Shortly after making its debut in 1954, Sports Illustrated (SI) entrenched itself into American popular culture as one of the country’s premier magazines during the golden years of print media. In the last ten years, however, SI has struggled to keep pace with digital startups and some of its more agile competitors. Enter Ross Levinsohn.
Hired as the new Sports Illustrated CEO in October of 2019, shortly after Seattle-based Maven purchased the management rights for SI in June of that year, Levinsohn has flipped SI’s business model on its head in an attempt to future-proof the brand. Instead of trying to compete for advertising revenue, Sports Illustrated has pivoted to a more content-centric model. SI.com visitors receive a set number of articles for free, and a subscription package for unlimited content is available for $5.99 per month.
So far, Levinsohn’s plan appears to be paying off. SI’s profitability has increased more than 200% since early 2019, and January of 2021 brought a record number of monthly visitors to the Sports Illustrated website. In fact, the initial stages of the turnaround have been so successful that Ross has stepped into the CEO role at Maven as well.
About Ross Levinsohn
A seasoned dealmaker, Ross has led large-scale digital transformations as the president of Fox Interactive Media, CEO of Tribune Publishing Company, and CEO of Guggenheim Digital Media. His tenure at Fox Interactive Media culminated in leading News Corporation’s famous acquisition of MySpace for $580 million in the second quarter of 2005.
Ross has also spent time in Silicon Valley as the general manager of Alta Vista during the peak of the internet boom and as the interim CEO at Yahoo. Since leaving Yahoo in 2012 after Marissa Meyer replaced him as the company’s permanent CEO, he has held board positions at ZEFR, American University, and Thryv.
Having acted as managing director of Fuse Capital in the two years before he joined Yahoo in 2010, Levinsohn has also compiled a solid track record of successful venture capital investments in the digital media space. He parlayed his experience at Fuse into a senior advisory role at The Boston Consulting Group from April of 2016 to August of 2017 and also co-founded his own boutique consulting firm, Whisper Advisors, in June of 2014.