The news that Sports Illustrated went bankrupt last month and its entire staff was laid off came as no surprise. After all, print media is on the brink of death.
The magazine, once a symbol of sports journalism that graced every newsstand, grocery store aisle and dentist’s office waiting room in the country, is now a shell of its former glory.
A statement on behalf of Manoj Bhargava said the dismissal was “completely unrelated to the AI issue.”
The job cuts come just five months after billionaire Manoj Bhargava, founder of 5-hour energy drinks, first acquired SI.
But that’s not all.
In the ballgame of corporate-owned media, the publisher of Sports Illustrated has an exciting new prospect. Artificial intelligence-driven journalism is poised in the bullpen to replace the disarmed human reporters who have been tottering on pitcher’s mounds for decades.
And the hit songs haven’t stopped, and they never will.
Other publications, including the Los Angeles Times, National Geographic, and Time, have recently announced large-scale layoffs in their newsrooms. Most of the employees who are in jail are also members of the newspaper union. These high-paying jobs include benefits, medical bills, expense accounts, and more.
Personally, when these articles came out, I intended to do the typical “wake up, break it” and “learn to code” trolls that everyone else in conservative media was happy to accept. did. Newsrooms across the country are plagued by the scourge of “advocacy journalism,” in which reporters, editors, and publishers prefer to push an agenda rather than stick to the facts.
But when I dug deeper, something strange caught my eye.
Sports Illustrated is ground zero for using AI to assist (or replace) human reporters. We shouldn’t be shocked if other publications follow suit.
How will legacy media disappear?
Corporate consolidation is a topic that has been featured in the mass media for many years. Publications are acquired by other publications, which are acquired by investment groups, and then spun off into other corporate entities in an obscure game of insider baseball.
Let’s take a look at Sports Illustrated. Founded in 1954, it was a subsidiary of the Time Life magazine organization, which eventually merged to become Time Warner. The publication, once known for its exciting swimsuit edition and weekly sports coverage, had been reduced to a thin flyer with few articles published once a month. Sports Illustrated is no longer even a magazine. It’s a brand name.
In 2018, SI and Time Inc.’s other media holdings were spun off and sold to Meredith Corporation, which subsequently sold SI to Authentic Brands Group for $110 million. ABG then leased the publishing rights to Sports Illustrated to yet another media company called theMaven, which eventually changed its name to Arena Group. In August 2023, Indian-born businessman and 5 Hour Energy Drink mogul Manoj Bhargava purchased a controlling stake in Arena Group.
Perhaps there will be enough human editors on board to have a journalism chatbot generate 400 words about Taylor Swift or similar TikTok trending topics?
In December, Mr. Bhargava fired Ross Levinson, CEO of Arena Group and former vice president and interim CEO of Yahoo, and several other executives amid the “AI scandal.” AI-generated news articles with fake authors and mugshots were used in Sports Illustrated editorial copy. These articles were eventually removed and lame excuses were given as to why they were posted in the first place. But the publisher was already shaking the ball.
A statement on behalf of Bhargava said the firings were “completely unrelated to the AI issue.”
None of this is surprising. On February 3, 2023, Arena Group and Levinson announced that they are using AI technology to help editors “quickly identify and create trending topics and related original archival content and photos. We issued a big press release announcing our partnership with two AI companies: Jasper and Nota,” and an evergreen article. ”
The Wall Street Journal published a similarly glowing article on the same day, highlighting how Arena Group’s series of publications are also using ChatGPT creator OpenAI’s chatbot technology to generate content. I advertised Iruka.
What AI will replace
Fast forward to January 19th, 100 of Sports Illustrated’s editorial staff, most of them union employees, were fired after Bhargava was unable to come up with the $3.75 million quarterly license fee to Authentic Brand Group. was fired.
$3.75 million is a lot of money for billionaire Bhargava.
According to the Associated Press, the two companies are negotiating to renew their licenses. But regardless of the outcome, Sports Illustrated and likely its sister publications will likely see “significant reductions” in their workforce.
Most of Sports Illustrated’s staff will be fired due to ‘mistake’ of failing to pay quarterly license fees during scandal in which fake sportswriters used AI-generated editorial content It was very convenient for me to become one.
How will the editor hole be filled?
Manoj Bhargava and Arena Group are currently facing editorial holes at their flagship publications and a lack of human reporters to fill them, but they are already pioneering artificial intelligence. How lucky we are to be producing content that demonstrates “strong audience engagement.”
It doesn’t take a genius to predict that someday, very soon, legacy corporate-owned media will pull the trigger and go full AI without any hesitation. Not only the novelty but also the profit motive is already present.
Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos recently said that AI has “far more potential to help and save us than to unbalance, harm, or destroy us.” “It’s expensive,” he declared.
Perhaps a journalism chatbot will have enough human editors on board to write a 400-word copy about Patrick Mahomes, Taylor Swift, or similar TikTok trending topics?
perhaps. Maybe not. The writing is already on the wall.
