The End of SI?

[boundforboston]

What Will Become of Sports Illustrated?

 

[DanOregon]

That's pretty spot on. I think the biggest problem is that the readership is outside the advertising demo. Though I imagine the same could be said for The New Yorker and that doesn't seem to hurt them.

 

[TexasVet]

That piece was certainly worth a Saturday morning read with a couple cups of coffee. Like the writer states, SI readers always knew the score before they got their magazines, but SI told them why and how the game happened. We know the decline of print and the media wars that have evolved long before this piece published. But it's still interesting the way he encapsulated the decline of SI and its next steps.

 

[lcjjdnh]

I enjoyed parts of of this, but nonsense like this detracted from it. Gee, if only someone was willing spend millions to break even to put out a weekly sports magazine! Journalists really seem to love spending other people’s money. Even you didn't care about making profitable, there’d probably be better and more noble ways to spend your dollars.

The magazine has been squeezed and strangled to maximize the bottom line—often at the expense of editorial and aesthetic quality—on a regular basis for decades. If it was owned by someone who truly cared about what the magazine has meant and can still mean, it might be breaking even as a weekly instead of making millions as a crippled, compromised biweekly.

 

[Azrael]

Billionaire "investors" are killing it. Why shouldn't billion investors be asked to save it?

 

[Pilot]

I enjoyed parts of of this, but nonsense like this detracted from it. Gee, if only someone was willing spend millions to break even to put out a weekly sports magazine! Journalists really seem to love spending other people’s money. Even you didn't care about making profitable, there’d probably be better and more noble ways to spend your dollars.

I loved the line about how people are reading “The Ringer” instead. Not people in my circle, I guess.

Not that they are reading SI as much any more, but that line did make me consider how rarely I see friends link the The Ringer. Could just be me circle, absolutely, but I’d be a little surprised if things were going super well for The Ringer these days.

Generally speaking, I appreciated this piece and hope the best for SI, which still stands as one of the premier destinations in this biz, IMO.

 

[DanOregon]

The sad truth is - even at every other week - their page count was only 80 last week, with an NCAA cover and a Masters preview. Maybe they are getting a higher ad rate now, but I think a subscriber now getting 160 pages a month, when they used to be able to rely 350 pages (in smaller print no less).

 

[nickp]

SI sent nearly 50 staffers to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and the London Olympics in 2012, but had just 28 people in Rio in 2016. There were 39 staffers in Vancouver at the 2010 Winter Games, but only 28 in Sochi in 2014, and just 12 (with only three full-time writers) in Pyeongchang this year

 

[HanSenSE]

I'm trying to think of the last time I saw any magazine outside a doctor's office. The magazine rack where I shop is filled with speciality publications and what major magazine mastheads I see are "special editions," such as for the death of Billy Graham or the royal wedding. Of course, with the number of tabloids and Hollywood gossip rags, where would there be room?

 

[Azrael]

Happily, gratefully, thankfully, there are still plenty of beautiful glossy magazines out there.

 

[KJIM]

I'm trying to think of the last time I saw any magazine outside a doctor's office.

My mom subscribes.

 

[BTExpress]

Of course, with the number of tabloids and Hollywood gossip rags, where would there be room?

There are 16 gun magazines at the grocery store in which I shop.

 

[lcjjdnh]

There are 16 gun magazines at the grocery store in which I shop.

Yeah, I once had a bit of culture shock when I stopped at a Wal-Mart in Kansas (in Lawrence even!) and couldn’t find a a single copy of Rolling Stone, even though there were about 23 magazines with some variation on Home Defender magazine and the like.

 

[DanOregon]

It's really odd - if you have a five section magazine area, one will be women's titles, one will be brides and kids, one will be home redecorating/improvement, one photography/media and one just guns.
The only weekly I think most grocery stores carry is the National Enquirer.

 

[LanceyHoward]

It's really odd - if you have a five section magazine area, one will be women's titles, one will be brides and kids, one will be home redecorating/improvement, one photography/media and one just guns.
The only weekly I think most grocery stores carry is the National Enquirer.

As someone with long experience in buying magazines in grocery stores jobbers seem to be on two kinds of schedules. If the jobber comes in once or twice a week then you will see the weeklies like SI stocked. But if the jobber comes in less frequently then you will just see titles like Gun and Ammo that are not going to be dated. I suspect with the decline in magazine sales more outlets are going to reduced magazine delivery schedules.

 

[typefitter]

I don't know if they have the capital, but it would be interesting if The Athletic bought SI and used it as their print flagship. I know they have designs on an online magazine (Ink), but I wonder whether online works better for their city sites and they could use SI as their national/print/magazine arm.

I say this with the stipulation that I know nothing about business or publishing or anything, really.

 

[goalmouth]

Jesus, that was painful, like a bad college thesis. Stopped at this, high up, says it all (though it needs an edit):

"The quintessential middle-class American magazine of the postwar era."

 

[LanceyHoward]

I don't know if they have the capital, but it would be interesting if The Athletic bought SI and used it as their print flagship. I know they have designs on an online magazine (Ink), but I wonder whether online works better for their city sites and they could use SI as their national/print/magazine arm.

I say this with the stipulation that I know nothing about business or publishing or anything, really.

I don't think that anyone has every covered an event as well as SI. I find the Athletic to be a useful because it provides a broad scope of coverage. The quality of the product is generally equivalent to that of a large market newspaper, which is logical, because that is where they hired their staff from. But if the Athletic could somehow deliver game recaps of big events like the Super Bowl, the Masters, etc. and have them on-line by six the next morning with the quality of SI then it would truly become the nations's sports page. I would think that could attract a couple million subscribers.

 

[The Big Ragu]

I don't know if they have the capital, but it would be interesting if The Athletic bought SI and used it as their print flagship. I know they have designs on an online magazine (Ink), but I wonder whether online works better for their city sites and they could use SI as their national/print/magazine arm.

I say this with the stipulation that I know nothing about business or publishing or anything, really.

You know, when I first saw your post, I was shaking my head. ... But thinking about it, you do have to consider that Newsweek and US News & World Report sold for less than $10 million each. Meredith is looking to unload Time, Fortune and SI (what Meredith wanted was People). SI clearly has the most value of them, but I'll be damned if I can value it. I believe a majority stake in Rolling Stone went for $100 million. And even with reduced circulation, when you add in all of the ancillary business, SI's business brings in more money. So you'd assume it is not going to even be remotely in the ballpark of anything The Athletic could pull off -- something in the hundreds of millions of dollars? I believe The Athletic's last capital raise was for $20 million, which was a leap up in VC money for them, and to get money that values them at 5 to 15 times where that funding was at to buy something way bigger than their operation, they'd have to totally rejigger their business model and projections and then convince people with money that a new strategy that includes SI is going to fuel crazy growth. It would be a big departure from the story that has allowed them to raise money until now.

I think two things are likely for SI ... Either they find a wealthy person or family who will overpay for it, as a vanity purchase. Or it will be a strategic purchase (in which case, you had the right thought with The Athletic), but someone with more money. ... ESPN, Turner are obvious, but it could be a sports marketing firm that has the cash.

 

[Cosmo]