Sports Illustrated cover of former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Shohei Ohtani as Sports Illustrated has laid off writers, editors, and supports staff due to budget cuts (Sports Illustrated cover)
That’s Amaury News and Commentary
By Amaury Pi-González
Between video games, cellular telephones, streaming services, podcasts, and the internet and now Artificial Intelligence, it was not surprising that Sports Illustrated’s recent layoffs have shaken the 70-year-old sports magazine and, in a way, the sports publishing world.
The best-selling issue of all time for SI was not a cover of Michael Jordan, Tom Brady, Lebron James, or Shohei Ohtani. In 1989, the 25th-anniversary edition of SI featuring Kathy Ireland on the cover was the best-selling ever.
The country has changed since the 1980s and 1990s; heck, it has changed since the 2000s, when Colin Kaepernick took a knee, and all of a sudden, we were talking politics over sports, which is never a good idea because most people who buy SI could care less of your political leanings or affiliation. But in the significantly changing world we are living in, other things are coming that influence journalists, including sports journalism,
Artificial intelligence, also known as AI, has revolutionized many sports, including team practices, competition, and communication. It is still early, but AI is already inside our media, mainly based on audience preferences. AI can put out a quote by a person (voice) impersonating somebody else, which will sound like it is the natural person…but it is not. It will “aid” news, fact-checking and content.
The Sports Illustrated cover that once defined sports does not anymore, according to the oldest daily-publishing newspaper in the United States, the New York Post, which has an editorial that explains why Sports Illustrated’s future comes down to a high-stakes game of chicken between the iconic magazine’s billionaire overlords.
Sports Illustrated gutted most of their staff this past week, and their future is unknown. SI might survive, but they might not.
–My recommendation to SI, for whatever is worth: Why not publish a future cover of Air Force Officer Second LT Madison Marsh, who was the first active-duty service member to win the Miss America competition? The 22-year-old beauty graduated from the Air Force Academy last year with a degree in physics. So it is not sports? But Miss America is still a fierce competition, and after all, what does Sports Illustrated have to lose?
Amaury Pi Gonzalez does News and Commentary at http://www.sportsradioservice.
Sports Radio Service 