‘Sports Illustrated’ Sold To Authentic Brands Group For $110 Million In Attempt To Reach Diminishing Audience

The prominent sports magazine, Sports Illustrated, was sold to Authentic Brands Group’s for just over $100 million this week. The company which owned it, Meredith, announced the sale on Tuesday morning.

Despite this development, Meredith will continue to hold, publish and distribute the magazine and run the website. Authentic Brands Groups will be in charge of the marketing and licensing aspects of the magazine.

According to CNN, Jamie Salter, the Authentic Brands Group’s CEO, issued a statement about Sports Illustrated‘s “trusted name and fiercely devoted following set the stage for the brand to become a leader in lifestyle and entertainment.”

Sports Illustrated dominated the early 2000s in terms of sports news, but has recently suffered through the new digital age that has consumers receiving news through their phones, websites and TV cable like ESPN and FOX Sports, as well as services like BAMTech, a baseball streaming service that is owned by Disney. There is still, however, a loyal audience to the magazine, and plenty of subscribers to their website.

“Sports Illustrated had so much residual goodwill among its readers and entire audience,” Terry McDonell told NPR News, who was the former editor.  “Everybody remembered something about sports in relationship to Sports Illustrated. I don’t think that’s gone away. It might have shrunk a bit.”

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Although the popularity of the magazine might have diminished, it still remains the most famous sports magazine, still going on track of their 27-issue-per-year schedule the magazine runs with. Revenue will still be flowing, but changing their marketing strategies could help them reach a bigger audience, perhaps attacking the technology to be able to reach a bigger target audience.

The new deal will also expand to Sports Illustrated to start covering e-sports and sports gambling, two of the bigger growing communities in sports.

Article by Tyler Pence