Sports Illustrated Thrown Into Chaos With Mass Layoffs
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The company’s owner has been plunged into a maelstrom in recent weeks as its senior executives have been forced out.
The group that publishes Sports Illustrated said in an email on Friday that it was laying off many, if not all, of the employees who work at the magazine, leaving the future of the publication in doubt.
The move came after the Arena Group, which publishes the magazine under a complicated management structure, had its license to operate the publication revoked.
It was unclear whether Sports Illustrated would continue publishing, or whether its owner, Authentic Brands Group, would strike a new agreement with the Arena Group or find a new company to operate it.
For decades, Sports Illustrated was a weekly bible for sports fans and a financial engine for the Time Inc. empire. It once had over three million subscribers, and its writing and reporting were considered the pinnacle of sports journalism. But it has been in decline for years. Like many publications, the magazine had struggled to shift to the digital media world from print publishing. In 2019, the media conglomerate Meredith sold Sports Illustrated to Authentic Brands Group, which is primarily a licensing company that acquires the rights to celebrity brands, for $110 million.
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