Chris Stone

Sports Illustrated’s new editorial director talks Scoops, Social and Swimsuit.

- Emma Bazilian

You joined Sports Illustrated in 1992 as a fact checker. Obviously a lot about the magazine business has changed since then, but what would you say are the biggest challenges you’re facing right now?

When I got here, we were a magazine only. It was predigital. From a publishing standpoint, we had a virtual monopoly on national sports coverage. Now, we’re in a competitive field in which there are a lot of great sources for sports content and sports stories. There are a lot of people who do what we do very well, and there’s the additional challenge that a lot of those competitors offer that content for free. That’s naturally going to push us harder to find new ways to demonstrate our competitive advantage.

As managing editor, you landed major scoops like LeBron James’ announcement that he was returning to Cleveland. How do you get athletes to choose SI over outlets like TV or social media to share their stories?