Veteran Sports Illustrated magazine, enshrined in US journalism history for nearly 70 years, plans to lay off a significant number of workers, likely including its entire union staff, after the publisher defaulted on quarterly payments under its subscription agreement The publication union NewsGuild announced this Friday through a post on social networks that the publication had not taken place.
The layoffs come amid growing financial problems at Arena Group Holdings, which has defaulted on a note from lenders and payments to the publisher's owner. He owes $3.75 million to Authentic Brands Group, the rightful owner of the trademark, for the publishing license alone.
The decline of the famous magazine has accelerated in just a few weeks. Earlier this month, Arena said it had failed to make its quarterly payment to Authentic. On Thursday, the company announced in a statement that Authentic had terminated its publishing license agreement, effective immediately.
“We are in intensive discussions with Authentic Brands Group, but we understand that we are not the only ones,” Arena said in a statement emailed this Friday and reported by Bloomberg. “Although the publishing license has been revoked, we will continue to produce Sports Illustrated until the issue is resolved.”
The publisher said it is “confident that the brand will continue to evolve and grow to serve sports news readers, sports fans and consumers.”
The reasons for the magazine's failure are not only economic, but the effects of the digital revolution and the flight from advertising to other media also had a significant impact; Cuts and labor mobilization are no strangers to renowned media outlets such as the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times or the Washington Post. Arena fired its CEO Ross Levinsohn in December after a news story claimed the magazine had used author names generated by artificial intelligence in some articles. The company also publishes TheStreet, a financial information portal.
Arena announced plans Thursday to lay off more than 100 employees, about a third of its workforce. The company said it was negotiating with Bridge Media Networks for a significant investment to keep the publication alive. “We hope to be the company that takes IF forward [siglas de Sports Illustrated]“But if not, we trust someone will,” Arena said. “If it is a different company, we will support the transition so that Sports Illustrated’s legacy does not suffer.”
Arena shares fell 34% to 84 cents per share at the New York Stock Exchange close.
In the statement published on social networks, the magazine's union denounces the deterioration of the working environment in recent times. “We have fought together as a union to uphold the standards of this historic publication we love so much and to ensure that our employees are treated according to the value they bring to the group. “This same fight will continue,” said Mitch Goldich on behalf of the editorial team. The statement underlines the history of the magazine, which has been available continuously on newsstands for almost 70 years and has resisted the harsh onslaught of digital media, if possible with greater merit in recent decades. “This is another difficult day in the difficult four years under Arena's leadership,” underlines the union text, which calls on the company to honor the commitments made to the workforce.
The largest reference of sports information in the United States for more than half a century has not been able to escape the new times, stressed some of its readers this Friday on social networks. “This is the cover that destroyed Sports Illustrated,” said Ian Miles Cheong, who has nearly 900,000 followers on . The netizen was referring to the cover, which featured the annual swimsuit issue in 2023. Other X users denounced the newspaper's growing populism as well as its use of artificial intelligence to generate information, which critics said helped undermine both its image and its content.