Sports Illustrated, a staple of sports writing for decades, halted both its print and digital operations on Jan 19, 2024. The future of the company, or more accurately the Sports Illustrated name, is now uncertain.
Five years ago, the Arena Group purchased the rights to Sports Illustrated from Authentic Brands — a licensing company — for $110 million. However, the Arena Group recently missed a payment related to maintaining those rights and, as a result, Authentic Brands revoked the publishing license.
The Arena Group sent out an email to Sports Illustrated employees that read:
“We were notified by Authentic Brands Group (ABG) that the license under which the Arena Group operates the Sports Illustrated (SI) brand and SI related properties has been officially revoked by ABG. As a result of this license revocation, we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand.”
Some employees were immediately laid off, whereas others are receiving a 90 days notice. It’s believed that there could potentially be a resolution on the licensing agreement within those 90 days. Authentic Brands considers Sports Illustrated an important name, and it’s believed they wish to find a solution to move forward, but what those possibilities are with the Arena Group remain unclear.
The Sports Illustrated Guild posted on X/Twitter that they have fought for their union members and will continues to do so.
In late 2023, Sports Illustrated was under fire for allegedly publishing articles that were AI-generated. In an internal response, Manoj Bhargava — the then interim CEO of Arena — did himself no favors by allegedly telling employees, “The amount of useless stuff you guys do is staggering.” Bhargava resigned from his role on Jan 5.
At that time, Jason Frankl was named the Arena Group’s Chief Business Transformation Officer.
Frankl released the following statement in regards to the layoffs. “My immediate focus is to collaboratively design a growth-oriented media company, ensuring the financial stability necessary to cultivate and grow the brands we cherish. While this week’s layoffs were regrettably necessary, I look forward to sharing detailed plans soon.”
It is unclear if the statement was AI-generated.