Sports Illustrated media columnist Jimmy Traina posted his Traina Thoughts column for the first time in two weeks and it sounds like things are in much better shape than they have been of late for his employer.
“You may have read reports in recent weeks about some turmoil regarding Sports Illustrated,” he wrote. “To make a very long and convoluted story short, SI now has a new operator, Minute Media, which is a GREAT thing. The transition from the old operator to the new operator was rough, but not because of the new operator.
“I will spare you the details and just tell you that Sports Illustrated is not dead—by a long shot. The magazine is alive. The website is alive. Our social channels are alive. My column is alive, and my podcast is alive. Any reports of SI‘s demise are 100% wrong.”
Back on January 19th, Sports Illustrated‘s owner, Authentic Brands Group terminated its licensing deal with The Arena Group, the company that published SI for the past 4+ years. The Arena Group then informed the Sports Illustrated team that it was laying off the publication’s entire staff, throwing the former stalwart of sports reporting’s existence into uncertainty.
