Sports Illustrated to Move Content Behind Paywall

 

By WARNER TODD HUSTON

According to a report, Sports Illustrated will push its content behind a metered paywall beginning in February.

On February 2, the magazine will institute a new pay wall that will allow readers to see only a handful of articles per month before being asked to subscribe for more of what is termed “premium content,” according to Front Office Sports.

The magazine has not announced just how many free articles that fans will be able to see before the paywall kicks in, but many publishers offer ten or even only five per month before the block hits.
Sports Illustrated charges $20 per year for 16 issues of its print magazine, or $30 for a two-years.

The magazine has also yet to say what it will charge online. But one of its competitors, The Athletic, charges $4.99 per month for a yearly subscription, or $7.99 month-to-month.

Newspapers and magazines are still struggling to fund themselves online, and paywalls have grown in popularity after briefly looking like they might go away. But the free offerings have precipitously declined in recent years. The New York Times, for instance, cut its free articles from ten to five per month back in 2017.

The February 2 start date would give the magazine time to get itself behind its paywall ahead of the February 7 Super Bowl featuring the Kansas City Chiefs and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.