Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Editorial Records
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Abstract
Sports Illustrated launched in August 1954. The Editorial Records are primarily correspondence from senior editorial staff to place articles or excerpts from outside writers. There is a small amount of administrative records.
Historical Note
Sports Illustrated (SI) launched on August 16, 1954 as a weekly magazine with Managing Editor Sidney James and Publisher Harry Phillips.
According to an unsigned capsule history in the General Files of the publishing and business records (MS 3009-RG 35), Time Inc. cofounder and president Henry R. Luce asked Executive Vice President Howard Black to come up with new publishing venture ideas. Black's May 21, 1953 letter to Luce contained a paragraph reading: "A Sports Weekly -- everything in sports -- hunting, fishing, boating. this would be a picture magazine -- 10 cents a copy." By June 1953, Time Inc. set up a department to develop this magazine.
The "Editorial Notes" in the RG 35 General Files state that SI was the first Time Inc. magazine to include bylines. It started with well-known sports writers. Later it incorporated articles from famous authors such as "[William] Faulkner and Catherine Drinker Bowen on the Derby," and "Robert Frost on the All-Star Game." Great sports writers also started their careers as early SI staff writers including Robert Creamer and "Tex" Maule.
For the majority of Time Inc.'s existence, the company maintained a strict separation of editorial from the publishing and business side of each magazine, colloquially called the separation of "church" (editorial) and "state" (publishing). Editorial includes the editors, researchers, and art department. The editorial side reported up to the editor-in-chief and the publishing/business side reported up to the corporate business executive which was the president prior to 1960 and the chief executive officer after. Henry Luce structured Time Inc. this way so that the business side could not (in theory) influence the editorial content of the publications. For example, the advertising sales people could not interfere with a magazine's decision to run an article on the dangers of cigarette smoking, even though it might mean losing millions of dollars in tobacco ads.
Citations:
Hooper, Bill. Email to Holly Deakyne, 10 June 2016.
Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Publishing and Business Records, MS 3009-RG 35, New-York Historical Society.
Arrangement
The collection is organized into four series based on the hierarchy of staff:
Series I. Managing Editor Mark Mulvoy Copy of Strategic Plan
Series II. Assistant Managing Editor and Senior Editor Ray Cave Files
Series III. Senior Editor Patricia Ryan Files
Series IV. Associate Editor Joseph Carroll Correspondence
Scope and Contents
The Sports Illustrated Editorial Records are primarily correspondence from senior editorial staff to place articles or excerpts from outside writers. Outside writers include those from other magazines (sometimes other Time Inc. magazines), freelancers, and some amateurs. Files do not always have correspondence from the writer and may only contain internal correspondence regarding their article or excerpt. Topics include story ideas, submissions, the logistics of publishing accepted articles, and payment amounts. There is a small amount of administrative records. The majority of correspondence comes from Senior Editor Patricia "Pat" Ryan. Her records also include the Text Department's financial records. This seems to be the department in charge of reviewing submitted manuscripts.
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People
Conditions Governing Access
Open to qualified researchers with the exception of restricted materials. Restricted materials include contracts and are located in box R65.
Unreformatted audiovisual material in the collection is not accessible.
Materials in this collection are stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.
Conditions Governing Use
Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.
Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Preferred Citation
This record group should be cited as Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Editorial Records, MS 3009-RG 34, New-York Historical Society.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Time Inc. in 2015.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Editorial Records were processed by Holly Deakyne in 2021. The original folders were retained when possible, although some documents were transferred to archival containers in instances of overcrowding, if the original folder was in poor condition or undersized, or if no original folder was present.
Deakyne created the series and imposed series arrangement. Arrangement for the correspondence in each series relied on the original order although order was partially imposed to organize Ryan's files.
Deakyne created the inventory and other descriptive notes to produce this finding aid.