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Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Publishing and Business Records

Call Number

MS 3009-RG 35

Date

1950s-1993, inclusive

Creator

Time, inc.

Extent

36.6 Linear feet in 36 record cartons, 1 document case, and 1 flat box

Language of Materials

The materials in the collection are in English.

Abstract

Sports Illustrated (SI) launched on August 16, 1954 as a weekly magazine with managing editor Sidney James and publisher Harry Phillips. The Sports Illustrated (SI) Publishing and Business Records contain files from the deparments in charge of permissions, advertising sales, advertising promotion, merchandising, and market research. This record group contains extensive records on the early years of SI including early memoranda from managing editor James in the merchandising files. It also contains extensive records documenting the promotion of SI, particularly to potential advertisers, through awards ceremonies, collaborative events with communities, and scripted presentations to a variety of advertisers during SI's first year of publication. The advertising promotion files also include hundreds of taped interviews with sports figures which SI sent out as part of a tape service to radio and television stations.

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, 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 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." Notable sports writers also began 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). Publishing and Business Management includes the publisher, general manager, business manager, advertising sales, marketing services, letters, circulation, and public relations. 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. 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.

Arrangement

Organized into six series: Series I. General Files; Series II. Department of Permissions and Editorial Courtesies: Nancy Kirkland Files; Series III. Advertising Sales: Director of Market Planning Robert Schreiber Files; Series IV. Advertising Promotion Department Records; Series V. Merchandising Working File; Series VI. Market Research Studies

Scope and Contents

The Sports Illustrated (SI) Publishing and Business Records document the activities of the offices and staff from the publishing and business side of the magazine, not the editorial side. This includes the departments in charge of permissions, advertising sales, advertising promotion, merchandising, and market research. This record group contains extensive records on the early years of SI.

Of note are the photographs and other records about the SI launch party in Keith Morris's files; scripts of presentations to advertisers during SI's first year; a folder on promotion of the first cover and photographs of early store displays and store windows promoting SI in the Merchandising Working File; photographs and audiovisual of early promotional events organized by SI; the extensive run of audio interviews of sports figures conducted by Morris; records regarding Time Inc.'s trial run publishing Women's Sports & Fitness; and records throughout regarding the promotion and announcement of the of the events announcing Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year. Also in the Merchanding Working File are early memoranda from founding managing editor Sidney James.

Conditions Governing Access

Open to qualified researchers with the exception of restricted materials. Restricted materials include contracts and are located in box R65. Boxes that are solely audiovisual material are also restricted as unreformatted audiovisual material in the collection is not accessible. Please contact the curator at manuscripts@nyhistory.org regarding access.

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 Publishing and Business Records, MS 3009-RG 35, New-York Historical Society.

Location of Materials

Materials in this collection are stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Time Inc. in 2015.

Related Materials

This finding aid relates to just one record group of the Time Inc. Records. For information about the other record groups and for overall information about the archives, please see the Guide to the Time Inc. Records (MS 3009). The Henry Luce Papers (MS 3014) were acquired with the Time Inc. Records. The collection of books acquired with the records are cataloged as the Time Inc. Reference Library.

Information about the history of Sports Illustrated and additional records from the publishing and business offices can be found in the Time Inc. Subject Files (MS 3009-RG 1) and the Time Inc. Annex Files (MS 3009-RG 39). Records from the editorial offices are in the Time Inc. Sports Illustrated Editorial Records (MS 3009-RG 34).

Collection processed by

Holly Deakyne

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-08-21 15:47:16 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is written in: English, Latin script.

Processing Information

The collection was processed by Holly Deakyne in 2020 and 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. Series were defined by Deakyne. Deakyne created the inventory and other descriptive notes to produce this finding aid.

Repository

New-York Historical Society
New-York Historical Society
170 Central Park West
New York, NY 10024