The Meredith takeover (2017-18)
Meredith was listed as a likely buyer for Time Inc. in early 2017, was actually announced as the buyer that November, and closed the deal in January 2018. But from the early days of discussion there, it seemed likely Meredith (which had a portfolio consisting mostly of women-focused magazines) would sell off SI (and likely also Time), both of which they did (as well as Fortune and Money).
Under Meredith’s ownership, there were significant layoffs (1,200 people across Time Inc. soon after the deal closing). But SI seemed to largely keep moving along the paths it had set in the independent Time Inc. days, including the continuing shift to deemphasize print and emphasize digital and video. Things would get much more different under the next owner.
Enter Authentic Brands Group and TheMaven (May-June 2019)
After a long period of reporting on likely SI buyers, with Authentic frequently featured, that deal was officially announced in May 2019. (It, however, did not include FanSided.) But Authentic was not a publisher themselves, and didn’t particularly want to become one; they wanted the SI brand for the accompanying licensing and event deals they could strike. Thus, they struck a deal with TheMaven that June for publishing rights.
That company, then led by Jim Heckman and Ross Levinsohn, would go through plenty of turmoil over the next several years. That included massive and controversial layoffs in the fall of 2019, and then again in 2020 and beyond. The 2019 layoffs drew notable backlash from individual SI writers and from the media world, as did the decision to drop to a mostly monthly print schedule (with each issue closed more than a month in advance, interesting considering how much of SI’s initial success came from having a smaller gap between issues than the monthly magazines).
As for 2020 and beyond, layoffs were widely seen in sports media (and media in general) around that time, with many companies citing the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic impacts. However, the end-of-March-2020 SI ones were particularly severe and led to several public conflicts. Those included salary reductions for those who remained, the firing of Grant Wahl after he criticized the cuts, and a reported request from Authentic to reverse the staffing cuts (which did not happen). There also were significant reports on TheMaven’s own finances at this point, including their own note in an SEC filing that they only had resources to operate through April 2021 (despite getting a $5.7 million CARES Act loan). Meredith sued them over unpaid transition fees, and that lawsuit was eventually settled.
2020 also saw several major moves involving the team sites linked to Sports Illustrated. FanSided was not included in the SI sale to Authentic, but Meredith sold it to Minute Media in January 2020. The Maven-run SI instead built its own network of team sites, something that had previously paid off for Heckman and Levinsohn at Rivals and Scout. But those sites got really controversial in 2020 around personnel, editorial moves, and layoffs.
And 2020 also saw one of the first PR issues that was more about Authentic than SI’s actual publisher. That would be putting the SI brand on controversial nutrition supplements, including a “brain formula.” There have been other discussions about licensing issues since then, too, especially around resorts, but this was one of the first.
Arena Group rebrand and continuation (September 2021)
TheMaven would first rebrand to Maven in mid-2020, then rebrand to The Arena Group in the fall of 2021. There were fewer widespread public controversies for a few years, especially after Heckman’s August 2020 exit as Maven CEO and Levinsohn’s elevation to replace him. But there were still several rounds of layoffs and further cuts over the next few years, as well as other controversies. However, things would really get notable in the fall of 2023.
Manoj Bhargava’s entrance and AI controversy (August-December 2023)
In August 2023, 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava’s Simplify Inventions reportedly took a 65 percent stake in Arena for $50 million in cash and a guarantee of $60 million in advertising over five years. However, that deal was not immediately closed, and there remain questions on just how much money Bhargava transferred (and for what).
Meanwhile, in November 2023, SI hit the biggest editorial controversy of its Maven/Arena tenure around reports of it publishing AI-generated articles by fake writers. There are still disputes over just what happened there and how widespread it was. But the scandal at the least shed a massive media microscope on Arena’s publishing approach to SI.
In the wake of the scandal, in December 2023, an Arena shakeup saw several key executives and board members exit. And Bhargava held a strange town hall with all SI employees after that, where he was introduced as the new owner and told them “Stop doing dumb stuff.” Much of that call was reportedly not specifically on the AI front, but it at the very least indicated that Bhargava a. was in charge and b. had major plans to remake SI. And both of those things would come to a further boil this January.
Missed payment, license revocation, and mass layoffs (January 2024)
The Arena mess particularly hit the fan two months ago with them missing a licensing payment to Authentic, with Authentic then revoking their license, and with Arena then issuing layoff notices (either immediate or delayed) to every SI union staffer. That sparked a lot of discussion about what, if any future SI would have (although Authentic made it clear from the start that it “would not go dark“).
That move also led to a lot of public attempts to renegotiate by Arena and Bhargava, and to a lot of detailed reporting on how that relationship fell apart. It also led to Arena making controversial calls during an interim period where they were still in charge, and to them somehow remaining in contention to publish SI under a new deal despite making bold statements about the future (including ending the print version) of a magazine they had no long-term rights to publish. In the end, though, this week saw Authentic strike a deal with (previously reported frontrunner) Minute Media instead.
Payouts and future (March 2024)
While we now know who will publish SI, we don’t know exactly how they’ll do it. Minute has not announced specific plans so far other than to rehire “some” SI staffers, and their past actions with other titles (including FanSided, The Big Lead, The Players Tribune, 90min, and more) have raised some skepticism. There also are major questions about how this will work with the SI union.
However, SI publishing operations were reportedly profitable even under Arena. There, they made “a small profit,” as per a February New York Post piece from Josh Kosman (although it’s unclear if/how that factored in the licensing payments from Arena to Authentic and the value Arena gained for the rest of its network from having SI as a flagship title). There are both editorial and business cases for the continuation of the publishing entity alone, to say nothing of the importance of the publishing side keeping it as a respected brand so Authentic can profit from licensing it elsewhere. The Authentic-Minute deal includes Authentic taking some stock in Minute, so they have more incentive to make the publishing side work on its own than they did under the Arena deal (where Arena was paying them a set fee regardless of how publishing went).
The real money-maker for Authentic is in licensing, though. And they look particularly set to cash in there on the gambling front. They’re set to get a $50 million payout from 888 Holdings over the closure of SI Sportsbook, and they now have opportunities to put the SI brand on other things sports betting. That’s thus far been suggested as syndicating SI betting content to various sportsbooks being carved out from the normal publishing deal as a profit-sharing venture, but it’s unclear what the specifics there will be.
Beyond that, Arena’s missed payment and the license termination that led to also led them reportedly owing Authentic a $45 million termination fee. But there are questions on how much, if any, of that Authentic will get, with Arena already saying in February they expect it to be forgotten thanks to their continued operation of the brand until Authentic has a new party to turn it over to. So we’ll see what happens there.
As for the long-term future of SI, that’s far from clear right now. They certainly seem to have found a more stable publishing partner. And Authentic was getting lots of licensing revenue beyond publishing, from parties, TV specials, sportsbooks, resorts, and more, and much of that seems likely to continue as long as the new version of SI is at least somewhat credible.
But the entire media world carries lots of uncertainty right now, and there’s particular uncertainty with this transition for SI. We’ll see exactly what’s in this deal and how it works out for both sides. However, for now, SI is in its 70th official year as a publication, and in the 88th year since a magazine was first published with that title. And its future looks much more certain for at least the short term now than it did only two months ago.
