Sport first, everything else second
We tell you honestly whether there is a sporting story here, and work the earned route properly when there is.
Sports Illustrated is a sports media brand known for its reporting, long-form writing and photography, covering athletes, teams and competition.
It is one of the most recognised names in sport, and coverage there reads as sporting credibility rather than marketing. That is exactly why it is difficult.
Best for: Athletes, teams, coaches and sport-led organisations.
Coverage on the main masthead is written by its own reporters and contributors, and it is a newsroom decision that cannot be bought from anyone. Access is usually mediated by the people around an athlete, so agents, clubs, governing bodies and press officers matter more here than a cold pitch does. A wide network of team-focused and fan-facing sites also publishes under the brand with different writers and different standards, and a piece there is not the same thing as the main title, so name precisely what you received. Separate franchises within the brand run their own selection and casting processes on published terms. Advertising, sponsorship and branded content are paid and labelled, and they are not an editor choosing to write about you.
The subject has to be sport. What runs is a competitor, a team, a result, a record, a comeback, a coaching decision, or the human story sitting underneath any of those, told with access and detail a reader cannot get elsewhere. Business and product stories need a genuine sporting dimension to exist here at all: a technology that changes how an event is officiated, an economic shift that alters who gets to compete, a health question athletes are actually facing. Expert comment is a real route if your field is sports medicine, performance, officiating or the economics of the game. A founder with a sports-adjacent brand and no sporting story is a poor fit, and it is more honest to say so than to pitch it.
Tell us the story in a sentence. We reply within 24 hours and we will say plainly whether Sports Illustrated is realistic for you, and which route it would take.
We develop your story, write the feature to editorial standard, and manage the placement. You approve every word before anything goes live.
Yes. It is a genuine article published on the outlet, written about you and your work — not an ad you design yourself.
Most placements take weeks rather than days. We give you a realistic timeline for Sports Illustrated before we start, and never promise a date we cannot control.
You review and revise until it is right. Nothing publishes without your approval.