Sports Illustrated layoffs

Completely agree. With the semi regular exception of the Sunday NYT, I read nothing in print. And I subscribe to 3 newspapers (plus the NYT crossword) and 8 magazines. I read everything on my iPad.

 

Best case scenario is that there are still some decent writers at SI and the AAA staff just fills out the site with a lot of clickable stuff that never sees paper and is easy to ignore.

 

I think that Time was always a very well managed magazine company. It cranked out a lot of money that management used to make a lot more money and brillantly invest in HBO and cable television companies. But after the merger with Warner stopped being a core business of the company. Then the internet came along and the magazines made a lot less money. So the publishing division became an after thought until it was spun off.

 

Looked at the web site, now run by Raven, this morning
In a word — sparse

 

Not to sound insensitive but....how did Sports Illustrated EVER let it come to this? Their business model has been so outdated for years that by the time they wised up it was already too late. You don’t do a deal like Maven whatever it’s called, unless you’re desperate and out of options. Families are at stake here and SI through its (in)actions said they don’t care. What a goddamn disgrace. And you wonder why there’s no loyalty in this industry anymore.

 

To be a tiny bit fair to Sports Illustrated, you can basically sub-in any other magazine name there and not change the rest of your paragraph. Which ones are still doing OK? The New Yorker, I guess, although I doubt they're flying as high as they used to. I definitely think there can be plenty of scorn thrown on magazine and newspaper executives, but 1) the number of national publications that truly seem to be sustainable right now can be counted on your fingers and 2) there has been plenty of desperate flailing around by executives and management at all of these companies, and there doesn't seem to be a magic "fix" that can apply to everything.

 

the new yorker, and this may have changed, legendarily has barely broken even. it's an ornament publication. the only one that seems have to figured out the print/web double -- and by that i mean, 'makes money' without a bezos-like benefactor -- is the atlantic. happy to hear otherwise.

 

I think the majority stake in the Atlantic is now owned by the Emerson Collective, which is owned by Laurene Jobs.

And while the New Yorker was traditionally a loss leader for Condé Nast, it's been much closer to breaking even under both Remnick and Tina Brown. That said, Condé lost $120 million in 2017; $60 million in 2018 - even after selling off some titles. Who knows how much it will lose this year.

 

And to clarify my position a bit - The current owners of Sports Illustrated seem like, at best, completely clueless fucks, and at worst, assholes that are going to methodically and intentionally drain every bit of blood out of the company that they can. I've got no fucking clue how you "fix" the magazine industry (or heck, newspapers), but I know those fucks aren't going to do it.