The world of sports media has seen a number of institutions get kneecapped in recent years, and on Friday, the longtime gold standard for many in the profession saw its staff get pummeled. Sports Illustrated staffers were informed via the following email that mass layoffs are coming to the publication in the aftermath of the Arena Group, which operates and publishes SI, missing a payment to Authentic Brands Group, which owns it.
Sports Illustrated staffers received this today. pic.twitter.com/Q0WdVRzuRb
— Richard Deitsch (@richarddeitsch) January 19, 2024
The missed payment meant that Authentic Brands Group terminated its licensing agreement with Arena Group, the latest in what has been a tumultuous period since Authentic Brands Group purchased SI in 2017 for $110 million. Now, there are numerous questions about what the future holds for the publication, but amid those questions are a seemingly endless cascade of well-wishes for the writers whose livelihoods are negatively impacted by corporate greed and near-universal criticism for the individuals that played a role in things getting to this point.
This included Pablo Torre, who used 30 seconds on Around the Horn to address the situation. After winning Friday’s episode, Torre devoted Face Time to discuss the situation at “my former employer, a childhood artifact, an icon to so many of us.”
Pablo Torre on SI: "What The Arena Group and The Authentic Brands Group have done…running it into the ground without any conscience, using fake writers and also laying off everybody today, is not just a nightmare, but also something that they should never get to forget." pic.twitter.com/nbrLlWw11y
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) January 19, 2024
In a statement released on Friday, the Sports Illustrated Union said “This is another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group (previously The Maven) stewardship. 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.”
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