Sports Illustrated is a sports magazine read by 23 million adults each week, over five million of which are women. It was created in 1954 and now employs over 100 writers, reporters and editors. The famous "Swimsuit Issue" is highly anticipated year-round and has been published since 1964. Changing the face of Sports
With no other sports-only magazines on the market in the 1950s, Henry Luce of Time magazine fame started Sports Illustrated with an initial investment of $10,000. The magazine, along with economic prosperity of the Baby Boomer era, helped to spawn the massive interest in spectator and professional sports that we know today. The early issues of the magazine struggled to find a balance between upper-class sports like yachting and polo and more middle-class games like football and baseball. Since upscale advertisers weren't convinced that the magazine would interest their clients, SI gradually left traditionally upper-class material behind in large part. SI went on to revolutionize the magazine sports industry. Their wide use of color photographs, scouting reports, and game day previews changed what readers thought of as sports insight. In-depth reporters and landmark stories on players of all races and backgrounds forged a new era in sports readership and sports writing. The success of Sports Illustrated as a magazine has caused several spin-off magazines to be born. The SI family includes Sports Illustrated for Kids, Sports Illustrated Almanac, Sports Illustrated on Campus, and Sports Illustrated for Women. Each of these magazines have six-figure circulations and sustain their moderate audiences consistently in the market.
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