| Magazine Name: |
Sports Illustrated |
| Alternative Names: |
SI |
| Owner: |
Authentic Brands Group |
| Publisher: |
ABG-SI LLC |
| Country / Region: |
USA (New York) |
| Language: |
English |
| Format type: |
Magazine |
| Category: |
Sport |
| Political alignment: |
None |
| Frequency: |
3 per month |
| Publication Years (print version): |
1954 — now (69 years) |
| Publication Years (digital version): |
1997 — now (26 years) |
| ISSN: |
0038-822X |
| Circulation: |
3,023,000 (2015) |
| Official Pages: |
|
| Website: |
si.com [read with translation] |
|
«Sports Illustrated» is an American national sports weekly, founded in 1954 by the editors of the then popular American magazine «Life», dedicated to movie and show business stars. The concept of the publication, its format and appearance were completely copied from it, except that the new edition touched on sports topics and the lives of sports stars. The name of the magazine can be translated from English as «Illustrated Sports», and it was published under the slogan «A Time Inc. weekly publication» (A weekly publication of the Time editorial board) and with a price of 25 cents. Before the publication of this magazine, there was no single national sports publication in the United States, and the focus was on filling this niche. The magazine was aimed at the middle and well-to-do class, covering such exotic and «expensive» sports topics as yachting, polo, safari, golf, tennis, extreme sports. «Sports Illustrated» was not like traditional sports publications, there were no statistics or analytics, but only colorful photo reports and interviews. The publication was rather a glamorous magazine about the beautiful sports life, which was not popular with readers.
That all changed when Andre Laguerr, who had worked as «Time's» European correspondent in the 1940s, was appointed editor-in-chief. Under his editorship, the magazine underwent significant changes and a significant increase in the rating: color photos appeared in the publication; now the magazine covered more classic sports that are interesting to most Americans-baseball, boxing, handball, American football, track and field and the Olympic Games; on the last page of the publication, the tradition of publishing voluminous analytical articles (The Point Aftersince 1964, the magazine published an appendix dedicated to swimming, which became the hallmark of the publication for many years and primarily for the bright photos of female athletes. For important sporting events and anniversaries, special versions of Sports Illustrated magazine were published, which are now appreciated by collectors.
«Sports Illustrated» was the first American magazine to sell over a million copies, and its achievements were twice awarded the National Magazine Award in the General Excellence category. From 1990 to 2014, the magazine was owned by Warner Communications, after which it was taken over by private investors. Since 2019, the new owner of the publication is «Authentic Brands Group».
Today, the magazine is published in a huge circulation of 3 million copies, its weekly readership is more than 23 million people. It is distributed throughout the United States and Canada. It covers all popular sports in the United States: baseball, American football, NCAA, basketball, boxing, bowling, hockey, NASCAR auto racing, golf, yachting, darts, and many others. Regularly awards titles: Best Athlete, Best Team, Athlete of the Year, Athlete of the Month. Compiles various ratings: top 10, 20, and 100 athletes, female athletes, coaches, and others.
The most famous sections of the magazine are: Who's Hot, Who's Not (sports analytics), Inside the NFL, Inside the MLB, Inside the NHL, Inside the NBA (reviews of national Leagues of baseball, basketball, football, hockey), Inside the College Football, Inside the College Basketball (Student Basketball), Inside the NASCAR, Inside the Golf, Inside the Boxing, Inside the Horse Racing, Inside the Soccer and Tennis, Faces in the Crowd (athletics), Inside Baseball.
Since the late 1980s, the magazine has published a number of regional and international thematic publications: Sports Illustrated Kids (1989) (for children and teenagers), Sports Illustrated Almanac (1991) (yearbook with sports report), Sports Illustrated Australia (1992) (for Australia), Sports Illustrated Canada (1993) (for CanadaSports Illustrated Presents (1989) (special event issues), Sports Illustrated Women magazine (200) (for women), Sports Illustrated on Campus magazine (2003).
