Sports Media Needs a Hero

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From wondery I'm David Brown, and this is business wars daily on this Thursday, February 1, here's a sentence that probably won't shock you. The news industry is looking fairly bleak these days. January's seen mass layoffs at the Los Angeles Times, deep cuts at Time magazine, National Geographic and Pitchfork, and those were just in the last two weeks. So what seems to have set the news industry up for impending failure? Well, according to NPR, more and more folks finding their news in less traditional places like social media and advertisers pulling back on sales because of the fear of recession. Just two factors. And it's not just vast swaths of generalized media that are hurting. Specialized outlets are, too, particularly those that cover America's pastime.

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Sports.

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You probably know by now that one of the giants of the sports media industry has fallen, at least for now. Earlier this month, Sports Illustrated announced mass layoffs and left their employees and millions of readers stunned. Like any sports team, the folks at SI have seen the highest highs and the lowest lows. The brand, which has been around for over six decades, quickly established itself as the Goto in sports media. But boy, have there been struggles. In 2017, Time Inc. SI's publisher at the time, laid off around 300 employees. Subscribers were down, so the company cut down its number of annual issues. By 2018, SI was publishing biweekly as advertisers and readers abandoned it in favor of digital and social content, according to Forbes. But by the next year, things appeared to be looking up for the brand.

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In 2019, authentic Brands Group bought SI's IP for $110,000,000 and licensed its content to what is now called the arena Group. The injection of cash was seen as something of a lifeline. Alas, that lifeline did not last. Earlier this month, authentic Brands Group, that's the owner, remember, abruptly terminated its licensing agreement with the arena Group, SI's publisher. The issue. The arena group reportedly missed a quarterly payment of $3.8 million. In the wake of the license termination, the company notified its union that it intended to, quote, lay off a significant number, possibly all, end quote, of SI's unionized staff. Some staff members were let go immediately, and others were told they would be let go in 90 days, according to the New York Times.

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For its part, arena said it was in discussions with authentic brands and wanted to continue publishing Sports Illustrated some way, somehow. But it's unclear exactly how the beloved brand will recover from this. The Times noted that the abrupt layoff announcement had thrown the company into chaos that that outlet knows all too well. Unfortunately. In January 2022, the Times bought sports media site the Athletic for $550,000,000.01 of the newspaper's largest ever acquisitions. But a little over a year later, two things happened almost simultaneously. The Times cut 4% of the athletic staff, a limited number but still a shock to the system, and then announced it was disbanding its own storied sports desk, resulting in job losses for another 35 people. It said at the time that it would rely on the Athletic, at least its remaining employees, for continued sports coverage.

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The news sent shutters through the sports media industry. Now the question is, will the bleak media landscape ever ride itself? The hope is, of course, that it will. But in the meantime, we'll have our eyes on the playing field, hoping that when it comes to keeping beloved brands alive, media executives are ready to play ball. From wondery this is business wars daily. I'm your host, David Brown. Written and produced by Jessica Yarmoski. Our executive producers are Tina Rubio and Marshall Lee.

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