Sports Illustrated gets new life, publishing deal takes effect immediately

Sports Illustrated is getting a new publisher, a new operating arrangement and is potentially rehiring some of the staff members it laid off en masse in January.

Minute Media, the company that owns sports websites The Players' Tribune and Fansided, has reached a 10-year licensing agreement with Authentic Brands Group, and will continue publishing the iconic magazine founded in 1954.

"In the current era of digital, it’s still not trivial and quite difficult to build your own brand and get people to know and admire it," Asaf Peled, the chief executive of Minute Media, said in an interview with the New York Times. "So once you get the opportunity to work with and grow an iconic brand like Sports Illustrated, you take it."

Authentic Brands acquired Sports Illustrated in 2019 and had a licensing agreement with The Arena Group to publish its content in print and online. However, that deal was terminated after Arena missed a nearly $4 million payment early this year.

Shortly afterward, the company sent out an email to staff announcing a round of massive layoffs, which threatened to end publication of Sports Illustrated's print edition.

Instead, Peled told the Times his company plans to expand the magazine's global publishing operations and hire back some of the employees who were laid off.

The companies declined to disclose financial terms but said the deal takes effect immediately.