Sports Illustrated has been saved as licensing giant Authentic struck a 10-year deal with digital media company Minute Media to keep publishing the magazine/website, two months after mass layoffs and AI controversy plunged its future into doubt.
Monday’s announcement comes after Authentic terminated its publishing deal with The Arena Group, which obtained the rights to publish SI editorial content in 2019 as theMaven, Inc., in January, following a missed $3.756million quarterly licensing payment.
Minute Media, best known for its sports sites The Players’ Tribune and FanSided, said it reached a long-term partnership with Authentic to ‘usher in the future of the SI brand.’
‘Sports Illustrated is the gold standard for sports journalism and has been for nearly 70 years across both print and digital media. The weight and power of that distinction cannot be understated. At Minute Media, our focus will be to take that legacy into new, emerging channels enhancing visibility, commercial viability and sustainable impact, all while ensuring that the SI team is inspired to flourish in this new era of media,’ Minute Media founder and CEO Asaf Peled said in a statement.
As part of the deal, Authentic will also acquire an equity stake in Minute Media.
Iconic US sports magazine Sports Illustrated will keep on printing after a change in publisher
In November of last year, science and tech news outlet Futurism published findings alleging that SI was publishing AI-generated articles credited to authors who were also AI-generated.
The latter practice apparently extended to their profile photos, which the website alleged were sourced from online marketplaces selling such pictures.
More to follow…