Layoffs at Sports Illustrated commenced this week, and Dan Le Batard wonders what the future holds for sports journalism as a medium as SI slowly morphs into a shell of what it once was.
Jessica Smetana is a former Sports Illustrated employee, who now works as a producer for Meadowlark Media. She told Dan that it was sad to see the publication go in the direction it’s gone. Despite still employing some very talented writers and staff, Le Batard said SI hasn’t adapted well with the times. He recalled a moment where the consensus in a meeting one time was that no one was going to read a piece of long-form sports journalism in a magazine or magazine style.
“I remember it clearly because of how much it hurt and how it jarred me without realizing oh this is how and where it’s gonna change too with debate culture and argument shows and the need for speed,” Le Batard said on his Thursday show. “And I don’t have time to sit down and read something that’s well-written that actually gives me illumination and insight into an athlete I care about. Unless it’s a book.”
Dan said SI used to be an institution. The Sports Illustrated style of writing is unique in his eyes and he wondered if there was another outlet that would even come close to what SI used to do well.
“Where would you go right now that would be like Sports Illustrated?” Le Batard asked. “Where you would go because you want to be more informed than you are about the personalities and about the stories. Not the data, not the analytics. There are a lot of places that will give you a lot of good information that is learning. But just to learn something more about a personality.”
The conversation then pivoted to outlets like The Athletic, which really grew its audience with a different approach to sports reporting. But the company has failed in recent years to be profitable and had to be sold to the New York Times. The Athletic continues to operate at a loss, and Le Batard said it’s tough to operate in a space where the audience reach is supremely limited or niche.
“If you’re running a business and the business happens to have journalism in it, and I’m telling ya that the people will not pay, content is expensive and doing these things can be prohibitive,” Dan said. “What is your market if people aren’t clamoring for it?”
“It is very expensive to try to do this, and I don’t know what the market is as Sports Illustrated dies and nobody seems to care,” he added.
