Sports Illustrated has been successfully operating in the sports niche of the publishing world for the last seven decades. During that time, it has had to cross numerous hurdles to maintain its elite status with its consumers. The internet has presented Sports Illustrated with one of its most recent challenges. This issue started developing a few decades ago as the internet was gaining momentum with consumers. Because of the internet’s growth, Sports Illustrated saw a shift in consumer preferences. Specifically, its print readership was declining as consumers increasingly turned to the brand’s website for its sports news and stories. The brand’s website that was created many years ago was monetized, but the brand needed to expand its digital revenue to keep pace with the drop in subscriptions.
As the Sports Illustrated CEO since 2016, this was Ross Levinsohn’s hurdle to jump over. Levinsohn is a seasoned leader in the media industry. His 40-year career has taken him to some of the highest positions at several elite companies. His resume includes executive positions at Yahoo!, Guggenheim Digital Media, Fox, Whisper Advisors, CBS Sportsline and Maven Media. These positions each gave Ross Levinsohn unique experiences to draw from as the Sports Illustrated CEO. One of these many experiences was for Maven Media’s client, The Street with Jim Cramer. For this client, Levinsohn was in charge of managing monetization efforts. Levinsohn noticed that this brand’s audience was seeking a reliable source for cryptocurrency news, and he produced this content while raising more revenue. This was achieved through the development of an additional paywall.
This Sports Illustrated CEO took a similar approach when addressing this brand’s situation. To jump over the internet-related hurdle, he created an extra paywall for the brand’s website. A premium subscription is now offered through this paywall, and it gives higher-paying subscription members early access to content. The issue at Sports Illustrated had been experienced by many other brands as well. Levinsohn’s solution was so effective that it was noted and used by other print brands.