Sports Illustrated's Buyers Promise Generational Wealth

October 5, 2019 3:54 PM

Empowerment through layoffs. We’re here to empower journalism. We’re so passionate about empowering journalism,” said Heckman, hours after laying off dozens of journalists. “We’ve been doing this for decades, and our goal is that when you work you gain equity, and you build wealth for your children and your children’s children. That’s our goal.”

"In conversations with Deadspin, several sources who were pitched jobs running Maven team sites under Sports Illustrated branding described a bleak scenario. They said they were told they would earn between $25,000 and $30,000 per year, with vague opportunities to make extra money by hitting “traffic bonuses.” They would be expected to post three “news videos” per day to their site—they were to wear Maven polo shirts in these videos—as well as hundreds of posts per month. The message was clear: Quantity over quality. Prospective Maven “partners” were told by company execs that if they had trouble creating enough content, they should go to the nearest college and find eager young students who would write for free. These Maven partners would also be required to register themselves as an LLC, presumably so TheMaven would avoid any SB Nation–like legal liability for misclassifying workers as independent contractors instead of employees. "

posted by jojo and the benjamins (24 comments total)

They - among other things - didn't get the memo about that whole "video content is the future of the Internet" deal?
posted by Selena777 at 4:14 PM on October 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

They did, Selena777. Maven's $25,000 entrepreneurs are supposed to film at least 3 news videos a day in addition to writing and editing posts, moderating comments, selling ads, and presumably pedaling the bicycle generator that powers the servers. (Of course that whole "pivot to video" thing was based on BS numbers the whole time.)
posted by skymt at 4:26 PM on October 5, 2019 [10 favorites]

"broverlords"
posted by doctornemo at 4:27 PM on October 5, 2019 [22 favorites]

Did we mention our new Sink or Swimsuit issue?
posted by hal9k at 4:27 PM on October 5, 2019 [22 favorites]

That's what I meant - that the pivot to video was a bust.
posted by Selena777 at 4:46 PM on October 5, 2019 [9 favorites]

Remember, “innovation” means “doing what other people were doing 5-10 years ago but not learning from their experiences.”
posted by GenjiandProust at 6:03 PM on October 5, 2019 [21 favorites]

How foolish of me not to expect that Scientology would become a preeminent model for business in the 21st Century.
posted by jamjam at 6:04 PM on October 5, 2019 [4 favorites]

For some reason, a report of the gutting of a treasured journalistic jewel like the fabled soft-porn swimsuit rag has less of an impact when the first paragraph contains the phrase "notorious scumbags."
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 6:15 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

It's not my culture, but SI has been a landmark of sports journalism since 1954. It's bad enough seeing the things I grew up with wither and die in this neon sewer of a present we live in, it's worser still to see a part of it willfully destroyed by greedheads who don't know the value of anything beyond a price tag.
posted by KHAAAN! at 6:29 PM on October 5, 2019 [11 favorites]

"[Ross Levinsohn had] done a stint at Yahoo. They wanted to believe things would get better."

posted by jojo and the benjamins at 6:41 PM on October 5, 2019 [1 favorite]

20 years ago I was a journalism student. 18 years ago, I dropped out. Felt like a terrible decision then, but in hindsight, I'm glad I didn't do so much as an internship in that field. The internet has absolutely destroyed that field of employment.
posted by TrialByMedia at 8:23 PM on October 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

i worked for a newspaper for five years and was laid off three separate times as it was bought and sold the same number of times in as many years.

now i bake bread.
posted by Bwentman at 8:41 PM on October 5, 2019 [9 favorites]

"This game was as out-matched from a talent standpoint as I thought it would be."
posted by naoko at 10:08 PM on October 5, 2019 [3 favorites]

Almost immediately, their optimism was challenged.

Now there's a phrase with a really wide applicability these days.
posted by Western Infidels at 5:01 AM on October 6, 2019 [10 favorites]

As in "MetaFilter: Almost immediately, their optimism was challenged."
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:25 AM on October 6, 2019 [5 favorites]

(Ron Howard Narrator:) Almost immediately, their optimism was challenged.
posted by Bill Watches Movies Podcast at 5:51 AM on October 6, 2019 [4 favorites]

I don't see this as a sudden catastrophic change that kills SI. SI online had already gone down the content mill road in a big way. I used to like reading the NFL recap on mondays. A single article that breezily and humorously covered the previous weeks games. Then they expanded it into a '
section' with about 40 small articles with autoplaying videos, delayed autoplaying videos, moving video windows, popup ads galore and every webcrap thing you can think of. It became unbearable.

I'm sure this will be worse for both the reader and the staff but I had already cut them out due to my dark pattern click farm crap filter at least two years ago.
posted by srboisvert at 6:34 AM on October 6, 2019 [1 favorite]

From early this summer: Sports Illustrated's Media Operations Pawned Off To Unproven Start-Up Helmed By Longtime Media Creeps

In March 2018, Heckman and Levinsohn were the subjects of a separate, deeply reported NPR investigation that touched on their mutually beneficial business relationships, their job histories, and their frat-boy approach to business. For example, both reportedly relied on partying with bikini-clad women on boats as a key business strategy. "“So when you see expenses, plane tickets for girls you don’t know from Lithuania or something weird, just know that it’s not random but part of a well-orchestrated plan”"

I wonder if these guys are in Epstein's files.
posted by at by at 8:35 AM on October 6, 2019 [5 favorites]

Over the weekend, I got my second resubscription mailing from SI. I threw it out.
posted by AJaffe at 2:19 PM on October 6, 2019

Christ, what a couple of assholes.
posted by scratch at 11:24 AM on October 7, 2019

I can't say much about SI in the 2000s, though it sounds like they went down the same eaten alive by the internet spiral as just about all other mass market magazines. But back in the 80s and 90s I enjoyed reading my mother's copy of it, despite not being into sports at all. Which I think is the marker of having really good writers. So it's sad in that sense, another institution gone.

I'm wondering what is happening to the photo archives; like the Ebony/Jet archives, they are of considerable historical value, and probably represent(ed) the bulk of the value of the property these days. Have they already been sold off?
posted by tavella at 12:29 PM on October 7, 2019 [3 favorites]

i worked for a newspaper for five years and was laid off three separate times

For a minute I wondered if you wrote this article.
posted by TedW at 4:58 AM on October 8, 2019 [1 favorite]

> I'm wondering what is happening to the photo archives...

Sports Illustrated was originally a property of Time-Life Inc., so without me knowing anything for sure I'd guess it's possible that the rights for SI's photo archive is in the hands of whomever currently owns the Time-Life archive.

Although everything will probably end up on Getty within a few years regardless of who owns it now. They're one of the sucking black holes of historical intellectual property.
posted by at by at 11:32 AM on October 8, 2019 [2 favorites]

“We’ve been doing this for decades, and our goal is that when you work you gain equity, and you build wealth for your children and your children’s children. That’s our goal.”

I notice there's nothing in the article about journalists' ability to gain equity or build wealth for their children.
posted by asperity at 12:39 PM on October 8, 2019 [1 favorite]