Many SI staffers laid off after Arena Group loses license

After years of decline, Sports Illustrated is now in its most precarious position yet.

SI staffers were notified by e-mail Friday that many of their jobs will be eliminated, according to a copy of said e-mail that has made the rounds on social media. The Arena Group, which operates SI and other publications, reportedly failed to pay Authentic Brands Group (ABG) a $3.75m quarterly licensing payment at the end of 2023. The license has subsequently been revoked by ABG, which purchased the SI brand in 2019 before agreeing to a 10-year licensing agreement with Arena Group.

Per a Friday afternoon SEC filing, the loss of Arena Group’s license triggers an immediate $45m payment to ABG, based on terms of their agreement. A report in Sportico suggests the two sides are currently engaging in discussions about how the licensing agreement will be enforced.

The Sports Illustrated Union said in a statement that the news marked “another difficult day in what has been a difficult four years for Sports Illustrated under Arena Group (previously The Maven) stewardship. We are calling on ABG to ensure the continued publication of SI and allow it to serve our audience in the way it has for nearly 70 years.”

Per the aforementioned e-mail sent to SI staffers, impacted employees will receive severance pay in accordance with their union agreements. Some employees will be terminated effective today, while others will be expected to work “through the end of the notice period.”

SI found itself in the spotlight last November when a report was published outlining the use of AI-generated product reviews from fictitious authors on its website. The report shed light on the dysfunction among Arena Group leadership regarding SI; and culminated in reports outlining Arena Group interim CEO Manoj Bhargava belittling staffers in a companywide townhall saying, “No one is important, I am not important … The amount of useless stuff you guys do is staggering.”

Bhargava stepped down as interim CEO on January 5th after a deal that would have him purchase a majority stake in Arena Group reportedly did not close as expected. The lack of deal puts Arena Group’s future at serious risk.

SI Senior Writer Pat Forde took to social media Friday afternoon to clarify details about the future of the outlet. Forde: “The entire staff was not laid off. There still is a website and magazine.” He also highlighted comments from Matt Lombardi of Arena Group who said of SI’s future, “We are going to continue to operate Sports Illustrated. … Either Arena or someone else is going to have the license to operate Sports Illustrated.”

The SI purge is just the latest in what has been a brutal start to 2024 for those in the media industry, with publications like the Los Angeles Times and NBC News already cutting their workforce this year.

(Front Office Sports, 1.19) (Deitsch, 1.19) (SI Union, 1.19) (Sportico, 1.19) (Axios, 1.19) (Forde, 1.19)