allow it to serve our audience the way it has for nearly 70 years."
ALL SPORTS ILLUSTRATED'S SPORTSMEN OF THE YEAR
1954 Roger Bannister (GBR, athletics). Ran the mile in under four minutes.
1955 Johnny Podres (USA, baseball) World Series MVP
1956 Bobby Morrow (USA, track and field) Triple Olympic gold
1957 Stan Musial (USA, baseball) Best hitter National League
1958 Rafer Johnson (USA, athletics) Decathlon world record
1959 Ingemar Johansson (Sweden, boxing) Heavyweight World Champion
1960 Arnold Palmer (USA, golf) PGA Player of the Year
1961 Jerry Lucas (USA, basketball) NCAA Final Four MVP
1962 Terry Baker (USA, football) NCAA Heisman Trophy.
1963 Pete Rozelle (USA, football). NFL Commissioner
1964 Ken Venturi (USA, golf) US Open Champion
1965 Sandy Koufax (USA, baseball) World Series MVP
1966 Jim Ryun (USA, track and field). World mile record holder
1967 Carl Yastrzemski (USA, Baseball) American League MVP
1968 Bill Russell (USA, Basketball). NBA Champion
1969 Tom Seaver (USA, baseball) World Series Champion.
1970 Bobby Orr (Canada, Ice Hockey) NHL MVP
1971 Lee Treviño (USA, golf) PGA Player of the Year
1972 Billie Jean King (USA, tennis). Three Grand Slam titles and John Wooden (USA, basketball). NCAA champion coach
1973 Jackie Stewart (GBR, Formula 1). F1 World Champion
1974 Muhammad Ali (USA, Boxing), World Heavyweight Champion.
1975 Pete Rose (USA, Football) World Series MVP
1976 Chris Evert (USA, Tennis) Two Grand Slam titles
1977 Steve Cauthen (USA, turf). Eclipse Award for best jockey
1978 Jack Nicklaus (USA, golf), British Open Champion
1979 Terry Bradshaw (USA, football), Super Bowl MVP. Willie Stargell (USA, Baseball) World Series MVP.
1980 USA Olympic ice hockey team. Olympic gold
1981 Sugar Ray Leonard (USA, boxing). World welterweight champion
1982 Wayne Gretzky (Canada, Ice Hockey) NHL MVP MVP
1983 Mary Decker (USA, athletics). Double world champion
1984 Edwin Moses (USA, Track & Field). Mary Lou Retton (USA, Gymnastics). Olympic champions
1985 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (USA, Basketball) NBA Playoffs MVP
1986 Joe Paterno (USA, football). NCAA champion coach
1987 Bob Bourne (Canada, hockey), Judi Brown King (USA, athletics), Kipchoge Keino (Kenya, athletics), Dale Murphy (USA, baseball), Chip Rives (USA, football), Patty Sheehan (USA, golf), Rory Sparrow (USA, basketball), Reggie Williams (USA, football), aid to underprivileged children.
1988 Orel Hershiser (USA, baseball), World Series MVP
1989 Greg LeMond (USA, cycling). Winner of the Tour de France
1990 Joe Montana (USA, football) Triple Super Bowl champion.
1991 Michael Jordan (USA, basketball) NBA+ Finals MVP
1992 Arthur Ashe (USA, tennis). Humanitarian work
1993 Don Shula (USA, football) NFL winning record.
1994 Bonnie Blair (USA, ice skating). Double Olympic gold medallist. Johann Olav Koss (Norway, ice skating). Triple Olympic gold
1995 Cal Ripken Jr. (USA, baseball) record, consecutive victories.
1996 Tiger Woods (USA, golf). NCAA champion
1997 Dean Smith (USA, basketball) Record winning coach
1998 Mark McGwire (USA, baseball). Major League home run record holder Sammy Sosa (Dominican Republic, baseball). National League MVP
1999 USA women's national football team. World Champions
2000 Tiger Woods (2) (ISA, Golf), Three Grand Slam tournaments.
2001 Curt Schilling (USA, Baseball) and Randy Johnson (USA, Baseball), World Series Co-MVP
2002 Lance Armstrong (USA, Cycling). Four-time winner of the Tour de France
2003 David Robinson (USA, Basketball). Two-time NBA champion Tim Duncan (USA, basketball), NBA MVP and champion.
2004 Boston Red Sox (USA, baseball). World Series Champions
2005 Tom Brady (USA, football). Triple Super Bowl champion
2006 Dwyane Wade (USA Basketball) NBA Finals Champion and MVP.
2007 Brett Favre (USA, football), career award.
2008 Michael Phelps (USA swimming). Eight Olympic golds at Beijing 2008
2009 Derek Jeter (USA, Baseball), World Series Champion
2010 Drew Brees (USA, football). Super Bowl MVP and humanitarian work
2011 Mike Krzyzewski (USA, basketball) Pat Summitt (USA, basketball). Coaches with NCAA winning record
2012 LeBron James (USA, basketball), NBA MVP, NBA champion and Olympic gold medallist
2013 Peyton Manning (USA, football). Record touchdowns in a season
2014 Madison Bumgarner (USA, Baseball) MVP and World Series champion
2015 Serena Williams (USA, tennis), oldest No. 1 player
2016 LeBron James (2) (USA, Basketball), Champion and MVP NBA Finals
2017 José Altuve (Venezuela, baseball) American League MVP and World Series champion and J. J. Watt (USA, football), humanitarian work
2018 Golden State Warriors (USA, basketball), three NBA titles in four years.
2019 Megan Rapinoe (USA, football), world champion and Golden Ball winner
2020 Laurent Duvernay-Tardif (Canada, football), LeBron James (3) (USA, basketball), Patrick Mahomes (USA, football), Breanna Stewart (USA, basketball), Naomi Osaka (Japan, tennis). Social work and sporting success.
2021 Tom Brady (2) (USA, football), Seven Super Bowl titles.
2022 Stephen Curry (USA, basketball), MPV and NBA champion.
2023 Deion Sanders (USA, football), as NCAA sports leader.