Sports Illustrated Gets New Publisher And Print Edition Will Continue

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, announced the partnership with Minute Media today, after months of uncertainty over the future of the magazine. The print edition will continue, as Minute Media also oversees digital operations of the SI portfolio. The deal also includes SI Swim.

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Minute Media also publishes other sports brands including The Players’ Tribune, FanSided, 90min and STN Video.

The previous publisher of Sports Illustrated, The Arena Group, announced in January that it missed a quarterly payment of about $3.75 million. Authentic Brands terminated the license, which Arena had held since 2019, while staffers were given layoff notices. The internal memo from Arena said some workers would be terminated immediately, while others were to continue working during the 90-day notice period employers are legally required to give employees under the WARN Act.

Daniel W. Dienst, Authentic’s executive vice chairman, tactical ops, said, “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 said that it plans to grow the Sports Illustrated media business. Asaf Peled, the company’s founder and CEO, said in a statement 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 told The New York Times he did not know how many employees would return to their jobs until they started running editorial operations.

As part of the deal, Authentic Brands also will acquire an equity stake in Minute Media.

Authentic Brands Group acquired Sports Illustrated from Meredith Corporation in 2019 for $110 million. Meredith had owned the brand since it acquired Time Inc. in 2017.

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