They fired all of the quality (and higher cost) writers after Time Inc was bought out and SI was sold off to Authentic Brands Group (ABG). The SI brand is leased out to the current publisher who failed to make their quarterly payment to ABG.
Their days have been numbered for some time. They’re no longer producing quality sports reporting and they can’t draw you in with pics of hot girls in swimsuits because you can find a few billion of them on internet.
Nah. When these failing outlets get desperate they try to do stuff that gets attention while also appearing positive and progressive. Theyre hoping it sells enough to keep stock afloat while all the major players sell off
These companies know by now that stuff isnt profitable long term but the people it would appeal to might be useful for a quick boost
Maven/Arena licensed the SI name from Authentic Brands, which bought SI from Time Inc. Arena missed a payment to Authentic so Authentic broke off the deal, just like how a landlord might evict someone for missing rent.
Authentic let Arena use the Sports Illustrated playground in exchange for their lunch money. Arena stopped giving Authentic their lunch money and now they can’t use the playground
Sports Illustrated as everyone knew went out of business years ago. Some money jerks bought the name and then rented to it idiots. Now those idiots fired all their writers, even though they sucked compared to the original writing team.
In theory, they can introduce the mass market to a solid brand, e.g. Rao's sauce was taken national by a PE firm. They can also make a company that has become too bloated more efficient and rescue falling brands.
Reality doesn't always match theory, though.
I think the overall problem is the mindset of creating startups or running businesses for the express purpose of being bought by PE or resold again to a larger PE. Rather than focusing on profitability and cash flow, their goal is to support growth through heavy borrowing and hope their valuation goes up. It is sort of like a rental where you hope to break even while the market grows. None of these tech companies will ever pay back a purchase price in profits and are only worth shoveling it to another VC or an IPO
A private equity firm to me is basically just a credit union but for rich people if it's run properly. But the shady private equity firms don't run that way, they basically run like a securities firm without being registered with the securities and exchange commission, and that's a problem.
On paper, it's no different than public corporations other than their shares are less liquid.
In practice, they often have shady business practices. But some fault lies on the consumers or buyers than enable those PE firms to make money.
Friend is an outpatient surgeon and they will fly him out to do a McDonald's drive through version of tens of surgeries in one day for a pretty substantial amount of money.
Capitalism will destroy itself, it was never meant to be run without government providing guardrails. We now allow individuals and corporations to make infinite profits. Previously if you made too much it all went to tax, incdntivizing spreading the wealth. No more. The rich take it all.
The fact that PE companies can buy hospitals or that hospitals can be publicly traded on stock market is pretty ridiculous. You don't need to be a part of the system to see that optimal patient care and maximizing shareholder return are goals that are fundamentally at odds with each other, especially when things like emergency care or critical care are involved.
You articulated the core problem really well, I took a healthcare economics course (so I’m pretty much an expert /s) but it was glaringly obvious from that course that healthcare being in the hands of private business is the worst system. Every graph has the US as an enormous outlier between healthcare cost and patient outcomes. Just not a system that makes any sense.
Yeah but who is going to fix it? Everyone on every side getting elected is paid off by these people to keep it in place. It's a tyranny
Our 3rd president would have some strong opinions on what the solution to that problem is if he were alive today. If he were though hed be tossed into prison for saying it
Well, it involves gutting staffing and resources while encouraging physicians to focus on billable procedures. [Here’s a new study on the effects that has](https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=comments&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbW9uT080SFFZZHVheUlGU19VUlVFSXctRTNXUXxBQ3Jtc0tsaXJfOTJWdWxtcTRtb0FMRTBGUXI2bHpZeEpPTW40VGppQklndWhnd19hTUduUTlLVFhhWV9xTDluajFHblFqQ2E3TDNfQ0FiTV9zOFk2T185NjR5Q1FJWHJvc1N6emJxZ0NzUVRMd19OQ0RpSTJENA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fjamanetwork.com%2Fjournals%2Fjama%2Ffullarticle%2F2813379&stzid=UgxVsS0VPKunaiPCUgt4AaABAg), and spoiler alert, it’s terrible for patients and healthcare workers alike. Greatly increased infections on central lines and surgical sites, more falls, etc. But you should see the boats the C-suites can buy with the savings!
Several recent studies have come out showing that private equity hospitals have had increases in complications despite doing fewer procedures associated with those complications.
Also this is complete conjecture but adding even more profit driven people to ownership likely doesn’t translate well to patient care.
Especially when they use leveraged acquisitions based on putting debt on the company that's being bought - burdening a company with a ton of debt just to let you buy it is something that I don't know *how* it could be outlawed, but it should.
Any other old farts out there remember when you could get a football phone when you subscribed for a year? I desperately wanted my parents to subscribe so I could get that sweet plastic football phone.
[SI FOOTBALL PHONE](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-sports/the-funky-little-football-phone-that-sold-a-million-magazines-58384/amp/)
These MFs put an 80 year old woman on the cover of the swimsuit issue last year. More power to Martha but who the hell are they trying to sell this to?
The photo spreads at the beginning of each issue, showcasing incredible photographers and photography, were awesome. The articles were hit or miss, but the hits were solid. Even ESPN’s larger format print couldn’t overcome the skill behind the lens and the pen.
I miss those days.
One of my Christmas presents every year for like 5 years straight was my SI subscription. I'm pretty sure my dad did it just as much so he could read it too, but getting my SI was the highlight of my month back around 92-97.
Will use this time to post one of the best articles from recent years, about Junior Seau and his college teammates
https://www.si.com/college/2020/10/07/usc-and-its-dying-linebackers
It’s a long, sad read but worth it if you have a moment
They did really good stories that were more about people than sports. I remember this one great article, it was basically a biography of a heroin addict who lived in a garage in Vegas. His only connection to sports is that he was the first witness on the scene when Henry Ruggs killed that woman. The article talks about the guy's messed up life, and how he's trying to heal from what he saw that night.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/03/29/henry-ruggs-iii-tony-rodriguez-crash-daily-cover
It broke LeBron returning to Cleveland a decade ago. The 2019 Maven deal is what started to kill it off.
Feels like its decline is more a result of its horrible private equity owners than the quality of work it was putting out. Good journalism costs money to produce.
I'm surprised it took this long tbh. They'll probably hire an editor and use freelance for any real article, or may just close up shop.
They could also try to scum and use AI.
> Sports Illustrated’s Publisher Lays Off Entire Staff. Future Unclear
Many moons ago, use to look forward to that SI cover during college football season and seeing [Archie Griffin](https://images.app.goo.gl/hMyVJpxRkbY2qofe6), [Tony Dorsett](https://images.app.goo.gl/auPFNcfmbZAjGcXG6), [Earl Campbell](https://images.app.goo.gl/DYv1kayfaSfGhF25A), ... [Doug Flutie](https://images.app.goo.gl/52jK8oW9j1GZjrbV7).... etc., those covers were great... and stories inside, better.
“We can get AI to do it..”🤡💀
Always how it goes. Some MBA with a calculator furiously punching numbers.
“From my calculations we can replace the writing staff with AI!”
I’m sitting there like, “Wait we can’t replace YOU with AI. All you do is a little math and analytics and you make enough to pay like 5 of us…”
**Jim Harbaugh Is A Football Coach**
By: Hugh Man
"Have you ever wondered who the coach of the Michigan Wolverines is? The answer may shock you. But before we get to the answer, let's take a look at some background first.
**First, what is football?** "American Football" is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or passing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins.
**Who are the Michigan Wolverines?** The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for its distinctive winged helmet, its fight song, its record-breaking attendance figures at Michigan Stadium, and its many rivalries, particularly its annual, regular season-ending game against Ohio State, known simply as "The Game," once voted as ESPN's best sports rivalry.
Michigan began competing in intercollegiate football in 1879. The Wolverines joined the Big Ten Conference at its inception in 1896, and other than a hiatus from 1907 to 1916, have been members since. Michigan has won or shared 45 league titles, and since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936, has finished in the top 10 a total of 39 times. The Wolverines claim 12 national championships, including 3 (1948, 1997, 2023) from the major wire-service: AP Poll and/or Coaches' Poll.
From 1900 to 1989, Michigan was led by a series of nine head coaches, each of whom has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame either as a player or as a coach. Fielding H. Yost became Michigan's head coach in 1901 and guided his "Point-a-Minute" squads to a streak of 56 games without a defeat, spanning from his arrival until the season finale in 1905, including a victory in the 1902 Rose Bowl, the first college football bowl game ever played. Fritz Crisler brought his winged helmet from Princeton University in 1938 and led the 1947 Wolverines to a national title and Michigan's second Rose Bowl win. Bo Schembechler coached the team for 21 seasons (1969–1989) in which he won 13 Big Ten titles and 194 games, a program record. The first decade of his tenure was underscored by a fierce competition with his former mentor, Woody Hayes, whose Ohio State Buckeyes squared off against Schembechler's Wolverines in a stretch of the Michigan–Ohio State rivalry dubbed the "Ten-Year War".
Following Schembechler's retirement, the program was coached by two of his former assistants, Gary Moeller and then Lloyd Carr, who maintained the program's overall success over the next 18 years. However, the program's fortunes declined under the next two coaches, Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, who were both fired after relatively short tenures. Following Hoke's dismissal, Michigan hired Jim Harbaugh on December 30, 2014. Harbaugh is a former quarterback of the team, having played for Michigan between 1982 and 1986 under Schembechler. Harbaugh led the team to success; since his hiring, the Wolverines have won three consecutive Big Ten Titles, played in five new year's six bowl games, and made the College Football Playoff three times. They won their first national championship since 1997, and first undisputed national championship since 1948 after beating Washington in the 2024 national title game.
The Michigan Wolverines have featured 88 players that have garnered consensus selection to the College Football All-America Team. Three Wolverines have won the Heisman Trophy: Tom Harmon in 1940, Desmond Howard in 1991, and Charles Woodson in 1997. Gerald Ford, who later became the 38th president of the United States, started at center and was voted most valuable player by his teammates on the 1934 team.
**Who is Jim Harbaugh?** Harbaugh is a former quarterback of the team, having played for Michigan between 1982 and 1986 under Schembechler. Harbaugh led the team to success; since his hiring, the Wolverines have won three consecutive Big Ten Titles, played in five new year's six bowl games, and made the College Football Playoff three times. They won their first national championship since 1997, and first undisputed national championship since 1948 after beating Washington in the 2024 national title game.
**Who is the coach of the Michigan Wolverines?** Jim Harbaugh is a former quarterback of the team, having played for Michigan between 1982 and 1986 under Schembechler. Harbaugh led the team to success; since his hiring, the Wolverines have won three consecutive Big Ten Titles, played in five new year's six bowl games, and made the College Football Playoff three times. They won their first national championship since 1997, and first undisputed national championship since 1948 after beating Washington in the 2024 national title game."
The copy pasta to end all copy pasta?
If you wrote this, AI will find it and it will become the seed for future articles. But if AI wrote it and you copied it, AI won't recognize its own output and not being original--and future articles based on this will make it seem like an AI hallucination.
You fool, you've doomed us all!
99% of what they did was absolute garbage but they did employ a couple actual journalists, my favorite being Richard Johnson. He broke the story about the Manifesto, is one of the co-hosts on Split Zone Duo, and generally a very cool person. I feel very bad for him right now.
Richard Johnson seems to be the only journalist at SI. people say writing has gotten worst across the board and thats true but what really happened is the shift to podcasts. thats where all the good journalists and writers have turned. if you have had favorite writers in the past look them up they probably run a podcast now.
Are the remaining NFL guys not good? I always got the impression that Albert Breer and Connor Orr had some decent writeups. I occasionally read Jimmy Traina's column too, but I may just be stuck in old habits.
>99% of what they did was absolute garbage but they did employ a couple actual journalists
Oof, if that's what you think the true legacy of *Sports Illustrated* is, you have some homework to do, my friend. Go to your local library and start pulling archives. I promise you won't regret it.
This is more NFL related, but I used to read SI articles by Dr Z (RIP) and Peter King every week.
It’s such a weird concept that Sports Illustrated is going under. Combine that with a lot of local newspapers going under and the NFL currently trying to buy a piece of ESPN, and it feels like independent sports journalism is officially dead.
I had a Sports Illustrated subscription when I was a kid. From like 2001 to 2005ish. It was very different back then. The only way to get sports news not about your local teams was through either watching ESPN all day and waiting for specific shows or Sports Illustrated.
The internet largely supplanted all of that, and information is available at all times now, but I really enjoyed reading them every week as a kid.
My dad was a pretty religious subscriber for many years, had weird random phones in our house that looked like shoes and footballs. It was THE place to understand what was going on outside of TV broadcasts and talking heads on AM sports radio. No reason why they couldn't have stayed on top the mountain and embraced the digital world, brought on good people like The Athletic did. Instead, just another dinosaur of old media. I hadn't even thought about them until Michigan won and I thought I should pick up an issue.
Yep. When I searched for news on AlphaTauri's name change, the first result was an SI link. In the past, I would have gone there and only there, but today, I actively avoided it.
When I was a kid in the 80s SI was the source for sports news deep dives AND the greatest NFL hardest hits VHS videos. Add to that the fact that my sexual awakening was pretty much inspired by Elle McPherson in the 1986 swimsuit issue - seeing the sad decline and demise of the once proud brand is kinda sad. But to be fair they have been absolute crap for the last 20 years
I'll never forget seeing Kathy Ireland on the cover when I was 14. I had a really churchy upbringing, so I literally didn't have words for what I was feeling at the time.
I wish they still had weekly physical magazines. I would subscribe, but now you have to have a million stories a day, where 90% of them are made up rumors, repeated fluff or irrelevant analytics. Just give me some cover stories, a few investigative articles, and fill in the rest with great pictures.
PEs will eat us alive until we have nothing. I'm waiting for the day when they no longer televise full games, you can only watch 4 minute highlight clips and then listen to an "analysis" talk 50 minutes about the clip.
This is a bit of a shame, but a long time coming. SI has been a shell of itself for the last 10 years.
I got a subscription from my Grandparents when I was 10. This was the first issue I got:
[January 15, 1979](https://www.ebay.com/itm/224161571975)
Each issue was full of long, detailed articles, lots of great images, summaries of the weeks games, it was a trove of information for a kid really getting into sports, and turned me into the fan I am today.
What a convoluted story:
One company (A) owns the rights to SI
It sells those to a different company (B) who actually makes the magazine.
Company B is bought out by a third entity, (C).
C gets a new boss with his head up his ass.
C passes that attitude down to B
B doesn't pay A for the rights to SI.
A cuts off B
B has nothing to do, so lays everyone off (the headline)
But A and B might re-negotiate.
Or A might sell the rights to a new company.
Either way the magazine will be back. I think.
Serious answer that you might not be looking for: [we first learned about the Stalions manifesto from Richard Johnson on si.com](https://www.si.com/college/2023/10/25/michigan-connor-stalions-texts-stolen-signals)
Good. After the ridiculous “dirty game” hit piece against Oklahoma State 10 years ago, they pretty confirmed that they were a tabloid rag.
Good riddance
Didn't even know they were still around. They made cool covers to hang on your wall when your team won a championship but I haven't seen them in years.
Going to go out on a limb and say that’s not a good sign for their future
Nah they got a full staff of AI writers. They'll be fine
So SI will now be AI?
Chat GPT Instructions: * Scrape Reddit Game Thread Comments * Remove Expletives * Create a narrative of what happened in the game.
Every article: THEY NEVER CALL HOLDING
They do. It's just that it's only on MY team and at the worst possible time!!!!!
And even if that was holding, it was ticky tacky bullshit; c'mon, ref!
Exactly!
That’s not a facemask! As the RB realizes the linebacker ate fries on the sideline.
Title: CJK5H
Subtitle: *Allegedly*
SI will slowly turn into a true crime magazine covering the pentuple murder committed by Craig James.
The swimsuit edition pics will all be generated by MidJourney
All models will have six fingers (Alfonseco's fapping intensifies)
May I introduce you to Kentucky Linebacker JJ Weaver.
If they’re looking, I know of a few Reddit ladies who I’d be happy to share with them! For science.
Who wants to read an entire magazine about Allen Iverson?
We talkin’ about magazines, man! What we talkin’ about? *Magazines?* We talkin’ about magazines!
Not even books, we talkin about magazines?!
Sports Automated
I just got a 4 yr sub too from discountmag.com lol. In fairness, the first issue I got was meh.
The quality is not what it was when I was younger.
They fired all of the quality (and higher cost) writers after Time Inc was bought out and SI was sold off to Authentic Brands Group (ABG). The SI brand is leased out to the current publisher who failed to make their quarterly payment to ABG.
Everything investment groups touch dies.
To be fair this was a dying asset anyway.
I got my SI subscription in 04, man it was the pinnacle of sports journalism back then
Used to love reading the whole magazine from like age 10-15
Their days have been numbered for some time. They’re no longer producing quality sports reporting and they can’t draw you in with pics of hot girls in swimsuits because you can find a few billion of them on internet.
Maybe they can put Kate Upton on the cover again.
52 swimsuit issues per year.
Not if the most recent ones are what they're going to go with.
Who would’ve guessed that people wouldn’t want to buy a SI swimsuit issue with 82 year old Martha Stewart on the cover.
Well they put in Olivia Dunn on one the new ones but it might be too late.
Isn’t her career just putting free pictures and videos on the internet?
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Well, they're professional photos in glamorous locations....
I'm so out of the times that I thought you meant Olivia Munn, didn't even know Olivia Dunne existed.
You don't remember when Baby Gronk rizzed up Livvy?
English motherfucker! Do you speak it?
😂 glad I’m not the only one.
What?
Say rizz again!
I recognize baby and Gronk separately.
I thought this was a joke, I looked into it, and you were telling the truth. Why in the world would they use her??
Because with enough filters and photoshop they can be body positive about old women.
sigh *unzips*
Is that what remains of SI's target audience?
Nah. When these failing outlets get desperate they try to do stuff that gets attention while also appearing positive and progressive. Theyre hoping it sells enough to keep stock afloat while all the major players sell off These companies know by now that stuff isnt profitable long term but the people it would appeal to might be useful for a quick boost
The people who still buy the physical magazine are in her age bracket.
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I know at least one person.
Are you serious? That’s awful and kinda gross
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I haven’t looked at one since I was a bored/horny teenager waiting for my parents at the grocery store. Who has been buying them since 1998?
There are new bored horny teenagers every year
With a super computer in their pocket
A super computer *that shows them boobies.*
I could spell boobies on my calculator
Lol yeah, the people they stick on the front recently aren't really ones you'd want to see in swimsuits.
A few decades ago, I used to have a subscription to SI. It got noped by my new wife when the swimsuit issue showed up.
A Utah thing or...
That would be getting noped by his wives instead.
He did say new wife, which would imply the existence of an old wife...
True, this could be wife number six and her spirit hasn't been broken yet.
SI was sold to a PE firm and has been dead for years. They're just licensing the name and putting that lipstick on a pig.
Indeed, what happened here was Authentic Brands revoking their license to publish it.
Can you explain this to me like you would to a small child or a golden retriever?
Maven/Arena licensed the SI name from Authentic Brands, which bought SI from Time Inc. Arena missed a payment to Authentic so Authentic broke off the deal, just like how a landlord might evict someone for missing rent.
Perhaps as if I were a slightly smaller child? /s Got it, thanks. I didn't realize an apparel company owned the Sports Illustrated name.
Authentic let Arena use the Sports Illustrated playground in exchange for their lunch money. Arena stopped giving Authentic their lunch money and now they can’t use the playground
Finally a real ELI5 answer, thank you
Sports Illustrated as everyone knew went out of business years ago. Some money jerks bought the name and then rented to it idiots. Now those idiots fired all their writers, even though they sucked compared to the original writing team.
I’m struggling to find a legitimate reason for PE firms to exist.
In theory, they can introduce the mass market to a solid brand, e.g. Rao's sauce was taken national by a PE firm. They can also make a company that has become too bloated more efficient and rescue falling brands. Reality doesn't always match theory, though.
I think the overall problem is the mindset of creating startups or running businesses for the express purpose of being bought by PE or resold again to a larger PE. Rather than focusing on profitability and cash flow, their goal is to support growth through heavy borrowing and hope their valuation goes up. It is sort of like a rental where you hope to break even while the market grows. None of these tech companies will ever pay back a purchase price in profits and are only worth shoveling it to another VC or an IPO
A private equity firm to me is basically just a credit union but for rich people if it's run properly. But the shady private equity firms don't run that way, they basically run like a securities firm without being registered with the securities and exchange commission, and that's a problem.
On paper, it's no different than public corporations other than their shares are less liquid. In practice, they often have shady business practices. But some fault lies on the consumers or buyers than enable those PE firms to make money.
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I love that movie so much. Excellent reference!
Who's a good boy? You're a very good boy
Same with Newsweek. It’s a shell of what it was in the 90s etc. It is trading on a brand name and people don’t realize how bad it is.
I think people don't realize how bad it is because no one reads it.
They just see the headlines maybe.
Very very few magazines made the jump to the digital world.
That's what PE does. PE and consultants.
Yep, don’t look at what they’re doing to hospitals unless you want to get really bummed out.
As a resident...it's awful.
Nurse here, I know the pain.
Friend is an outpatient surgeon and they will fly him out to do a McDonald's drive through version of tens of surgeries in one day for a pretty substantial amount of money.
It's not talked about that often but genuinely concerning about where the system will be in a few years...
Capitalism will destroy itself, it was never meant to be run without government providing guardrails. We now allow individuals and corporations to make infinite profits. Previously if you made too much it all went to tax, incdntivizing spreading the wealth. No more. The rich take it all.
The fact that PE companies can buy hospitals or that hospitals can be publicly traded on stock market is pretty ridiculous. You don't need to be a part of the system to see that optimal patient care and maximizing shareholder return are goals that are fundamentally at odds with each other, especially when things like emergency care or critical care are involved.
You articulated the core problem really well, I took a healthcare economics course (so I’m pretty much an expert /s) but it was glaringly obvious from that course that healthcare being in the hands of private business is the worst system. Every graph has the US as an enormous outlier between healthcare cost and patient outcomes. Just not a system that makes any sense.
Yeah but who is going to fix it? Everyone on every side getting elected is paid off by these people to keep it in place. It's a tyranny Our 3rd president would have some strong opinions on what the solution to that problem is if he were alive today. If he were though hed be tossed into prison for saying it
Private physician groups are also having issues stemming from PE…
Yep, they’re buying up private practices too! There’s profits to squeeze as long as you ignore the harm to patients and staff!
Would genuinely love to hear more about this
Well, it involves gutting staffing and resources while encouraging physicians to focus on billable procedures. [Here’s a new study on the effects that has](https://www.youtube.com/redirect?event=comments&redir_token=QUFFLUhqbW9uT080SFFZZHVheUlGU19VUlVFSXctRTNXUXxBQ3Jtc0tsaXJfOTJWdWxtcTRtb0FMRTBGUXI2bHpZeEpPTW40VGppQklndWhnd19hTUduUTlLVFhhWV9xTDluajFHblFqQ2E3TDNfQ0FiTV9zOFk2T185NjR5Q1FJWHJvc1N6emJxZ0NzUVRMd19OQ0RpSTJENA&q=https%3A%2F%2Fjamanetwork.com%2Fjournals%2Fjama%2Ffullarticle%2F2813379&stzid=UgxVsS0VPKunaiPCUgt4AaABAg), and spoiler alert, it’s terrible for patients and healthcare workers alike. Greatly increased infections on central lines and surgical sites, more falls, etc. But you should see the boats the C-suites can buy with the savings!
Ah, OK. Appreciate it. Yeah it’s pretty sad how fucked our healthcare system is
Several recent studies have come out showing that private equity hospitals have had increases in complications despite doing fewer procedures associated with those complications. Also this is complete conjecture but adding even more profit driven people to ownership likely doesn’t translate well to patient care.
Totally agree. Just didn’t know what the issue was specifically with this company. Our healthcare system is pretty fucked
PE is a virus. The people who run them should be in prison.
Especially when they use leveraged acquisitions based on putting debt on the company that's being bought - burdening a company with a ton of debt just to let you buy it is something that I don't know *how* it could be outlawed, but it should.
Any other old farts out there remember when you could get a football phone when you subscribed for a year? I desperately wanted my parents to subscribe so I could get that sweet plastic football phone. [SI FOOTBALL PHONE](https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-sports/the-funky-little-football-phone-that-sold-a-million-magazines-58384/amp/)
Oh yeah. And there was nothing better than that first poop with a new issue. Happy times.
>lipstick on a pig. We still talking about the swimsuit issue?
SI hasn't been worth anything in about 15 years.
It used to be such a big deal when an issue dropped. Prime example of not willing to change with the times
They got bought by some shit corpo a while ago, it was over then
These MFs put an 80 year old woman on the cover of the swimsuit issue last year. More power to Martha but who the hell are they trying to sell this to?
>who the hell are they trying to sell this to? Ubiquitous confused boners.
I'm gonna name a punk band that.
Snoop
Ubiquitous mendacious polyglottal donkey balls
You get that transponder checked out, alright?
I'm not confused
Don’t yuck my yum
Who do you think was still buying print sports magazines if not people her age?
You think the people her age still buying print magazines would rather see her or the next 20-something supermodel?
Old pervy men famously hate hot young supermodels
I mean most people unfortunately get their news and misinformation from social media these days.
Their cover for Michigan's national championship was some of the laziest editing I have ever seen
Genuinely some of the worst photo shop I’ve ever seen. They didn’t even try to
Why, what was it?
[this](https://www.si.com/college/michigan/football/michigan-football-national-champion-jim-harbaugh-wolverines-sports-illustrated)
change with the times? Magazines changing with the times *means* closing their doors.
The photo spreads at the beginning of each issue, showcasing incredible photographers and photography, were awesome. The articles were hit or miss, but the hits were solid. Even ESPN’s larger format print couldn’t overcome the skill behind the lens and the pen. I miss those days.
One of my Christmas presents every year for like 5 years straight was my SI subscription. I'm pretty sure my dad did it just as much so he could read it too, but getting my SI was the highlight of my month back around 92-97.
SI was weekly.
Will use this time to post one of the best articles from recent years, about Junior Seau and his college teammates https://www.si.com/college/2020/10/07/usc-and-its-dying-linebackers It’s a long, sad read but worth it if you have a moment
They did really good stories that were more about people than sports. I remember this one great article, it was basically a biography of a heroin addict who lived in a garage in Vegas. His only connection to sports is that he was the first witness on the scene when Henry Ruggs killed that woman. The article talks about the guy's messed up life, and how he's trying to heal from what he saw that night. https://www.si.com/nfl/2022/03/29/henry-ruggs-iii-tony-rodriguez-crash-daily-cover
Honestly hasn't been good since they let Rick Reilly go.
It broke LeBron returning to Cleveland a decade ago. The 2019 Maven deal is what started to kill it off. Feels like its decline is more a result of its horrible private equity owners than the quality of work it was putting out. Good journalism costs money to produce.
Bikini edition.....and they messed that up somehow.
I'm surprised it took this long tbh. They'll probably hire an editor and use freelance for any real article, or may just close up shop. They could also try to scum and use AI.
They already utilize ai lol
> Sports Illustrated’s Publisher Lays Off Entire Staff. Future Unclear Many moons ago, use to look forward to that SI cover during college football season and seeing [Archie Griffin](https://images.app.goo.gl/hMyVJpxRkbY2qofe6), [Tony Dorsett](https://images.app.goo.gl/auPFNcfmbZAjGcXG6), [Earl Campbell](https://images.app.goo.gl/DYv1kayfaSfGhF25A), ... [Doug Flutie](https://images.app.goo.gl/52jK8oW9j1GZjrbV7).... etc., those covers were great... and stories inside, better.
Seeing Jacob Pullen and Collin Klein on the covers of SI was one of my fonder elementary school memories.
You mean [Jacob Pullen](https://images.app.goo.gl/oHCK3NkBfN6LfG8p9) and [Collin Klein](https://images.app.goo.gl/DhBMoHkqT7nrFAta6)?
Mr. Electric comes to my mind.
When SI went from a weekly magazine to a monthly magazine, I knew their days were numbered. I hope they can put the SI Vault out of a paywall now.
“We can get AI to do it..”🤡💀 Always how it goes. Some MBA with a calculator furiously punching numbers. “From my calculations we can replace the writing staff with AI!” I’m sitting there like, “Wait we can’t replace YOU with AI. All you do is a little math and analytics and you make enough to pay like 5 of us…”
AI has been doing it for months. Look at some of their recent articles.
I’d rather not.
Player A shares classy moment with Player B
I saw an article hyping an play off NFL game as an instant classic before the game started. It was not, in fact, an instant classic.
**Jim Harbaugh Is A Football Coach** By: Hugh Man "Have you ever wondered who the coach of the Michigan Wolverines is? The answer may shock you. But before we get to the answer, let's take a look at some background first. **First, what is football?** "American Football" is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with possession of the oval-shaped football, attempts to advance down the field by running with the ball or passing it, while the defense, the team without possession of the ball, aims to stop the offense's advance and to take control of the ball for themselves. The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs or plays; if they fail, they turn over the football to the defense, but if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs to continue the drive. Points are scored primarily by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponent's goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins. **Who are the Michigan Wolverines?** The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the most all-time wins in college football history. The team is known for its distinctive winged helmet, its fight song, its record-breaking attendance figures at Michigan Stadium, and its many rivalries, particularly its annual, regular season-ending game against Ohio State, known simply as "The Game," once voted as ESPN's best sports rivalry. Michigan began competing in intercollegiate football in 1879. The Wolverines joined the Big Ten Conference at its inception in 1896, and other than a hiatus from 1907 to 1916, have been members since. Michigan has won or shared 45 league titles, and since the inception of the AP Poll in 1936, has finished in the top 10 a total of 39 times. The Wolverines claim 12 national championships, including 3 (1948, 1997, 2023) from the major wire-service: AP Poll and/or Coaches' Poll. From 1900 to 1989, Michigan was led by a series of nine head coaches, each of whom has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame either as a player or as a coach. Fielding H. Yost became Michigan's head coach in 1901 and guided his "Point-a-Minute" squads to a streak of 56 games without a defeat, spanning from his arrival until the season finale in 1905, including a victory in the 1902 Rose Bowl, the first college football bowl game ever played. Fritz Crisler brought his winged helmet from Princeton University in 1938 and led the 1947 Wolverines to a national title and Michigan's second Rose Bowl win. Bo Schembechler coached the team for 21 seasons (1969–1989) in which he won 13 Big Ten titles and 194 games, a program record. The first decade of his tenure was underscored by a fierce competition with his former mentor, Woody Hayes, whose Ohio State Buckeyes squared off against Schembechler's Wolverines in a stretch of the Michigan–Ohio State rivalry dubbed the "Ten-Year War". Following Schembechler's retirement, the program was coached by two of his former assistants, Gary Moeller and then Lloyd Carr, who maintained the program's overall success over the next 18 years. However, the program's fortunes declined under the next two coaches, Rich Rodriguez and Brady Hoke, who were both fired after relatively short tenures. Following Hoke's dismissal, Michigan hired Jim Harbaugh on December 30, 2014. Harbaugh is a former quarterback of the team, having played for Michigan between 1982 and 1986 under Schembechler. Harbaugh led the team to success; since his hiring, the Wolverines have won three consecutive Big Ten Titles, played in five new year's six bowl games, and made the College Football Playoff three times. They won their first national championship since 1997, and first undisputed national championship since 1948 after beating Washington in the 2024 national title game. The Michigan Wolverines have featured 88 players that have garnered consensus selection to the College Football All-America Team. Three Wolverines have won the Heisman Trophy: Tom Harmon in 1940, Desmond Howard in 1991, and Charles Woodson in 1997. Gerald Ford, who later became the 38th president of the United States, started at center and was voted most valuable player by his teammates on the 1934 team. **Who is Jim Harbaugh?** Harbaugh is a former quarterback of the team, having played for Michigan between 1982 and 1986 under Schembechler. Harbaugh led the team to success; since his hiring, the Wolverines have won three consecutive Big Ten Titles, played in five new year's six bowl games, and made the College Football Playoff three times. They won their first national championship since 1997, and first undisputed national championship since 1948 after beating Washington in the 2024 national title game. **Who is the coach of the Michigan Wolverines?** Jim Harbaugh is a former quarterback of the team, having played for Michigan between 1982 and 1986 under Schembechler. Harbaugh led the team to success; since his hiring, the Wolverines have won three consecutive Big Ten Titles, played in five new year's six bowl games, and made the College Football Playoff three times. They won their first national championship since 1997, and first undisputed national championship since 1948 after beating Washington in the 2024 national title game."
The copy pasta to end all copy pasta? If you wrote this, AI will find it and it will become the seed for future articles. But if AI wrote it and you copied it, AI won't recognize its own output and not being original--and future articles based on this will make it seem like an AI hallucination. You fool, you've doomed us all!
Seems kind of clear to me?
That's a very understated headline for something absolutely massive
It's got very "Celebrity you thought was already dead is now, in fact, dead" vibes.
You forgot to add "future unclear".
99% of what they did was absolute garbage but they did employ a couple actual journalists, my favorite being Richard Johnson. He broke the story about the Manifesto, is one of the co-hosts on Split Zone Duo, and generally a very cool person. I feel very bad for him right now.
Richard Johnson seems to be the only journalist at SI. people say writing has gotten worst across the board and thats true but what really happened is the shift to podcasts. thats where all the good journalists and writers have turned. if you have had favorite writers in the past look them up they probably run a podcast now.
Are the remaining NFL guys not good? I always got the impression that Albert Breer and Connor Orr had some decent writeups. I occasionally read Jimmy Traina's column too, but I may just be stuck in old habits.
>99% of what they did was absolute garbage but they did employ a couple actual journalists Oof, if that's what you think the true legacy of *Sports Illustrated* is, you have some homework to do, my friend. Go to your local library and start pulling archives. I promise you won't regret it.
Sports Illustrated was such a huge part of my childhood
This is more NFL related, but I used to read SI articles by Dr Z (RIP) and Peter King every week. It’s such a weird concept that Sports Illustrated is going under. Combine that with a lot of local newspapers going under and the NFL currently trying to buy a piece of ESPN, and it feels like independent sports journalism is officially dead.
I had a Sports Illustrated subscription when I was a kid. From like 2001 to 2005ish. It was very different back then. The only way to get sports news not about your local teams was through either watching ESPN all day and waiting for specific shows or Sports Illustrated. The internet largely supplanted all of that, and information is available at all times now, but I really enjoyed reading them every week as a kid.
My dad was a pretty religious subscriber for many years, had weird random phones in our house that looked like shoes and footballs. It was THE place to understand what was going on outside of TV broadcasts and talking heads on AM sports radio. No reason why they couldn't have stayed on top the mountain and embraced the digital world, brought on good people like The Athletic did. Instead, just another dinosaur of old media. I hadn't even thought about them until Michigan won and I thought I should pick up an issue.
Same! Can't forget Don Banks and his Sunday night recaps either.
Hate this for everyone involved, to be blindsided. I wonder if this is why that commemorative cover of Michigan’s National Championship was so bad.
No one on that staff was blindsided. This has been the trend for many years now. It was why many of their staff has jumped ship in the past 3-4 years.
The future is very clear, much like their writing has been the past few years... It's shit.
Yep. When I searched for news on AlphaTauri's name change, the first result was an SI link. In the past, I would have gone there and only there, but today, I actively avoided it.
Seems they're going to a fully AI staff now
When I was a kid in the 80s SI was the source for sports news deep dives AND the greatest NFL hardest hits VHS videos. Add to that the fact that my sexual awakening was pretty much inspired by Elle McPherson in the 1986 swimsuit issue - seeing the sad decline and demise of the once proud brand is kinda sad. But to be fair they have been absolute crap for the last 20 years
I'll never forget seeing Kathy Ireland on the cover when I was 14. I had a really churchy upbringing, so I literally didn't have words for what I was feeling at the time.
I wish they still had weekly physical magazines. I would subscribe, but now you have to have a million stories a day, where 90% of them are made up rumors, repeated fluff or irrelevant analytics. Just give me some cover stories, a few investigative articles, and fill in the rest with great pictures. PEs will eat us alive until we have nothing. I'm waiting for the day when they no longer televise full games, you can only watch 4 minute highlight clips and then listen to an "analysis" talk 50 minutes about the clip.
This is a bit of a shame, but a long time coming. SI has been a shell of itself for the last 10 years. I got a subscription from my Grandparents when I was 10. This was the first issue I got: [January 15, 1979](https://www.ebay.com/itm/224161571975) Each issue was full of long, detailed articles, lots of great images, summaries of the weeks games, it was a trove of information for a kid really getting into sports, and turned me into the fan I am today.
What a convoluted story: One company (A) owns the rights to SI It sells those to a different company (B) who actually makes the magazine. Company B is bought out by a third entity, (C). C gets a new boss with his head up his ass. C passes that attitude down to B B doesn't pay A for the rights to SI. A cuts off B B has nothing to do, so lays everyone off (the headline) But A and B might re-negotiate. Or A might sell the rights to a new company. Either way the magazine will be back. I think.
>Future unclear Future seems pretty clear
Getting the cover photo on Sports Illustrated was huge…15 years ago
For decades, this was *the* blue chip property in sports media. It’s amazing how far they have fallen.
Surprised it took this long
Have they produced any relevant content in the last six months that wasn't AI generated?
Serious answer that you might not be looking for: [we first learned about the Stalions manifesto from Richard Johnson on si.com](https://www.si.com/college/2023/10/25/michigan-connor-stalions-texts-stolen-signals)
He's the guy I'm wondering to hear from the most here. Dude is a legit reporter. Love his work
Last true writer working under the SI “brand”
Wait the AI generated stuff was relevant? Asking for a friend who doesn't read SI.
I mean, yeah Richard Johnson was like on top of all the Connor news, like they still had reporters doing work
Good. After the ridiculous “dirty game” hit piece against Oklahoma State 10 years ago, they pretty confirmed that they were a tabloid rag. Good riddance
My personal boycott worked.
I mean, if they did a lay off of the entire staff, that seems clear to me.
I wonder how Chat GPT took the news... pretty badly I'd guess
[Print is dead](https://youtu.be/D3v_ogRaTf4?si=aBBTiPrg17sbAlG6)
Such a sad death for what used to be such an iconic magazine.
No staff? Future looks clear.
RIP cover of Pat White, Steve Slaton and Owen Schmitt
Didn't even know they were still around. They made cool covers to hang on your wall when your team won a championship but I haven't seen them in years.
Good riddance
[удалено]
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I feel bad for Richard Johnson. He’s actually gotten a lot of solid scoop and wrote a few good articles through SI recently
There goes my chance to be on the cover of the swimsuit issue.
Case in point. Only AI or a nubile sports editor would refer to Michigan as “Big Blue”
Man that sucks