Sports Illustrated has a new publisher. As part of a deal announced this week, editorial control of the nearly 70-year-old magazine will be held by Minute Media, which also owns digital sports publications like The Players’ Tribune.

Minute Media says it will continue to release the print edition of Sports Illustrated.

A lot of us become sports fans when we’re kids. That means plenty of people who are now adults flipped through Sports Illustrated when they were young and still feel attached to it.

“There’s a whole generation — multiple generations of people — that grew up reading Sports Illustrated and envisioned themselves on those pages someday,” said Nola Agha, a professor in the sport management program at the University of San Francisco.

That long history means the print magazine is a big part of the Sports Illustrated brand, she said, and by keeping it around, “you’re maintaining the value of that brand.”

Being in print also means increased visibility, specifically in places where people are looking to read, like airports, doctor’s offices and grocery store lines.

That’s important, according to Syracuse University journalism professor Harriet Brown — especially in the crowded world of online publishing. 

“It’s really hard to get traction on stories that only appear digitally,” she said.

Plus, a big part of the appeal of Sports Illustrated is the photographs, Brown added. And a lot of those images are just more beautiful to look at in print. 

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