SI badly needs an NBA editor

[jim lefko]

So I’m excited to devour the new Sports Illustrated NBA preview and the first thing I notice is they predict 5 Western Conference teams to lose in the first round. That’s one helluva prediction, and also impossible.

Then I start reading the team-by-team predictions and it really gets bad for SI. Apparently no one told the designer that white type in a gray screen is next to impossible to read. Since most of the team boxes are done precisely that way, they are rendering illegible much of the content.

Amazing how far this mag has fallen in recent years.

They are doing their best to drive savvy sports fans away with sloppy editing and inane, unreadable design.

 

[thizzellewashington]

There are still some good NBA writers at SI (particularly Rob Mahoney) but it's going to be borderline impossible to fill the Lee Jenkins void.

 

[Ice9]

SI badly needs, like, everything

 

[cjericho]

So I’m excited to devour the new Sports Illustrated NBA preview and the first thing I notice is they predict 5 Western Conference teams to lose in the first round. That’s one helluva prediction, and also impossible.

Then I start reading the team-by-team predictions and it really gets bad for SI. Apparently no one told the designer that white type in a gray screen is next to impossible to read. Since must of the team boxes are done precisely that way, they are rendering illegible much of the content.

Amazing how far this mag has fallen in recent years.

They are doing their best to drive savvy sports fans away with sloppy editing and inane, unreadable design.

Which 5 teams do they have losing in the 1st round? Haven't read it yet, but looks like they do profiles on each team. Do they do a bracket
with picks for each round?

 

[DanOregon]

Considering the average age of the readership - I'm astounded at some of their color and font choices on a now bi-weekly basis. Small type is fine as long as you have a decent enough contrast between colors. If people can't read it, why go to any effort to write it in the first place?

 

[MeanGreenATO]

Then I start reading the team-by-team predictions and it really gets bad for SI. Apparently no one told the designer that white type in a gray screen is next to impossible to read. Since must of the team boxes are done precisely that way, they are rendering illegible much of the content.

Amazing how far this mag has fallen in recent years.

*most

 

[Fran Curci]

I gave up on my SI subscription when they kept reducing the number of issues. I usually like the NBA preview, so I was going to buy the current issue at the grocery store. It's not a particularly thick issue, and the retail cost: $5.99. I'll skip it.

 

[DanOregon]

When they went to bi-weekly, the promise was a heftier mag. The avg. page count per month has dropped about 40 pages since the switch.

 

[playthrough]

When we were kids (well, most of us), you had a better chance of finding a $100 bill in your SI than a typo. There was a typo in a subhead recently.

Now that it's biweekly, I think I can live without it. And I never thought I'd say that in my lifetime.

 

[BartonK]

I realized over the weekend that my subscription ran out and they just stopped sending issues. They're not even doing the aggressive "renew now" letters offering you a gym bag anymore.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

The Internet obliterated SI’s niche. With sites like ESPN and shows like SportsCenter as the overall news source and The Athletic hitting the deep feature spot, what’s SI’s place in the market? And do people even buy the regular edition from the newsstand in 2018? (We won’t talk about the swimsuit issue. It’s a different breed of cat.)

The people who own The Sporting News recognized this years ago. Does Gannett still put out whatever Baseball Weekly morphed into? It has the same problems — lack of immediacy and other outlets going deeper than it can.

 

[playthrough]

The Internet obliterated SI’s niche. With sites like ESPN and shows like SportsCenter as the overall news source and The Athletic hitting the deep feature spot, what’s SI’s place in the market? And do people even buy the regular edition from the newsstand in 2018? (We won’t talk about the swimsuit issue. It’s a different breed of cat.)

The people who own The Sporting News recognized this years ago. Does Gannett still put out whatever Baseball Weekly morphed into? It has the same problems — lack of immediacy and other outlets going deeper than it can.

SI had a place in the market because it was SI. The cover meant something, the takeouts and investigations got people's attention and the staff was second to none. Immediacy around live events is harder for a weekly mag now, but you could read their Super Bowl/Masters/whatever coverage four days after the fact and often learn something new because the reporters were so good. And of course the photography was great. But they haven't given themselves a fair shot by slashing staff, pages and frequency -- the familiar media game plan. I just think it's a cheap out to say "the internet killed them."

 

[da man]

The Internet obliterated SI’s niche. With sites like ESPN and shows like SportsCenter as the overall news source and The Athletic hitting the deep feature spot, what’s SI’s place in the market? And do people even buy the regular edition from the newsstand in 2018? (We won’t talk about the swimsuit issue. It’s a different breed of cat.)

The people who own The Sporting News recognized this years ago. Does Gannett still put out whatever Baseball Weekly morphed into? It has the same problems — lack of immediacy and other outlets going deeper than it can.

Do you mean USA Today Sports Weekly? If so, then yes.

 

[boundforboston]

The only reason I restarted my subscription is because it’s $2 a year through work. I can’t complain about that price.

 

[Fran Curci]

I agree -- can't simply blame the internet. And it would also be wrong to lump SI in with the Sporting News. Sports Illustrated had 10x the quality of Sporting News for decades. Another annoyance in the magazine is the recent prevalence of ad-driven features, like how athletes stay in shape next to some fitness-related ad. (That may not be an exact description, but I think readers know what I mean.)

 

[Sports Barf]

All of SI’s writers now are like 25. Did they just merge their staff with SI For Kids?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

My parents used Sports Illustrated to teach me to read. I can't even bring myself to think about it now. A national treasure shot to ****.

 

[playthrough]

I agree -- can't simply blame the internet. And it would also be wrong to lump SI in with the Sporting News. Sports Illustrated had 10x the quality of Sporting News for decades. Another annoyance in the magazine is the recent prevalence of ad-driven features, like how athletes stay in shape next to some fitness-related ad. (That may not be an exact description, but I think readers know what I mean.)

That's highly annoying. And the back page "Point After" looks like it's now a mediocre athlete Q&A.

But the feature a couple issues back on the air guitar national champion might have been my breaking point.

 

[Tweener]

SI still has good NBA writers, even with Lee's departure, but I too have found that the editing team leaves a lot to be desired.