Sports Illustrated Cuts Entire Staff; Future Unclear
Newsmax.com
By
Sandy Fitzgerald | Friday, 19 January 2024 01:59 PM EST
https://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/sports-illustrated-layoffs-media/2024/01/19/id/1150253/
The
entire staff of Sports Illustrated was laid off Friday after Authentic, a licensing
group that bought the magazine five years ago, terminated its agreement with
The Arena Group to publish the magazine in print and digital forms.
The
agreement was struck three weeks after Arena missed a $2.8 million payment,
breaching the company's licensing deal with SI that began in 2019, when
Authentic bought the magazine for $110 million from Meredith, according to an
email obtained by Front
Office Sports.
Arena
informed the SI employees through an email that their jobs were being
terminated: "We were notified by Authentic Brands Group (ABG) that the license
under which the Arena Group operates the Sports Illustrated (SI) brand and
SI-related properties has been officially revoked by ABG. As a result of this
license revocation, we will be laying off staff that work on the SI
brand."
The
email said that "some employees will be terminated immediately, and paid
in lieu of the applicable notice period under the [the union contract]"
and that employees whose last working day was Friday "will be contacted by
the People team soon. Other employees will be expected to work through the end
of the notice period, and will receive additional information shortly."
Arena
did not respond to Front Office Sports when it was contacted about the plans
for the layoff.
The
Sports Illustrated Guild wrote on X on Friday:
"We have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this
storied publication that we love, and to make sure our workers are treated
fairly for the value they bring to this company. It is a fight we will
continue."
Authentic's
license termination came weeks after 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava
introduced himself to Arena employees, which included those from Sports
Illustrated, as their new leader after his company, Simplify Inventions, bought
about 65% of Arena for $50 million in August.
Sources
with knowledge of the system told Front Office Sports that Authentic has been
speaking with multiple parties about finding someone to take over Arena's role
with Sports Illustrated.
It's not
clear if Authentic will find someone to operate the decades-old publication or
if it will allow Arena to negotiate the deal it currently has, but sources say
that the company wants to move the process along as fast as it can, and will "see
Sports Illustrated through a necessary evolution."
When
Authentic bought Sports Illustrated in 2019, the Arena Group — operating as
Maven, before it changed its name two years later — paid Authentic $45 million
up front to begin a 10-year agreement for licensing.
The
news about the layoffs came about a month after Sports Illustrated CEO Ross
Levinsohn, along with several company executives, were fired amid
the backlash over the outlet's use of AI-generated content.
Meanwhile,
Inside sources told Front Office Sports that Authentic has been angry with
Arena in the past few years, with Sports Illustrated going through several
rounds of layoff and losing much of the publication's top talent.
Arena
also on Thursday fired more than 100 employees throughout its organization, but
Bhargava, who was named as the company's interim CEO in December, stepped down
on Jan. 5, meaning someone else made the moves to cut costs.
According
to an SEC filing, he left the position to "avoid any conflicts of
interests" through his ownership of Bridge Media Networks, which is
reportedly in talks to make a "substantial investment" in
Arena.
Arena
execs, its board of directors, and Jason Frankl, of FTI Consulting, who was
appointed as Arena's chief business transformation officer when Bhargava
resigned, carried out the layoffs.
"My
immediate focus is to collaboratively design a growth-oriented media company,
ensuring the financial stability necessary to cultivate and grow the brands we
cherish," Frankl said in a statement, calling the layoffs
"regrettably necessary."
Sports
Illustrated
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_Illustrated
Sports Illustrated (SI) is an American sports magazine owned
by Authentic Brands Group (ABG) and was first published in August 1954.
Authentic
Brands Group (ABG)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authentic_Brands_Group
On
May 27, 2019, ABG announced
its acquisition of sports magazine Sports Illustrated from Meredith Corporation for US$110 million.[23] The
company stated it planned to leverage its trademarks and
other non-core assets in new ventures. Meredith will continue to publish
the Sports Illustrated magazine and digital properties under
license for at least two years.[24] On
June 18, 2019, it was announced that rights to publish the Sports
Illustrated editorial operations would be licensed to The Maven under
a 10-year deal, with Ross
Levinsohn as CEO.[25] In
August 2019, BlackRock became the largest shareholder in Authentic
Brands (ABG).
Connecting
the Dots:
Keith T. Anderson was
a co-founder for BlackRock, Inc. and a chief investment officer for
the Soros Fund Management.
George Soros is the founder of
the Soros Fund Management.
Resources:
Past Research
Sports
Illustrated tweet on Supreme Court case roils social media (Connecting the
Dots: Where Soros networking for control over Prayer & Guns overlap) (Past Research on Sports Illustrated)
WEDNESDAY,
JUNE 22, 2022
https://thesteadydrip.blogspot.com/2022/06/sports-illustrated-tweet-on-supreme.html
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