Sports Illustrated

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Charlie Bevis

The creation of ESPN and other round-the-clock media in the 1980s made the magazine's original mission less compelling. Its influence began to wane as sports fans no longer depended on the magazine to explain what had happened a few days before, as a plethora of television highlight shows and the Internet had already done so. In the 1989 merger of Time with Warner, SI moved away from writing and began to pursue a strategy to "extend the brand." Videos and calendars were hawked in crass television advertisements, as were magazine subscriptions (example: this awesome [item] is free with your one-year subscription to Sports Illustrated, which includes the swimsuit issue!). A spin-off magazine was also introduced, Sports Illustrated for Kids.

In the 1990s, Sports Illustrated was as well known, if perhaps not more so, for its swimsuit issue, free videos, and clothing line as it was for the writing and photography that had made it famous in the first place. And thousands of loyal readers still treasured its arrival every week.