Sports Illustrated lays off most of its staff

[wicked]

Good luck, playthrough. And good luck to the others still there.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

On a whim, I bought a copy of a June 1990 issue off of eBay this summer. I'd never held a copy in my hand. Growing up in Pittsburgh, it never made it to our market. Man, the stories about how good it was don't do justice to how good it actually was.

I used to take my bike to the corner store and pick up a copy of the National. That paper is one of the things that led me to pursue journalism when I got older.

 

[Typist Clerk]

From a story tonight on The Athletic: The February 2024 issue is complete and readers will receive that Jan. 25. The March issue is scheduled to close late January and will be on sale Friday, Feb. 22. Sports Illustrated staff who work on the magazine were told to operate as if that issue is still coming out.

 

[Slacker]

I used to take my bike to the corner store and pick up a copy of the National. That paper is one of the things that led me to pursue journalism when I got older.

I just bought two issues of The National, one of which is the debut issue, off eBay tonight because of this thread. ... Total cost: ~$26, and half of that was the usual inflated shipping costs. ... Good deal anyway, says me.

Got lucky with the debut issue for only 6 bucks, too. Already have plenty of old SI and TSN issues here, so glad to find two copies of The National at bargain prices. Thanks again, SJ.com!

 

[Slacker]

Poor photo quality, but here's what I bought ...

 

[LanceyHoward]

On a whim, I bought a copy of a June 1990 issue off of eBay this summer. I'd never held a copy in my hand. Growing up in Pittsburgh, it never made it to our market. Man, the stories about how good it was don't do justice to how good it actually was.

In the winter of 1990-1991 I was working in San Jose, Costa Rica. In San Jose the dry season is from November 1 until March 31, The temperature rarely gets above 80. After work I would walk about two miles in perfect weather to a newsstand where I would buy a copy of that days National, New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Then I would get some dinner and take a cab home and finish reading the papers.

I was blown away by the quality of The National. When I went home to Denver to visit my parents I went to my local newsstand and could not buy it. I think that pretty much sums up the distribution problems of The National and why it went broke.

 

[Readallover]

Some reaction from sports journalists. https://nypost.com/2024/01/19/sports/media-world-heatrbroken-over-mass-sports-illustrated-layoffs/

 

[MileHigh]

The National was so far ahead of its time. Loved it despite its short life.

Like many others here, I revered SI. Gobbled it up every week from front to back. Incredibly sad for its demise along with a lot of other sports media.

 

[playthrough]

Some reaction from sports journalists. https://nypost.com/2024/01/19/sports/media-world-heatrbroken-over-mass-sports-illustrated-layoffs/

It's hard to fight a social media avalanche. I did it with a couple acquaintances yesterday and then put away the phone. The cutesy stuff from someone like Schefter makes me want to scream: "So much great work was done there. And now, it's the end." Hey, Mr. Reporter, if you had maybe reached out to one of the several NFL writers at SI, for information or just out of concern for fellow beat guys, you'd have found out that they're still going to games this weekend. But that would ruin your eloquent RIP tweet.

I'm not blind, I know I could still be out of work by summer. Or earlier. There's also a chance the licensing deal is worked out or there's even new ownership, but if that happens it won't get 1/100th of the coverage that a doomsday gets. You'd never read about that in the NYPost.

 

[BTExpress]

The first SI I remember holding in my hands and reading.

 

[Huggy]

So many great Twitter threads yesterday with everyone's choice for fave SI covers.

I was a big Sporting News reader and while it was loaded with great info (especially for a young baseball junkie like me) it wasn't as known for its covers.

I probably have a half dozen copies of The National that I have held on to over the years.

I bought SI weekly for years before finally getting a subscription, pretty sure this was the first issue I got with it. I cancelled that sub last year.

 

[Azrael]

Curtis:

https://www.theringer.com/media/2024/1/19/24044671/sports-illustrated-obituary-redux

How many times can Sports Illustrated die? Or nearly die? At this point, even one of SI's AI-generated authors could probably write the magazine's obituary. Name-check a few longform gods who once lived in SI's pages. Evoke the pleasure of getting SI in the mail each week. Then, having reminded readers that SI is "storied," describe something terrible that has been done to the current staff. Again.