Sports Illustrated

After almost 70 years, Sports Illustrated — the storied magazine that has published some of the best sports journalism of the past two centuries — appears to be over, at least as anyone knew it. In January 2024, the union representing the magazine’s reporting staff announced that the Arena Group, the company that owned S.I.’s publishing license, will be laying off “a significant number, possibly all” of its 100 employees. . Sports Illustrated had been housed in a complex corporate structure ever since it was sold by Meredith to Authentic Brands Group in 2019 for $110 million. Later that year, ABG — whose largest shareholder is asset manager BlackRock, owns Reebok, and manages the likeness of Muhammed Ali — sold off the publishing rights to a company called Maven, which was led by publisher Ross Levinsohn. (Maven would later change its name to The Arena Group.) That deal meant that Arena had to pay $15 million a year for ten years. In August 2023, Manoj Bhargava’s Simplify Inventions — the company that makes 5 Hour Energy drinks — bought a majority stake in Arena. Soon after that, Levinsohn left, as did Andrew Kraft, the president and chief operating officer. January 3, 2024 Arena Group failed to make a $3.75 million debt payment to Authentic Brands, according to securities filings. That gave Authentic the right to revoke the publishing license (as well as collect $45 million in another payment). The next day, Bhargava stepped down as interim CEO.