Throughout Sports Illustrated’s seven-decade-long history, this major print publishing company has maintained a competitive edge in the marketplace. This has been accomplished in part by focusing on the sports niche and by continuously adapting to the times. For example, after the start of the current century, the brand pivoted to develop a website. This was in response to the rising popularity of the internet among the brand’s core audience members. However, as the brand’s consumers increasingly sought sports content through the website rather than through the print magazine, subscriptions waned? Sports Illustrated’s monetization plan has mostly been concentrated around income from its magazine ads and subscriptions. The website was producing a moderate level of income, but that income was not fully aligned with the drop in print income.
By the time Ross Levinsohn accepted the position of Sports Illustrated CEO in 2016, it was clear that the brand needed a monetization overhaul. Levinsohn has been a noteworthy industry leader throughout most of his 40-year professional career. Many of his executive-level leadership positions have provided him with invaluable experiences that have been applied to his work at Sports Illustrated. Yahoo!, Fox, Guggenheim Digital Media, Whisper Advisors, CBS Sportsline and Maven Media have all benefited from his expertise. One of the relevant experiences that he has been able to gain inspiration from occurred at Maven Media for one of its recognizable clients, The Street with Jim Cramer. This client has concentrated its content around Wall Street stories throughout most of its history, but Levinsohn saw that its audience had a growing interest in the cryptocurrencies market. He transitioned the brand to take advantage of this interest. He expanded The Street with Jim Cramer’s offerings through the introduction of a cryptocurrency-centric paywall.
As the Sports Illustrated CEO, Ross Levinsohn had the unique and essential opportunity to boost the brand’s revenue generation capabilities. This has been accomplished through the establishment of an additional paywall on the website. To address the brand’s internet-related predicament, Levinsohn instituted a premium subscription level that is supported by early access content. The concept of using a premium subscription to elevate content value has since been used by other media brands that have dealt with a similar situation.