Maven to lay off nine percent of staff, including six percent of Sports Illustrated editorial staff, projects $30 million revenue loss

Amidst the economic uncertainty of COVID-19 coronavirus lockdowns and the lessened advertising and subscription revenues as a result, plenty of media chains have implemented cost-cutting measures. Gannett (the largest U.S. newspaper chain following their late-2019 merger with Gatehouse) announced week-long rolling furloughs for reporters and editors (as well as pay cuts for executives) Monday, and Maven Media (which operates Sports Illustrated and owns The Street and countless other titles) announced their own cost-cutting measures later Monday, including a big impact at SI. Sara Fischer of Axios has more on that:

https://twitter.com/sarafischer/status/1244738657212301313

That’s certainly significant, especially considering how October already saw SI lay off half its staff and that the magazine has already cut back to one print issue a month (with each issue closed three weeks in advance). And some notable people have already announced that they’ve been caught in this round of layoffs, including senior writer Chris Ballard, long-time SI editor/producer Tom Mantzouranis (most recently senior producer of video strategy), and editor/writer Jack Dickey:

Well! After 9 years, today was my last day at SI. And I can't even get drunk with my now-former co-workers. While it's never fun losing a job, it is a bit of a relief at this point. Though the last few months have been pretty brutal, I will focus on the good of my time there.

— Tom Mantzouranis (@tom_mantz) March 30, 2020

After nearly seven years and a bunch of wouldn't-trade-em-for-anything experiences, I got let go today by Sports Illustrated. If you're in the market for editing, writing, U.S. Senate trivia, etc., please be in touch at jackdickey@gmail.com.

— Jack Dickey (@jackdickey) March 30, 2020

Writer Laken Litman, editor Sarah Kwak, and writer Kayln Kahler were also let go.

We’ll add more people affected by these layoffs to this post as we see them; reach out to @awfulannouncing or @andrewbucholtz on Twitter. Our thoughts are with all those affected.

[Sara Fischer on Twitter]