Sports Illustrated laid off most of its staff Friday. There are money and licensing issues. It's complicated. I'm not sure I understand it, and I've been studying, and in the media for 45 years. I even know how to pronounce Tunkhannock and Throop.
I had a Sports Illustrated subscription when I was a kid. I think it was 19 cents a week when I was in high school. Its weekly arrival was a treat. There was no ESPN back then, no glut of sports media. It was just the nightly news, the morning paper, and the magazines-- Sport, the Sporting News, Baseball digest...
It wasn't just the writing in Sports Illustrated, which was wonderful. It was the photos. Great stuff. Athletes bursting in color, almost jumping off the pages. You really looked forward to the big issues after the World Series and the Super Bowl. The swimsuit edition was the stuff dreams are made of.
You know the story. Anything in print has been in serious decline in recent years. Sports Illustrated was under the Time umbrella for years. It's changed hands. The weekly became a monthly. It suffered from neglect. It really needed someone to give it tender, loving care-- someone to revive the brand.
It doesn't look like that's going to happen. I wouldn't be surprised to see Sports Illustrated go out of business. A bit of history, and a lot of my childhood, will be lost.
By the way, it was three out of four correct in my football picks this last weekend. I'll have something to say about Championship Sunday later this week.
