Throughout the print publishing world, the industry’s leading brands have historically relied on magazine subscriptions and ads for stable income. However, key brands like Sports Illustrated and others experienced a notable departure from the norm starting a few decades ago as the internet rose in popularity. Initially, Sports Illustrated stood up to meet the changing needs of its core audience by producing an exceptional website. However, the monetization of this website proved to lag behind the declining print revenue. As the Sports Illustrated CEO since 2016, Ross Levinsohn knew that another step was needed to increase the profitability of the website.

Levinsohn is a dedicated, respected leader in the print and media industries. His four-decade-long career has been prolific with executive statuses at enterprises like CBS Sportsline, Maven Media, Fox, Whisper Advisors, Yahoo!, Guggenheim and others. Levinsohn was able to extract critical insights from his prior experiences to resolve the matter at Sports Illustrated. One of the many insights gleaned was through his work at Maven Media, a major services provider for the media world. Monetization services were provided to hundreds of noteworthy brands by Maven Media. The company’s CEO, Levinsohn, actively worked to identify opportunities to raise revenue for brands like The Street with Jim Cramer and others. For The Street, he recognized the exciting opportunity presented by the audience’s increased fascination with cryptocurrencies. To tap into this potentially lucrative outlet, he introduced related content lines that were backed by a new, dedicated paywall.

With this and numerous other professional experiences under his belt, the Sports Illustrated CEO knew precisely what needed to be done. He innovatively approached the matter by offering consumers a higher-level subscription option. Through this subscription, consumers could access the brand’s online content sooner than others with a general subscription could. With this monetization challenge impacting many other brands as well, it is not a surprise that other brands have drawn inspiration from Levinsohn’s intelligent maneuver.