It seems a combination of wokeness and AI has doomed the left-wing staff at America’s best-known sports magazine.
The company that hired almost all of the staff at Sports Illustrated, which has chronicled the sports world since 1954, announced Friday that it was laying off a “significant number” of those workers, according to a statement by the union representing SI’s writers.
Some media outlets noted that the decision likely meant all of SI’s writers were pink-slipped.
Read: Despite Passage Of “Turd Sandwich” Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz Not Giving Up On Securing Border
According to The Daily Wire, Authentic Brands Group, or ABG, which took over SI in 2019, revoked its contractor’s license, the Arena Group, to publish content under SI’s brand.
The decision came after the Arena Group missed a payment to retain the license. SI’s unionized writers worked for the Arena Group.
According to Front Office Sports, which first broke the story of the shake-up at SI, Arena Group owed its licensor $3.75 million.
Front Office Sports noted that ABG pledged that SI would continue “through a necessary evolution” and that the firm was “committed to ensuring that the traditional ad-supported Sports Illustrated media pillar has best-in-class stewardship to preserve the complete integrity of the brand’s legacy.”
The outlet also noted that SI “has struggled to find its financial foothold in the digital age.”
One example of that was a scandal that erupted in November.
Read: Venezuelan Gang Member Who Kidnapped, Murdered Florida Man Was In US Illegally
As Daily Wire recalled on Friday, “Sports Illustrated appeared to have been publishing AI-generated content attributed to fake authors — complete with bogus biographies and headshots.”
“When asked about the content by Futurism [the website that borks the story], Sports Illustrated allegedly deleted the AI-created writers and profiles along with the content generated by AI. Sports Illustrated CEO Ross Levinsohn was then fired by The Arena Group in December.”
Front Office Sports noted that it was last month when Manoj Bhargava, the founder of 5-Hour Energy, who bought a 65% stake in Arena Group in August, told the SI staff at a town hall meeting, “The amount of useless stuff you guys do is staggering.”
SI was perhaps best known for its iconic swimsuit edition, whose covers for most of the last 60 years was graced by some of the most beautiful women in the world.
Yet in 2021 and 2022, SI featured on the swimsuit edition cover Leyna Bloom and Kim Petras, respectively, both of whom are biological men who identify as women.
Read: Florida Gov. DeSantis Responds To Media Criticism Ahead Of New Hampshire Primary
SI also created alternate covers that featured plus-sized model Yumi Nu and 81-year-old Martha Stewart.
According to the Alliance for Audited Media, SI’s circulation was almost 3.1 million in 2016, making it the 12th most popular magazine in the country.
Last year, the website Wordsrated.com reported that SI had an average circulation of 1.23 million in 2022.
Android Users, Click To Download The Free Press App And Never Miss A Story. Follow Us On Facebook and Twitter. Sign up for our free newsletter.