Ross Levinsohn is the Sports Illustrated CEO. He has been in the industry for over 20 years, working with companies such as News Corp, Yahoo!, and Providence Equity Partners.
The Sports Illustrated CEO delivers a lecture on the future of media at Columbia’s graduate journalism program.
This a bold statement and one that will likely draw varying reactions. As Levinsohn makes clear in his remarks, there is no set standard for a sports media business model; there’s only one dynamic in place, and it’s changing. That dynamic, the speed of change in how consumers provide content, along with the vagaries of regulatory oversight and financial structures such as restricted revenue pools and local broadcast rights, are all part of a big picture where the business model is flexible to accommodate all these changes.
It is believed that Sports Illustrated has a higher readership than most other sports magazines in the country, with close to 13 million readers, including digital magazines and online readers. The magazine’s website has over 26 million unique visitors each month. These figures are expected to increase as more people continue to use the internet for news and information.
History Of Sports Illustrated
The magazine was initially released as a sports section but later became a separate publication. In fact, during the early years of Sports Illustrated, it was only used as a seasonal football review. However, before long, the magazine evolved into its current form. It began to cover other sports, including baseball and basketball, to enthuse readers more about sports rather than just focusing on football. At this point, Sports Illustrated attracted several famous names. The main ones are John F. Kennedy, and Steve McQueen, among others.
Sports Illustrated is also one of the few publications that have never had a spell beyond being edited by one person, namely Peter B. Moore, for the past 11 years. The magazine is known for its covers, the most famous being Muhammad Ali and Roger Federer’s “Best of” covers after their victories in their respective sports. Huntley also won a record $9 million settlement. Sports Illustrated is, in many ways, the leading sports magazine in America, with the American Sportscaster Association and the National Sportscasters Association electing it as its “Magazine of the Year” for nine consecutive years.