Time Inc. Archives

Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated and Conde Nast’s WIRED Partner for SB 100

First-of-Its-Kind, Multi-Part, Multi-Platform Collaboration Looks at America’s Greatest Annual Game

Oct 7, 2015

New York, NY (October 7, 2015) – Time Inc.’s (NYSE:TIME) Sports Illustrated and Conde Nast’s WIRED are teaming up to create a five-month-long series that will look 50 years into the future to explore football through the lens of innovation. This unprecedented partnership aligns two of media’s most respected brands that collectively reach a massive audience of sports, science, and design enthusiasts. The package “SB 100” leverages the partners’ editorial strengths for a series that will cross-pollinate their print, digital and video extensions. Gatorade and Microsoft are the presenting sponsors.

 

“WIRED looks at how innovation and design are changing every aspect of our lives,” said Scott Dadich, WIRED editor in chief. “And with Super Bowl 50 being played in our backyard, we thought it was time to turn our lens on the NFL.”

 

“This is a natural collaboration between two brands whose strengths complement one another perfectly,” said Sports Illustrated Group Editor Paul Fichtenbaum. “Our curiosity, creativity and knowledge of football will lead to storytelling in unexpected and surprising ways.”

 

More than a dozen journalists have been involved in the conception, research, reporting and ongoing production of the series. Among the major themes that will be covered in the 10-part series are: How will Super Bowl 100 be played? What will the experience be like for fans? How will the athletes who play the game be different from today’s NFL players? How will the equipment change? How will player safety be ensured? Will virtual reality change the sport? How will data and analytics change the training and strategy of the game? At present, more than 60 pieces of original content are planned in the series across both brands to run through February 2016.

 

Chapter One begins this month with five stories and several video productions, including: “Best Defense: J.J Wattage,” a look at Houston Texans defensive end J.J. Watt’s training regimen from WIRED, which includes a combination of exercise science and old-school techniques, and Sports Illustrated’s “Train of Thought,” a look at the (potentially scary) future of personalized medicine, including DNA analysis. Both will appear in print and online. Exclusively online readers will enjoy a book excerpt from Faster, Higher, Stronger by WIRED’s Mark McClusky, looking at mental health and preparation in athletes, and former MLB pitcher and renowned pitching coach Tom House talks about how he trains quarterbacks through his baseball experience. The debut video explores innovative techniques in medicine and personal training, focusing on how NFL teams keep players healthy now and how that process might evolve over the next 50 years. The series culminates in a feature from award-winning SI writer Steve Rushin, who will deliver a game story from Super Bowl 100 (in the form of reported fiction), which will run in the print and online editions of SI and WIRED in early 2016.

 

A promotional campaign is planned to run across SI and WIRED’s networks and social channels. According to the MPA’s August 360 report, Sports Illustrated is ninth in overall brand audience (33.9MM) and ranked among the top 10 in web audience, (#9), video unique viewers (#3) and print + digital audience (#6). WIRED enjoys a total brand audience of 18.7MM and is ranked among the top 10 in web (#7), mobile web (#9), and video unique viewers (#9).

 

 

 About Time Inc. 

Time Inc. (NYSE:TIME) is one of the world’s leading media companies, with a monthly global print audience of over 120 million and worldwide digital properties that attract more than 140 million visitors each month, including over 60 websites. Our influential brands include People, Sports Illustrated, InStyle, Time, Real Simple, Southern Living, Entertainment Weekly, Travel + Leisure, Cooking Light, Fortune and Food & Wine, as well as more than 50 diverse titles in the United Kingdom, such as Decanter, Horse & Hound and Wallpaper*. Time Inc.is home to celebrated franchises and events, including the Fortune 500, Time 100, People’s Sexiest Man Alive, Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year, the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, the Essence Festival and the biennial Fortune Global Forum. Hundreds of thousands of people attend our events every year. We have been extending the power of our brands through various investments and acquisitions, including the formation of Sports Illustrated Play, a new business devoted to youth and amateur sports, and the acquisition of inVNT, a company that specializes in live media. We also provide content marketing, targeted local print and digital advertising programs, branded book publishing and marketing and support services, including subscription sales services for magazines and other products, retail distribution and marketing services and customer service and fulfillment services, for ourselves and third-party clients, including other magazine publishers.

 

 About Condé Nast 

Condé Nast is a premier media company renowned for producing the highest quality content for the world’s most influential audiences. Attracting 120 million consumers across its industry-leading print, digital and video brands, the company’s portfolio includes some of the most iconic titles in media: Vogue, Vanity Fair, Glamour, Brides, Self, GQ, The New Yorker, Condé Nast Traveler, Details, Allure, Architectural Digest, Bon Appétit, Epicurious, Wired, W, Golf Digest, Golf World, Teen Vogue, Ars Technica and The Scene. The company’s newest division, Condé Nast Entertainment, was launched in 2011 to develop film, television and premium digital video programming.

 

Over the past twenty years, Condé Nast has reached record profits, tripling its topline growth and exponentially expanding its content distribution. During the same period, the company earned more editorial, design, digital, advertising, video and business awards than any competitor in the industry. In 2014, the corporation was recognized as one of the fastest-growing companies in the digital video business and was one of LinkedIn’s Top 25 Most In-Demand Employers. The company has recently relocated to its new global headquarters at 1 World Trade Center, where it plays a leading role in the resurgence of Lower Manhattan.

 

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 CONTACT:

 

WIRED

 

Corey Wilson

Corey_Wilson@condenast.com

 

212-286-2419

 

Sports Illustrated

Danny Leonard

Danny_Leonard@timeinc.com

 

212-522-0361