For most of its 70 years, Sports Illustrated was a journalistic powerhouse. Great photos, great articles. There was a time when Sports Illustrated’s revenue generated $3B annually.

But that was when SI hit each week with the latest highlights and interesting features.

The media world was very different. SI hasn’t been able to compete with ESPN, BleacherReport, Barstool and others. Going from weekly to monthly didn’t help, either.

Last week the Times reported “Sports Illustrated Thrown Into Chaos With Mass Layoffs.”

It’s a mess.

And that doesn’t include the AI debacle when SI was found to have run AI-produced articles under fake bylines.

We hope that the ownership and licensing issues get resolved so that a once-storied brand can make its way.

Sadly, it underscores one of our predictions about continued media layoffs in 2024.