A new chapter for illustrated sport, with plans to remain in print

The owner of Sports Illustrated said it has chosen a new company to publish the magazine, a deal that could eliminate some of the recent friction surrounding the storied publication and allow the print edition to continue.

Authentic Brands Group, which owns the intellectual property rights to Sports Illustrated and celebrities including Marilyn Monroe and Muhammad Ali, said it has entered into a long-term agreement to license Sports Illustrated’s publishing rights to Minute Media, a digital media company focused on on sports.

Minute Media’s license with Sports Illustrated is for a term of ten years, with an option to renew for a total of up to thirty years, until the magazine’s centennial. The companies declined to disclose financial terms but said Authentic Brands Group took a stake in Minute Media as part of the deal.

The deal marks a significant expansion for Minute Media, a New York-based company founded in 2011 whose interests – including sports websites The Players’ Stand And Fan-sided – generating more than $400 million in revenue annually.

Sports Illustrated has been in turmoil for months, the result of a tug-of-war between the company that owns the iconic magazine and the energy drink magnate whose executives run it. The agreement is effective immediately and effectively wrests Sports Illustrated’s operations from Arena Group, the digital media company that has run the magazine since 2019 and threatened to discontinue the print edition.

It is a new chapter for Sports Illustrated, the first issue of which appeared in 1954. Minute Media CEO Asaf Peled said in an interview that he planned to continue the print edition of Sports Illustrated.

“In today’s digital age, it is still non-trivial and quite difficult to build your own brand and get people to know and admire it,” said Mr. Peled. “So when you get the opportunity to work with and grow an iconic brand like Sports Illustrated, you take it.”

Minute Media plans to expand the magazine’s publishing operations globally, Mr. Peled said, and to hire back some of the employees that Arena Group had laid off. He added that he would not know how many employees would return until Minute Media began operating the business this week.

Mr. Peled said Minute Media focused on “short-form sports content creation,” creating video, audio and text for consumption on mobile devices. It owns Fansided, which features articles and podcasts for sports fans, and was for years owned by Sports Illustrated’s former publisher, Time Inc.; and Players’ Tribune, which publishes videos and essays by athletes and was founded by Yankees Hall of Fame shortstop Derek Jeter. Mr. Peled said he also wanted to continue Sports Illustrated’s tradition of in-depth journalism.

“It is an exception to our core strategy, but it is not the first time we have done that,” Mr Peled said.