Sports actions Illustrated lays off entire employees, future remains hazardous | LiveNOW from FOX

The fade of a once very story and famous magazine I'm talking about Sports Illustrated we learned this today that staffers there were notified of massive layoffs some happening immediately others in short time with the potential for the entire staff to be gone in three months is this the end of Sports Illustrated as we know it John sortz.

With market watch joining me to answer that question uh John thanks for being with us here you heard the intro question question there do you agree or is that the reality on the ground there with this very historic magazine is it over it's I think it's been over for quite a bit quite a long time it's what used to be Sports Illustrated I I mean I.

Used to religiously read it I subscribed to it had among the greatest writers not just in sports but in general American journalism we had Gary Smith probably the greatest feature writer Dan Jenkins Frank de Ford Jack McCullum Paul Zimmerman Rick Riley that the list just goes on and on but in recent years as its fortunes had faded like most.

Mainstream magazines and I'm thinking not just life or look but I think what happened to time and Newsweek even people their Shadows what they used to be they're slowly shrinking in this new media landscape um Sports Illustrated wasn't coming out weekly it was coming out monthly for a very expensive price for news that was weeks old um it was it.

Was it was really hard to look at it's really hard to to to witness this and I think now this is just the formality of what we were building up to for the last decade plus so John would you argue um I'm kind of Talking Shop here was there not really any journalism anymore was it just kind of content curation there at sports illust it was I mean there were I.

Mean Tom bruchi I think still wrote I again I didn't read it religiously in the last decade fuchi was still on the staff writing about baseball so you would see a feature of his is in there I'm sure the website would would have some sort of some sort of news I mean there was a whole I think we talked about the whole controversy about AI but.

You know one thing Andre if you kind of step back it's not just Sports Illustrated it's just what happened before before there was cable or streaming or or social media we had the three major networks we had these massive National Publications people instead of people having streaming um subscriptions to.

Services they subscribed to four magazines four National magazines and as TV evolved and and social media evolved we start getting our news from different Outlets like Google and meta Tik Tok right X and and I think it's just just it's just kind of disintegrated a way at the core of these companies and marginalized them um time still has an.

Issue that Mark Benny off is is running but it's it's it's nothing what it used to be um I think that's just this is what's going on this is okay the the story The Narrative of of Journalism in general um it's it's shifting to a different way the the way it's consumed people read more probably read as much or absorb as much information as they.

Ever have before but just in really bite-size and I mean bite siiz I mean 15 second video clips or a headline with the first paragraph perhaps they read that these were magazines where they would do 2 3,000 5,000 word essays which were among the best written um I think the New Yorker still does this but it's the exception U I think it's just I.

Think Sports Illustrated is just the latest example of how America's changed in in different ways including how it absorbs information yeah that's so interesting um you know John it seems like no one does have time for a 10,000w profile on LeBron James because they hear from LeBron James all the time there's no kind of Allure or or mystery.

In these celebrated sports stars anymore that was how you got information about them you read a profile by one of these incredible writers in Sports Illustrated about a sports figure that you didn't hear from all the time you just saw them only when they were on the mound we're on the court we're on the ice and I thought that was so interesting I want.

To talk about the economics though of this decision today because Sports Illustrated was no longer in print it was purely a digital property and correct me if I'm wrong on that front there but well they had they had they had this so the only reason I know this is I frequently go to Barnes & Noble and um near the front desk where you'll have.

The Atlantic or the New Yorker uh People magazine once a month maybe maybe it was once a quarter by the end there was a publication for sports illustrat so out of curiosity I would pick it up and leave through it and it was paper thin like most of these Publications are now and it was just you're right aggregated content it wasn't particularly Timely.

There's a lot of um uh long-term life to these stories or they thought there was um but yeah you're right you know that I'm so glad you mentioned though the fact the athletes we wouldn't hear from them we' only hear from them um maybe in a rare interview after a game but now they control the content they are telling us they're sharing with us.

Whether it's in a podcast or a on X or Instagram whatever right they can contr The Narrative they control the power um on their terms and the access isn't there and when there was access it was usually through maybe five or six different major media companies that isn't the case anymore right because you know um sports fans weren't subscribing.

To Sports Illustrated for stats and figures and you know records and things like that but let's get back into the economics of this so authentic that was the name of the licensing group that purchased Sports Illustrated for $110 million uh from the Meredith media corporation that was 5 years ago they terminated the agreement.

That it holds with um this group known as the arena group to publish Sports Illustrated in both print and digital that move comes three weeks after Arena missed a three and 3/4 million payment that breached the company's licensing deal which began back in 2019 so the fundamentals the finances um maybe they were in jeopardy maybe that's what this.

Decision is about today that the money is not there money's not there and unless there is some sort of um resolution to this licensing conflict anybody who's left there after I think you mentioned 90 days they will lose their job so unless there's some sort of hail marry path so to speak this is the end of Sports Illustrated as we know it.

But I think to a lot of people who followed it that H that day happened a long time ago okay so John let's just hear from from now uh I guess the journalists themselves the members of the news Guild and the union there they released this statement uh I know it's somewhat difficult to read I'm going to read part of it here uh this is from the.

Sports Illustrated Union in the news Guild of New York they say we have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this storyed 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 that's Mitch goldrich he's the NFL editor and Union chair uh.

There at the Sports Illustrated Union so the fight goes on with these journalists there who really are hanging on by a thread to your point John yeah it's just I feel very a lot of empathy for them I feel extremely sorry for them because what they're going through is what most people in the prince side of things have been going through for the last 10 years.

I mean the the elimination deterioration the loss of jobs in in mainstream newspapers magazines what have you has been has been devastating and um in a sense the advertising went away it went to Google meta um probably Netflix now uh the the companies that do are still major media companies are like Disney are trying to.

Figure out what to do I mean we do they import gambling operations in tspn I mean if you watch Sunday Night Football it's basically a presentation of of gambling as much as it is in football based on the air time they give to people on the gambling side uh they're looking for different types of revenue streams because their bread and butter.

Advertising is gone and there's just so much more competition I guess when it really all comes down to it we went from like these mainstream General news at organizations to highly specialized very well reported types of organizations like axios Politico uh Venture beat when it comes to venture capital it it's CNBC sport.

Too I mean dead spin yes so many of the ringer yeah the ringer now the athletic things like that um where yeah you know you can get your sports news elsewhere is what I'm saying you can you can get you can probably get more quality content now than ever before and you mentioned the athletic with has his deal with the New York Times um all the other.

Sources they're very well researched very well written they do long journalism yeah long form journalism I think uh Sports Illustrated probably you know suffered a lot because of ESPN because and and the iPhone you think about it just this instant access to information before you didn't really know the athletes or you didn't know.

Really what happened in a game until you read the account and Sports Illustrated because they had the access well the access now is is being supplied by the athletes um through their podcast like a Draymond Green for example you mentioned LeBron James they control the narrative the teams control the narrative and so they decide who they're going to dollop.

The news information to um it's just evolving this I mean this just happens or it will continue to happen right to the to the athletes that was my point there's like nothing left to you know wonder about them or desire about them it's like they they put themselves so forward and up front there there's very little to the imagination for for some.

Of these so uh John Sports we got to leave it at that we do hope you have a good talk soon you can too

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