Sports Illustrated Sees Higher Profits Through CEO Levinsohn’s Advanced Paywall
Across the last seven decades, Sports Illustrated has been a force to contend with in the print publishing world. Throughout the majority of its history, the bulk of its revenue has been generated through print subscriptions and magazine ads. However, over the course of the last few decades, the dominance of the internet in the media world has grown rapidly. Sports Illustrated and many other print magazines initially developed their own websites to address their consumers’ increasing demand for digital content. However, at Sports Illustrated, print revenue continued to decline, and it became clear that the website’s monetization strategy needed to be revamped.
As the Sports Illustrated CEO since 2016, Ross Levinsohn was placed in charge of this major overhaul. He is a world-class leader with extensive experience in the print publishing and media industries. In fact, many people are familiar with his executive-level work at companies like Whisper Advisors, Maven Media, Yahoo!, Fox and CBS Sportsline. Some of his professional experiences have specifically enabled him to rise to address the situation at Sports Illustrated. For example, during his time at Maven Media, Levinsohn was in charge of managing and revamping monetization strategies for the company’s clients. Among its hundreds of media industry clients was The Street with Jim Cramer, a notable financial services brand. Because cryptocurrencies were gaining popularity at the time, Levinsohn spotted the opportunity for The Street to branch into this niche area. To produce a new revenue stream for The Street, Levinsohn devised a specialized paywall for the new cryptocurrency content.
When Levinsohn broached his current dilemma as the Sports Illustrated CEO, he decided to use a similar approach. However, creating a fresh line of content was not in the brand’s best interest. As an alternative, Levinsohn took the income potential of established content lines to a higher level by producing a premium subscription paywall for early release info. The success of this move was so notable that other print publishing brands have followed Levinsohn’s lead.