According to multiple reports, Sports Illustrated will continue to exist after Minute Media struck a continued publishing deal with its former owner.
Minute Media reportedly reached a licensing agreement with Authentic Brands Group (ABG) on Monday after ABG announced on January 19 that it was terminating Arena Group’s publishing license. Associated Press (AP). ABG also plans to acquire a stake in Minute Media, according to the Associated Press. Over the past two months, ABG has been in negotiations with Minute Media, Arena, and a number of other publishing entities.
According to reports, Minute Media’s license with Sports Illustrated (SI) is for 10 years. New York Times (NYT). The deal includes an option to extend the license for a total of up to 30 years, the report said. Minute Media is a New York-based company that also operates other online sites, including Fanside and The Players’ Tribune, the NYT reported. (Related: Sports Illustrated’s potential new publisher could drop the swimsuit issue…what the hell are they thinking?)
“We’ve said from the beginning that our top priorities are to keep Sports Illustrated, to preserve Sports Illustrated’s heritage, and to protect union jobs,” said SI Union Deputy Commissioner. said Emma Bucklieri, editor-in-chief and staff writer for the magazine. A statement shared on Twitter. “We look forward to discussing the future with Minute Media who will make that happen.”
We look forward to discussing the future of SI with Minute Media’s new operators pic.twitter.com/JZ4SxXuhcU
— Sports Illustrated Union (@si_union) March 18, 2024
SI has faced turmoil in recent months. Nearly all union employees were fired on Jan. 19 after ABG revoked Arena’s publishing license for failing to make quarterly payments, according to the Associated Press. It’s unclear how many of the staffers will remain with SI, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. Minute Media plans to meet with his SI employees to determine how many staff will participate in the transition.
In December 2023, SI’s owner fired CEO Ross Levinson following a scandal. report Futurism claimed that, according to some information, the company used fake author pages and published content created by artificial intelligence. press release. The outlet discovered that an author named Drew Ortiz does not exist outside of SI’s author bio page, and that his profile picture resembles a headshot created by an AI website.
