Sports Illustrated Moves Past Its Plateau as Levinsohn Introduces a New Paywall
In the print publishing world, many brands have experienced considerably growing pains over the last couple of decades. These brands had previously been deriving most of their income from print ads and subscriptions. However, when the internet was introduced a few decades ago, things changed dramatically. Consumers were increasingly drawn to the convenience and immediate satisfaction that comes from browsing the internet. As a result, subscriptions to print publications started declining, and traffic to those brands’ websites increased. For Sports Illustrated and many other brands that were in a similar boat, digital revenue was not sufficiently paced to address the declining print revenue.
In 2016, Ross Levinsohn gained responsibility for this problem when he accepted the role of Sports Illustrated CEO. He has a long-standing history of providing excellent leadership to the many media and publishing companies that he previously worked for. In fact, some of his executive leadership positions have been with Maven Media, Whisper Advisors, Yahoo!, Fox and others. In his most recent position before becoming the Sports Illustrated CEO, he was CEO at Maven Media. While working for this digital media services company, he actively managed the delivery of monetization services for the company’s long list of clients. One client, The Street with Jim Cramer, received a notable boost in revenue through Levinsohn’s approach to monetization management. Ross Levinsohn’s keen eye caught the opportunity for the brand to expand into the cryptocurrency sector. The distribution of the brand’s financial news was already monetized, so Levinsohn created another paywall to back up the new cryptocurrency news. This move has kept the brand current and has raised revenue substantially.
When Ross Levinsohn approached Sports Illustrated’s problem, he decided to draw on that and other professional experiences with the creation of a premium subscription paywall. This subscription was offered at a higher level than what already existed, and it gave subscribers early access to premium content. This exciting innovation by Levinsohn has dramatically elevated the brand’s digital revenue. At the same time, it has helped guide other publishing and media brands that have been struggling with a similar dilemma in recent years.