Sports Illustrated, a publication of more than 60 years that has recently faced criticism over its alleged use of artificial intelligence-generated (AI) content and featuring transgender models on the cover of its annual swimsuit editions, is now facing layoffs among its staff.
The magazine’s union, which is affiliated with the NewsGuild of New York, posted on social media that its publishing company will be firing employees.
“Earlier today, the workers of Sports Illustrated were notified that The Arena Group is planning to lay off a significant number, possibly all, of the Guild-represented workers at SI, a result of Authentic Brands Group (ABG) revoking Arean’s license to publish SI,” the union said in a statement. “This is 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.”
The Arena Group owns platforms such as Parade and Men’s Journal.
“We have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this storied publication that we love and to make sure our workers are treated fairly for the value they bring to this company,” said Mitch Goldich, NFL editor for Sports Illustrated.
Richard Deitsch, a former writer with Sports Illustrated, shared a post on X that shows what he said was an email that all staffers received on Jan. 19 stating that ABG revoked The Arena Group’s license to operate Sports Illustrated.
“As a result of this license revocation, we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand,” the post states, noting that fired employees will get severance and that The Arena Group will honor the union’s agreement.
“Some employees will be terminated immediately and paid in lieu of the applicable notice period under the MOA. Employees with a last working day of today will be contacted by the People team soon. Other employees will be expected to work through the end of the notice period and will receive additional information shortly.”
The Arena Group Responds
An Arena Group spokesperson told The Epoch Times that an “active discussion” is continuing with ABG.“Even though the publishing license has been revoked, we will continue to produce Sports Illustrated until this is resolved,” the spokesperson said. “We hope to be the company to take SI forward, but if not, we are confident that someone will. If it is another business, we will support the transition so the legacy of Sports Illustrated doesn’t suffer.”
On Jan. 18, The Arena Group announced a reduction of more than 100 employees in its workforce “in a strategic move to transform the business model.”
“The Company, which has substantial debt and recently missed payments, is completing these cost-cutting measures to initiate a transformative shift towards a streamlined business model,” the announcement reads.
An ABG spokesperson confirmed to The Epoch Times that The Arena Group’s license to publish Sports Illustrated was terminated because the company failed to pay its quarterly license fee, “despite being given a notice of breach and an opportunity to secure the breach.”
“Authentic is here to ensure that the brand of Sports Illustrated, which includes its editorial arm, continues to thrive as it has for the past nearly 70 years,” the spokesperson said. “We are confident that going forward, the brand will continue to evolve and grow in a way that serves sports news readers, sports fans, and consumers.”
Past Issues
In November 2023, The Arena Group denied assertions that Sports Illustrated published content generated by artificial intelligence.“Today, an article was published alleging that Sports Illustrated published AI-generated articles,” The Arena Group stated. “According to our initial investigation, this is not accurate.”
The publication Futurism reported that Sports Illustrated used fake authors.
When Futurism contacted The Arena Group for comment, the authors disappeared from the website.
The Arena Group later stated that it had contracted with a company called AdVon Commerce that told The Arena Group that the articles were written by humans but that it used false, AI-generated personas to protect their author’s privacy.
“We have learned that AdVon had writers use a pen or pseudo name in certain articles to protect author privacy—actions we strongly condemn—and we are removing the content while our internal investigation continues and have since ended the partnership,” The Arena Group stated.
The Sports Illustrated union stated that it was “outraged” that The Arena Group published AI-generated content without their knowledge.
‘The writers, editors, designers, fact-checkers, social and video producers, and others who make up our unit understand the significance of an SI byline,” the union stated.
Transgender Swimsuit Model
In 2023, Sports Illustrated encountered backlash when it put its second transgender model and performer, Kim Petras, on the cover of its swimsuit edition, the first being trans model Valentina Sampaio in 2020.The move prompted many advocates who protest the ideology of gender fluidity because of its effect on children to call for a boycott of the magazine.
“The 2023 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition cover model is a biological man with fake boobs,” Wisconsin Moms for Liberty Chapter Chair Scarlett Johnson said. “I really hope men are #Done with Sports Illustrated.”
Naveen Athrappully contributed to this report.
