Ross Levinsohn is the current Sports Illustrated CEO. He was appointed as the head honcho at the magazine in 2019. The Arena Group purchased Sports Illustrated in 2020, and Ross eventually became CEO of the Arena Group.
When Maven rebranded itself and became “The Arena Group,” Ross Levinsohn helped the company change many other things as well. First, the Arena Group directed its focus towards sports and finance. This focus from a variety of topics to the topics of sports and finance is the direct result of Sports Illustrated CEO Ross Levinsohn being added to the group.
In the years that Sports Illustrated has been in print, it has delighted fans with its fantastic photography of live sporting events and high-quality articles. This is the reason that the magazine has been around for nearly 70 years. It has been the leader of all publications that feature sports and has won several accolades from the National Magazine Awards.
Like with many other publications before it, Sports Illustrated began to experience financial difficulties. The magazine has survived because Ross Levinsohn agreed to take the helm and became the Sports Illustrated CEO. The restructuring that Mr. Levinsohn set in motion is just beginning to pay off for the magazine.
Now that Ross Levinsohn is on board, we can say that Sports Illustrated has been infused with a new type of energy and a focus that has been redefined. Ross Levinsohn’s massive amount of experience also benefitted Sports Illustrated at a time when it was seriously needed.
In the past 30 years, Ross has been honing his skills in the technology, publishing and media arenas. After he graduated from American University with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications, he was right where he needed to be to get into the new area of digital media. As a result, he became the CEO of Guggenheim Digital Media and the president of Fox Interactive Media. While he was in both of these roles, he had the opportunity to push both companies’ digital brands into the light.
Ross Levinsohn turned Sports Illustrated around by hiring the best journalists and highly skilled photographers, and it paid off.