There’s been a major shakeup in the sports journalism world as most of Sports Illustrated’s staff, including all of the writers and editors, received layoff notices this Friday.
It’s believed that the publication, which has been a staple for sports fans for several decades, could be “done.”
BREAKING: The entire staff of Sports Illustrated will be FIRED, per @richarddeitsch.
It appears that “SI” is done.
Been one hell of a run, many people’s childhoods are gone. pic.twitter.com/xViLo26dad
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) January 19, 2024
Sports Illustrated staffers received this today. pic.twitter.com/Q0WdVRzuRb
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) January 19, 2024
The staff’s union has since tweeted that it will continue to fight for the magazine’s continued publication but admitted that the outlet’s future is now in the hands of the Authentic Brands Group, which owns the magazine.
“This is another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group (previously The Maven) stewardship,” a statement from the union reads. “We are calling on ABG to ensure the continued publication of SI and allow it to serve our audience in the way it has for nearly 70 years.”
Our statement on today’s mass layoffs at Sports Illustrated pic.twitter.com/tQjJdoHP4p
— Sports Illustrated Union (@si_union) January 19, 2024
ABG took over ownership of SI in 2019 before selling publishing rights to the Arena Group. The latter missed a recent publishing rights payment that caused ABG to pull its license.
“As a result of this license revocation, we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand,” staffers were told in a notice.
The company has not informed staff of any plans, including whether the publishing rights will be licensed to another company.
