Conservatives Cheer Mass Layoffs at Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated announced mass layoffs, as critics revived backlash that the magazine faced after it partnered with trans model Kim Petras for its 2023 Swimsuit Edition.After a tumultuous past several months in which the magazine also endured an AI-scandal, it will lay off a huge portion, if not all, of its staff.
As the print magazine struggled to transition into the digital media landscape, a November report by Futurism, a science and technology news site, accused Sports Illustrated of publishing AI-generated articles.
The magazine said the claims were "not accurate" after the story broke.On Friday, the Sports Illustrated Union and The NewsGuild of New York announced in a joint statement that the magazine's employees were notified earlier in the day that The Arena Group, publisher of Sports Illustrated, "is planning to lay off a significant number, possibly all, of the Guild-represented workers at SI."The decision was a result of Authentic Brands Group (ABG), which bought Sports Illustrated in 2019, "revoking Arena's license to publish SI."Earlier this month, the Arena Group failed to pay ABG $3.75 million, which was a breach of its licensing agreement.
ABG told Arena Group in a letter on Thursday that it was terminating the Sports Illustrated license.After the layoffs were announced, conservative podcaster Tim Pool wrote on X, formerly Twitter, "They put a dude with t**s on the cover so I'm not surprised."X user @ace_indy_biz, a supporter of former President Donald Trump, wrote, "Go woke go broke.
