RIP Sports Illustrated

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Chris_Sanders

Chris_Sanders

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And obviously the swimsuit issue gets some eyes
 

oaken1

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I didn't consider it a negative....

That's also a lot of anger
I'm all for the beauty of maturing women.

But the SI swimsuit edition has always been about celebrating female perfection...and even at my age a chubby eighty year old just isn't that.

But no anger. I miss watching MASH more than I will ever miss SI
 

moosehead

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All print is walking dead

edit... books will stick for a long time... but magazines? dead

Same with newspapers, probably. I've been a freelance writer and editor since the 80s (hunting and fishing, mostly) and for outdoor magazines at least - two things have changed. Obviously, the delivery method - magazines are expensive to produce and distribute - now we have podcasts, online magazines, blogs, vlogs, forums like this, and all kinds of ways for us to consume content. Also, at least in the outdoor industry - content generation has changed. Paid writers started disappearing over a decade ago and many mags started supplementing with reader-produced content. "Hey, submit your article and if selected, you get a free pair of binos". That model made it easier and easier to squeeze out staff writers, and the readers didn't seem to notice (or care) about the difference in quality.
 

Dr. Jones

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Like Shane I haven't picked up an copy in over a decade at a minimum. And I'm pretty sure these folks were already dying a slow death when they decided to change the thing that made them most famous. So in the end it was just a symptom of a much bigger problem in the building. Print media is dying. If you don't change your image and update your delivery model as the world moves online and then on phones........ your pretty much the walking dead at that point. SI..... Blockbuster..... Sears. Tons of examples to choose from.

RIP
 

Zeno

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I think the last SI issue I purchased had Fitz on it after the playoff win over GB.

I tended to purchase issues that had covers of teams/players I like--Tillman, Fitz, Warner etc, but otherwise ignored it.

Used to have subscriptions to Sporting News and Baseball Digest but never SI.
 

kerouac9

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Same with newspapers, probably. I've been a freelance writer and editor since the 80s (hunting and fishing, mostly) and for outdoor magazines at least - two things have changed. Obviously, the delivery method - magazines are expensive to produce and distribute - now we have podcasts, online magazines, blogs, vlogs, forums like this, and all kinds of ways for us to consume content. Also, at least in the outdoor industry - content generation has changed. Paid writers started disappearing over a decade ago and many mags started supplementing with reader-produced content. "Hey, submit your article and if selected, you get a free pair of binos". That model made it easier and easier to squeeze out staff writers, and the readers didn't seem to notice (or care) about the difference in quality.
Established writers can bring their audiences to pay, but I worry about the next generation of writers and where they’ll find a forum. Defector is a model where I’m happy to pay to access content and they seem to be willing to pay freelancers and sign young writers.

I work in marketing and PR and online sources are happy to print out content for free because they’re desperate for anything. I doubt anyone reads it, especially when Google increases fails to deliver meaningful search results.

That said, SI didn’t fold for structural reasons or because it got woke. It folded because VC ghouls loaded it up with debt it couldn’t possibly service.
 

Garthshort

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When SI first came on the scene it was an icon and I couldn't wait to read it. At the time I only had Sport Magazine, The Sporting News and a lot of newspapers to keep me up on sports news. My brother-in-law was a close friend of one of the top writers on SI, Bob Creamer. And when I graduated from college and finished two years in the Army in Germany and wanted to pursue a career as a sports writer, I had an interview with BC. He told me that the pay was poor, but that he could get me a job. It would involve moving to a small town in Ohio. But, having just spent two years in a small village in Germany, I declined the offer, and ended up in NYC. And continued my love of sports, by READING about them. But I appreciated SI when it first came out.
 

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