OT: Sports Illustrated dead
- Thread starter Fat Koko
- Start date
For the last 20+ years SI went away from current stories to more profiles and in depth articles. It kind of worked and then went monthly and lost most of the writers. Going woke was a big part of their demise but not really why - it was just a matter of time. I think the only magazine I subscribe to is Golf at this point and the writing is so lazy. Just recycle the same sh*t every year. Similar to SI I only keep it because the subscription is so cheap $12 per year.
Group think masquerading as independent thought.
There's too much media and it all seems "samey."
Once great mags become mere "revenue streams" with formulaic offerings.
Not much journalism as much as cliches - sites seem the same.
Marketing and hive-speak pay the bills when readers stop spending
There is still good reporting but you have to track it down
Hollywood does movies the same way
The problem is that old formulas have been replaced by new formulas that explode older ones.
People at least liked the older ones somewhat
Too many fast food places are the same
NFL commercials are like mostly junk food.
The culture is a highway to nowhere with strip malls on both sides.
The gray, white and black cars parked out front all look the same.
Of course they emerged from the same wind tunnel and marketing tests
Once great mags become mere "revenue streams" with formulaic offerings.
Not much journalism as much as cliches - sites seem the same.
Marketing and hive-speak pay the bills when readers stop spending
There is still good reporting but you have to track it down
Hollywood does movies the same way
The problem is that old formulas have been replaced by new formulas that explode older ones.
People at least liked the older ones somewhat
Too many fast food places are the same
NFL commercials are like mostly junk food.
The culture is a highway to nowhere with strip malls on both sides.
The gray, white and black cars parked out front all look the same.
Of course they emerged from the same wind tunnel and marketing tests
Go woke, go broke is a catchy phrase but has little to do with what happened to SI.
Their model was dying. No one wanted to wait for a weekly (then biweekly, then monthly) sports magazine when people had access to immediate information/op-eds/stories via the internet. SI failed to adapt and even their website was pretty much behind the times.
They did attempt to try to broaden their audience base as a last ditch effort to save themselves but the damage had already been done. Their best writers either retired or ran off to more profitable, modern applications - The Athletic, podcasts, etc. They were dying a slow death years ago and everyone who was honest with themselves could see it.
Their model was dying. No one wanted to wait for a weekly (then biweekly, then monthly) sports magazine when people had access to immediate information/op-eds/stories via the internet. SI failed to adapt and even their website was pretty much behind the times.
They did attempt to try to broaden their audience base as a last ditch effort to save themselves but the damage had already been done. Their best writers either retired or ran off to more profitable, modern applications - The Athletic, podcasts, etc. They were dying a slow death years ago and everyone who was honest with themselves could see it.
Think what you want, accuse "woke" or greed
But:
The simple reason is economics
>Magazines used to be places that curated the world of information into something you could hold in your hand, and now that role is filled by the likes of Google, Facebook, and TikTok. And because of that, the advertisers that used to support magazines are moving their money to their digital replacements as well.
So feel free to pour one out for Sports Illustrated — both the idea and the actual place where people worked. But save a bit for some of your other favorite publications. You may need to pour some out for them sooner or later.<
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/per...e&cvid=e455e121a01c48c7b0a7f971b9975eb6&ei=33
But:
The simple reason is economics
>Magazines used to be places that curated the world of information into something you could hold in your hand, and now that role is filled by the likes of Google, Facebook, and TikTok. And because of that, the advertisers that used to support magazines are moving their money to their digital replacements as well.
So feel free to pour one out for Sports Illustrated — both the idea and the actual place where people worked. But save a bit for some of your other favorite publications. You may need to pour some out for them sooner or later.<
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/per...e&cvid=e455e121a01c48c7b0a7f971b9975eb6&ei=33
Also, so many more niche blogs, sites and sources, paid and free, where you can get the exact info you want without a bunch of fluff you don't.
This site, for example.
I have this front page framed and hung up behind me as I sit here and type.......We have memories
Thank you Sports Illustrated and thank you Eric LeGrand. Every time I see the photo it reminds me how special and remarkable is Eric LeGrand and how fine a person is Greg Schiano for the support and care he's given to Eric and his family over the years. Rutgers University is fortunate to have both gentlemen still connected to the football program.
I can read sports news and articles about what happened today on my phone instead of wait to read about what happened last week in next week's magazine issue.
As it turns out, my wife bought me an issue of Vanity Fair for my Christmas stocking. (Old habits die hard and “a fun magazine” was part of what we did.)
I had some business travel this week and I took the magazine. I forgot how engrossed and invested I could get in long articles in a tangible/physical magazine. It’s a different experience.
So, SI is certainly a loss. But it died a long time ago.
It might have just been a magazine but it got many of us to focus and READ even in HS and middle school. Rick Reilly, Rick Telander, Curry Kirkpatrick…those guys drew me in.
Times changed but that was one helluva magazine.
They had a brand name and were slow to make their presence online...much like Sears and Macy's
Putting trans on the swimsuit cover just blew up much of their legacy
Still holding onto that nonsense. Give it up . That had absolutely nothing to do with it.
The swimsuit issue was all they had and they turned it into a sea world exhibit…fatties, trannies and Martha F***ing Stewart.
The one thing they had, aimed at mostly straight, young, sports-loving (real) males and they effed that up. Like Vic’s Secret and size 50 models…it is not what people want despite the virtue signal opportunity.
🤭
The one thing they had, aimed at mostly straight, young, sports-loving (real) males and they effed that up. Like Vic’s Secret and size 50 models…it is not what people want despite the virtue signal opportunity.
🤭
Nothing? Wrong. But the patient was already on life support with a negative short term prognosis.
That just effectively turned off the machine.
It was an attempt to find another customer base. They were gonna die if they didn’t try anything anyway.
Very catchy phrase. How many times was it used related to the NFL? That one didn’t age well
Putting obese women and men with makeup on your popular swimsuit edition certainly sped up the demise.
A lot of colleges are tipped towards female grads.
Local SUNY 4 yr is 65% women,
Hiring is also vastly tipped toward woman (Geico hyped 67% of new hires were women)
Women and identity eccentrics driving advertising etc
They want to make statements they like vs what consumers want.
A lot of the counter-intuitive stuff comes from the gender studies depts with radical agendas
No it didn’t. C’mon, what is wrong with you folks and this obsession? Love the delayed reaction from the usual group though. 😂
Yes, because one issue each year was going to sustain everything. 🙄
If so did they actually think that that base was going to save the magazine? I understand trying anything but there is no way that there were enough members of the public that were going to buy into those type of models.
I don't think that it hastened the demise but outside of a small niche that type of model wasn't going to sell. Men enjoy looking at a certain type of woman and SI made some of these women international superstars from the (pardon the pun) exposure that the magazine gave them.
It wasn't just men repelled by the transmogrification.
Its women leading the resistance.
My apologies. I guess I should have put it in a "Spoiler" tag with a "View at your own risk" warning label.
This will be my last post on this because we’re talking in circles here. As a longtime subscriber I ended it after the move to digital because the quality of the writing, reporting and photography went downhill. Also there were many more options to get better targeted coverage of my teams faster. Had nothing to do with plus size models or “woke” culture. The medium was dying long before which I and others have stated repeatedly in this thread. Again, why have print magazines or magazines been dying over the past decade or so? Plus-sized models? Come on, how ridiculous does that sound?
Two things can be true at the same time.
Then why didn't they just cancel the swimsuit issue? Or change it back?
Sorry, that didn't sink the entire magazine the way you wish.
I didn't say it did. Show me where I said anything like that. It was another nail in the coffin, but as noted the writing had seriously been going downhill for years. Plus, not sure what happened, but their disassociation with CNN did not help them.
Who has said that it is the sole or even the primary reason? Show me if you can. But it contributed.
actually the demise was paying an exorbitant licensing fee for print publication in a digital world.
The staff was let go because the publisher couldn't afford to make the publishing rights payment to the owner of SI..
Print magazines are a dying breed and most digital magazines won't survive with a limited base.
SI ( print and digital )was failing with a limited subscription base, it tried to expand that base to late to make it profitably enough for the publisher to pay the hefty licensing fee to the owner of SI magazine (Sports Illustrated is owned by Authentic Brands which is a licensing company and had been licensing it to the Arena Group )
Sports Illustrated owner Authentic says publication 'will not go dark'
>But, just because Arena no longer has rights to publish SI (they never owned the brand, but ran its media operations under license from Authentic) after whatever transition period is laid out in their termination agreement, that doesn’t mean SI is dead as a publication. An Authentic representative told AA Friday they plan to continue editorial operations, including during a transition to a potential new publishing partner.<
https://awfulannouncing.com/si/sports-illustrated-owner-authentic-publication-not-go-dark.html
Agree. I just don’t think “go woke go broke” is relevant hear. More like “have an outdated means of media and not adapt. And go broke” is better
