Sports Illustrated

The first issue of Sports Illustrated was published on August 16, 1964. Sports Illustrated is undoubtedly one of the most popular magazines in America. This is evident from the fact that it has over three million subscribers and over twenty three million adult readers. Sports Illustrated has the honor of being the first magazine with a readership of over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twice. One of the most popular issues of Sports Illustrated is its swimsuit issue that is published once a year. The Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated that has been published since 1964 has become an event in its own. The Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated now has its own television show, videos and calendar. Most of the top models and athletes in the country have modeled for Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated. Some of the most popular celebrities featured in the Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated Magazine include Steffi Graf, Gabrielle Reece, Annika Sorenstam, Serena Williams, Anna Kournikova, Maria Sharapova and Beyonce Knowles etc.

Beyonce Knowles was featured on the cover of Swimsuit Issue of Sports Illustrated in year 2007. Two magazines named Sports Illustrated were launched in the 1950s and 1960s respectively. However, both of them failed within a very short span of time. Time Warner’s Henry Luce came up with the idea of a general (weekly) sports magazine. His idea was seriously opposed at that time since sports was considered to be beneath the level of serious journalism. Initially the magazine (to be launched) was named Sport. However, after an unsuccessful bid to buy the name for $200,000, Time decided to acquire the Sports Illustrated rights. Luce set the goal for Sports Illustrated not to be a sport magazine but to be ‘the sports magazine.’ Luce’s timing of the launch of Sports Illustrated was perfect despite of (initial) disappointing sales. This is because the popularity of sports was about to be driven by economic prosperity, television and last but not the least Sports Illustrated.

Innovation By Sports Illustrated

Since Sports Illustrated was aimed to be ‘the magazine of choice of all sport enthusiasts,’ it adapted and maintained the highest standards of quality. Sports Illustrated has a number of innovations to its name. These among others include:

1. Sports Illustrated was one of the first magazines to generously use colored printing. This helped boast the popularity of colored printing despite the fact that initially there was a six week time lag for colored printing because of which the material in the magazine was outdated by the time it reached the customers.

2. Sports Illustrated also introduced the ‘High School Football Player of the Month’ Award.

3. Sports Illustrated Hired Reporters Like Robert Creamer, Tex Maule and Dan Jenkins to write in depth reports on important games of various popular sports.

Regular Sections Of Sports Illustrated

Following are some of the regular of Sports Illustrated Magazine:

1. The First Person – has the interview of a featured athlete accompanied by a photo of him/her holding a hand mirror.

2. Who’s Hot And Who’s Not – is a piece about which athletes are excelling and which ones are not performing up to the mark. Who’s Hot and Who’s Not features athletes from NFL, Baseball, NBA, College Football, College Basketball, NHL, Motor Sports, Golf, and Tennis.

3. Faces In The Crowd - is a weekly article that acknowledges the achievements of amateur athletes.

4. The Life Of Reilly – is a weekly article written by respected sports journalist Rick Reilly. It discussed latest issues in almost all popular sports.