Sports Illustrated‘s owners said that they have partnered with Minute Media to be the new publisher of the venerable brand’s editorial operations.
Authentic Brands Group, which owns SI, introduced the partnership with Minute Media at the moment, after months of uncertainty over the way forward for the journal. The print version will proceed, as Minute Media additionally oversees digital operations of the SI portfolio.
Minute Media additionally publishes different sports activities manufacturers together with The Players’ Tribune, FanSided, 90min and STN Video.
The earlier writer of Sports Illustrated, The Arena Group, introduced in January that it missed a quarterly fee of about $3.75 million. Authentic Brands terminated the license, which Arena had held since 2019, whereas staffers got layoff notices. The inside memo from Arena stated some staff could be terminated instantly, whereas others have been to proceed working throughout the 90-day discover interval employers are legally required to provide staff underneath the WARN Act.
Daniel W. Dienst, Authentic’s government vice chairman, tactical ops, stated, “As Minute Media shepherds the SI brand across a rapidly evolving media landscape, our priority at Authentic is — and has always been — to protect its journalistic integrity and longevity.”
Minute Media stated that it plans to develop the Sports Illustrated media enterprise. Asaf Peled, the corporate’s founder and CEO, stated in a press release that “our focus will be to take that legacy into new, emerging channels enhacing visibility and sustainable impact, all while the SI team is inspired to flourish in their new era of media.” Peled advised The New York Times he didn’t know what number of staff would return to their jobs till they began working editorial operations.