Sports Illustrated (SI) believes moving into live events will diversify revenue streams and keep the publication relevant in the modern media landscape, starting with a new biennial women’s sports competition.

The US periodical is one of the most prestigious print titles in all of sport thanks to a long association with groundbreaking journalism and a history of iconic covers. However SI’s influence and reputation had suffered from declining print readership and a troubled spell previous publisher The Arena Group, which was characterised by accusations of mismanagement, several rounds of layoffs, and concerns about the quality of its output.

 

However a new licensing deal between owner Authentic Brands Group (ABG) and Minute Media has given the storied magazine a new lease of life. Not only has the future of the print edition been guaranteed, SI is ready to maximise of the value of its legacy and cultural power by expanding beyond the written word and reach a wider, more digitally-savvy audience.

 

For SI’s editor-in-chief Stephen Cannella, a move into the live events space will help SI tell stories in ways that extend beyond traditional journalism.

“For any legacy media organisation right now, you have to look for new ways to make yourself vibrant,” Cannella told SportsPro. “You have to grow in different ways, you can’t just be a straight up media outlet anymore, if you want to have the same recognition for the next 70 years that we’ve had for the previous 70 years.

“So all of these things work together in the ways we want to expand what people think about when they hear the term Sports Illustrated. We love the magazine, that’s at the centre of what we do every day. At the same time, we want to get to a point where people hear Sports Illustrated, and they think of it as something very different than just the magazine.

“It’s a really exciting expansion of what Sports Illustrated represents, not just in terms of branding, but in creating revenue streams that can support the central media operation in a lot of different ways.”

The SI Women’s Games is a “groundbreaking opportunity”

The first event under its banner seeks to capitalise on growing demand for women’s sporting events and fill a potential gap in the market when it comes to Olympic sports.

The ‘SI Women’s Games’ competition will see elite athletes across six sports participate in a series of individual and team competitions between 28th October and 2nd November in Oceanside, California. It will feature both domestic and international athletes from basketball, gymnastics, tennis, flag football, volleyball and combat sports compete against each other in a ‘Team Americas’ against ‘Team World’ format.

Those participating in the event will fight to become ‘SI Women’s Games Champion’, as well as earning prize money based on the competition results. While no exact numbers were confirmed, Rich Routman, the president of SI’s publisher Minute Media, said that athletes are “going to be compensated more than adequately”.

Cannella said it was not yet able to divulge which athletes had been signed up for the event, he noted that it wanted to spotlight the “highest profile athletes” around given the event’s nature as an ‘All-Star competition’. He also reaffirmed that the athlete experience would be crucial to decision-making around the Games, which he called a “groundbreaking opportunity for the sports landscape”.

Cannella added that the decision to launch the event was in part inspired by Simone Biles. At SI’s Sportsperson of the Year event in December, the star gymnast spoke out about the need for gymnastics, and indeed for other Olympics sports, to get more of a spotlight in between the Olympic cycle.

“We were looking for sports that would have not just appeal in the US, but some of these sports actually might have wider appeal around the globe, than they than they do in the US right now,” Cannella said.

“This entire franchise is all part of a larger effort to look for ways to globalise SI in a lot of different ways. And I think over the next year or two, we’ll see other steps towards that in terms of how we look to expand the brand outside of the US.

“All of that went into some of these decisions as well, both in terms of the event’s timing and the choice of sports, being mindful of not just audiences and athletes who will be available in the US, but looking at those things around the globe too.”

Routman added that the choice of sports was “purposeful”, with the potential scope to add more sports in future events.

“The market, at least in the early conversations that we’ve had, has responded really well to it,” Routman told SportsPro. “We don’t want to compare ourselves to something else, but it gives us the ability to do something like the Ryder Cup across a multi-sports event.

“We wouldn’t have chosen those sports if we didn’t think that we can make significant impact through the lens of each one of them.”

Scripps Sports’ Ion Television will air the SI Women’s Games as part of a multi-year deal. Ion, which also airs the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) and Women’s National Basketball Association (NBA) has a strong female audience that is reflected in viewership of its sports coverage. SI will also cover the event across its digital, video and social media channels.

‘People want to be part of a SI event’

While ideas for future events beyond the SI Women’s Games have been discussed already, the outlet is focused on delivering its first event successfully. SI will formally go out to the market in conjunction with Scripps later this week to kick off the process of securing commercial deals.

“The sponsorship and media feedback has been very good thus far,” Routman said. “People want to be part of an SI event. People want to be part of a women’s sports event, especially featuring the top athletes in the world.

“We’ve already had a number of brands that we’ve been speaking with for quite some time. With ticket sales, they’re not as impactful as the corporate marketing and the partnerships. But we believe that people want to pay to come see these women compete.

“The sponsorship and media side is a very robust element of it, but the vibe on the ground needs to be great, and people want to have to participate in that vibe.”