The Daily Mail, Page Six and Entertainment Tonight secured spots along the velvet rope that protects the red carpet strutted by Shane Bieber, Brittany Mahomes, Aly Risman and Jaeden Daniels. . Victor Cruz posed with a bottle of Captain Morgan. Inside, you’ll find plenty of A-list celebrities, including Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Miles Teller, Tiffany Haddish, and Diplo. (Josh Harris, owner of the Washington Commanders and Philadelphia 76ers, was also there.)
From the dance floor, down the hallway are walls filled with past Sports Illustrated covers, including Yao Ming, LeBron James, Serena Williams, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods screaming, and Sugar Ray Leonard in the ring. was decorated. His cover headline was “An Old Man Who Hates to Give Up.”
The next day, longtime Sports Illustrated writer and “60 Minutes” correspondent Jon Wertheim appeared on “CBS Sunday Morning.” He faced the camera and delivered a solemn message about Sports Illustrated, the magazine that revolutionized and glorified sports journalism when it was first published 70 years ago.
“Reporting deaths may be premature,” he says. “But from a sports perspective, as the clock on the scoreboard ticks down, we need a catch-up.”
Wertheim was not exaggerating. A month ago, almost all of Sports Illustrated’s staff received layoff notices. The magazine’s staff members are uncertain about the future direction or whether they will have work in the spring.
“SI remains essential to the cultural conversation, especially as sports become more relevant than ever,” Wertheim said. He concluded by saying: “Super Bowl LIX will be held in New Orleans next year. I hope your team will be there. I hope so too.”
At this point, But he was far from Las Vegas.
“Shout out to Celsius to keep us going all night!” said the DJ. “This is the party this week!”
“Vegas was awesome,” Jamie Salter said.
It was a few days after the Super Bowl. Salter, CEO of Authentic Brands Group, which owns Sports Illustrated, is back in New York and speaking passionately on a Zoom call from his office in Manhattan. He was wearing branded glasses, a navy blazer and a white shirt, with a few of the top buttons undone. Deputy Dan Dienst, who carried a baseball bat with the SI logo on it, was also present.
Salter said SI Party is one of seven live events Authentic has hosted in Las Vegas, including Gronk Beach, Shaxx Fun House and Guy Fieri’s Tailgate. The table next to Salters at Saturday’s SI party was purchased by Paul Weiss, the White Shoe law firm chaired by top NFL lawyer Brad Karp. Salter said the company paid $175,000 for the party, which Authentic said set a record for the most money generated at a nightclub party in Las Vegas history. According to the company, 4,500 people participated.
A Wynn spokeswoman said the hotel did not confirm details of the party’s financial situation. A spokesperson for Paul Weiss did not respond to an email seeking confirmation.
“Private equity people and law firms are buying these tables,” Salter said. “There was a very high-end crowd at the venue.”
Dienst added: “It’s like Davos in the desert.”
Mr. Salter founded Authentic in 2010 after a career in financial services. The company is a brand-owning company that buys the intellectual property of living celebrities, including Elvis, Shaquille O’Neal and David Beckham, and collects royalties for its use. Authentic has launched a production studio behind the Elvis movies and the Beckham Netflix documentary series. It will buy the rights to O’Neal’s brand and own about 50 percent of his future lifetime earnings, from endorsements on his HBO show to his broadcast deal with TNT.
“He got a lot of money from us. [upfront]and [we] His brand has grown exponentially,” Salter said.
Another pillar of Authentic’s business is acquiring fashion brands such as Brooks Brothers and Quiksilver, sometimes out of bankruptcy, and offering licenses that clothing manufacturers and retailers can buy if they want to manufacture or sell the brands. It is about creating. At the SI party, something called Authentic’s “Activation” was on display next to the pool. It’s the Reebok Nine West shoes and apparel that Authentic purchased from Adidas for his $2.5 billion. Authentic has $30 billion in retail sales worldwide, the company says. Its largest shareholders are private equity firms and O’Neill. Salter flies around on a Bombardier private jet.
Authentic also has event licensees, which host SI parties and sell sponsorships and tickets. Dienst said SI Party made at least several million dollars in profits.
For Salter, the Super Bowl headlines weren’t just about partying. He and O’Neal gifted Taylor Swift a jewel-encrusted football-shaped Judith Leiber handbag (from another Authentic brand, of course) and visited her suite at Allegiant Stadium, where they I took a photo with the pop star. “It went viral!” Salter said.
Much of that was part of Authentic’s business plan when it acquired SI from magazine publisher Meredith in 2019. Authentic paid about $90 million in cash to SI, which had already undergone several rounds of layoffs and was struggling with a digital transition across its media. Dienst said Authentic collected all of its payments through licensing agreements, including tens of millions of dollars from media companies that pay Authentic to publish SI in print and online. Dienst said the licensing side of the SI business currently generates more revenue than the media side, accounting for about 5% of Authentic’s total business.
SI has gambling license holders and resort partners. (The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is the primary investor.) The hotel in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic is now a Sports Illustrated-branded resort. It is unclear how successful these businesses are. The Ann Arbor, Michigan City Council just eliminated the SI Hotel downtown, and SI Gambling is not the lead operator. However, Authentic still collects licensing fees for the SI name. Churchill Downs will introduce the SI Hospitality Suite at this year’s Kentucky Derby.
Asked if the revenue from parties and live events would be funneled into the media side of the business, Salter said no. Dienst said the split was also to protect SI’s journalism. “I would never call an editor or a journalist, and I wouldn’t even know how to find a newsroom,” he said. “Without editorial independence, your brand is dead.”
This happened after Arena Group, which had a contract to pay Authentic about $15 million a year to publish SI, failed to pay in what appeared to be a negotiating tactic to lower its fees. Authentic has withdrawn its publishing license, and Arena, led by 5-Hour Energy founder Manoj Bhargava, has issued a termination notice.What the staff got Two days before the SI party, I received an email from the New York Department of Labor with new job search resources.
SI status, Then, This is a media parable for 2024, and it raises issues that feel very current. What is today’s media brand, journalism? Nostalgia? A neon sign for a Las Vegas party?
On the red carpet, Rob Gronkowski’s girlfriend Camille Kostek wore a black football jersey with the number 87 on the back and “Sports Illustrated” on the nameplate. Brittany Mahomes appeared in this year’s swimsuit issue wearing a jacket with “Sports Illustrated” embroidered on the back.
In Wertheim’s view, the name “Sports Illustrated” still has meaning, but perhaps it’s not journalism. Former NFL wide receiver Victor Cruz was asked on the red carpet if he had a favorite SI cover. He said it was Kate Upton’s swimsuit issue. Denver Broncos wide receiver Jerry Jeudy said he doesn’t have a favorite.
Salter maintained that SI’s journalism remains central to his mission. “It’s the brand voice,” he explained. “It’s not so important from an economic standpoint, but what we put out from our journalism is important.” [is the] core. If you take the shoes off Reebok, Reebok will no longer be Reebok. ”
Following that logic, even if the licensing business didn’t take a huge hit, the past few years have been tough for SI brands. Salter said SI’s problems are primarily rooted in the arena’s financial problems and debt burden. When asked if Mr. Arena had been a good manager for SI, Mr. Salter answered emphatically, “No!”
“We don’t like noise,” Dienst said. “We don’t like a lack of professionalism. Jamie built a $30 billion company, right? And we do it in private. We party, we tell stories, I like to bring enthusiasm to the brand and tell people how great our teammates are here. …It will pass. It’s going to be a blip in its 71-year history. [of SI]“We’re going to get this right,” he added.
Salter said Authentic is currently considering four proposals for publishing licenses from SI, but declined to name the companies. One possible new publisher is Minute Media, which publishes The Players Tribune, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
According to the New York Post, Arena plans to focus on video and is interested in buying back licenses. The report surprised his SI staff, but many were already hoping for some kind of agreement with the new publisher to keep the staff. (An Arena spokesperson said, “We are transforming our business, and that requires change.”)
Despite all this, there are still SI staffers who are keeping their eyes peeled for the actual business, which combines much of the licensing revenue with media operations. The paper, which has about 1 million subscribers, is at least breaking even, people familiar with the company’s finances said. According to Comscore, digital traffic has doubled in the past four years.
If Authentic is looking for new ways to monetize media brands – and there certainly aren’t that many happy stories anywhere in the media today – why aren’t they getting their authentic share? the SI staff asked. (Dienst said in a later interview that there would be revenue sharing between some licensing businesses and media operations, but declined to elaborate.)
With the fate of some 80 staff at stake, Authentic is pondering its next move, but whatever happens next for SI – new publishers, zombie websites, a cultural renaissance – Salter will It’s probably okay.
“When the magazine arrives at your door, you and I already know everything that’s in it,” Salter said. “What I would say to them is they need to change their strategy a little bit. They need to focus more on highlights. … Show me a Super Bowl catch. For example, how did he make that ball?” Did you catch it? It’s like glue on your hands. …I’ll tell you that story. Tell me about a real moment that I want to hold on to forever.”
He continued, “They should make a Super Bowl version after the Super Bowl…because I want to know about Kanye West getting kicked out.” [of a party]. I want to know about Kim Kardashian. …take a page out of him in entertainment. Why does my wife watch “Entertainment Tonight”? She wants to see everything that’s going on. …I can say I’m inside. I’m on the owner’s floor. I’m in a box with everything happening. It was unbelievable, but I saw it. You didn’t really know because you couldn’t see it. You only know what you see on social media. But I saw everything. ”
