Bye-Bye, Sports Illustrated

Bye-bye, Sports Illustrated.

It looks like Sports Illustrated is finished. Are you surprised, though? I’m not. Just a few short months ago, the pop-culture icon of a magazine was accused of writing articles with artificial intelligence (AI). Okay, some people might not have a problem with that, but when you can’t pay the bills, that’s another story.

The Arena Group – which publishes Sports Illustrated – has informed employees that a ‘significant number, possibly all, of the Guild-represented workers at SI’ will be laid off.

It comes as a result of Authentic Brands Group (ABG), the group that purchased Sports Illustrated for $110million in 2019, ending its agreement with Arena to publish in both print and digital.

Arena missed a $2.8m payment as part of the licensing agreement three weeks ago. – The Daily Mail

So you don’t pay the bills, your license gets revoked, and your entire staff gets laid off. Yep, that’s pretty much how it works.

But let’s ask the obvious question. Why can’t they pay the bills?

How it started:
Sports Illustrated put a trans dude in a swimsuit on the cover of their 2023 annual swimsuit edition.

How it’s going:
All of the staff at Sports Illustrated was fired today.

Go woke, Go broke … strikes again. pic.twitter.com/3VcZHwRyNN

— Wall Street Silver (@WallStreetSilv) January 19, 2024

Yep, and that’s also pretty much how it works. Go woke, go broke. When are these companies going to learn their lessons?

Some companies going woke are not yet quite broke but are on their way. Disney and Bud Light come to mind, but they are still afloat and may not completely disappear. You’ve got people like Dana White trying to revive Bud Light anyway.

And I don’t think any real man watches Disney’s owned ESPN anymore, do they? It used to be a staple in our house, but I don’t think my husband has had it on in 4 or 5 years.

Other companies like Vice and Buzzfeed have folded, too.

The Washington Times, back in May 2023, was showing us the crystal ball future with its editorial titled, “Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue takes a deep dive into ‘woke’ waters.”

Very telling indeed.

All but gone are the days when page after page was graced by images of lithe beauties such as Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Kathy Ireland, Elle MacPherson, Heidi Klum and — and more recently Kate Bock, Hannah Davis and Olivia Culpo — frolicking in the sand and surf.

Radically redefining “beauty,” Ms. Day, over the years, largely has replaced traditional swimsuit models with ones who are nontraditional (to say the least), among them the euphemistically “plus-sized” (Yumi Nu), and the grandmotherly (Maye Musk, the 74-year-old mother of Elon Musk, in 2022, and lifestyle maven Martha Stewart, 81, this year). This isn’t your father’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Apparently, it’s now your grandfather’s. – Washington Times

Ms. Day is the doodle-head who helped break Sports Illustrated with her DEI crap. She’s the Editor-in-Chief of the Swimsuit Edition of Sports Illustrated.

Super Sky Point to Sports Illustrated. I couldn’t imagine being a sports fan in my childhood without it. Damn near every 70s cover is suitable for framing because “less is more” was still a thing people understood back then. #RIP pic.twitter.com/1QtXLXqSAH

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) January 19, 2024