Sports Illustrated Kids

What Sports Illustrated Kids does

Sports Illustrated Kids (SI Kids) is a digital and print sports media brand targeting children and youth, operating under ABG-SI LLC, the entity that holds the Sports Illustrated trademark. Founded in 1989 and based in New York, the company publishes age-appropriate sports news, athlete profiles, and game coverage through its sikids.com website and a print/digital magazine subscription product sold via the external buysub.com commerce platform. The brand operates a flagship Kid Reporter youth journalism program that recruits young writers to cover major sporting events and interview professional athletes, and runs the annual SportsKid of the Year award (e.g., Chyna Taylor in 2025, Arden Pala in 2024) as a flagship engagement franchise.

The underlying technology infrastructure is provided by Minute Media, which supplies the content management and publishing platform powering sikids.com and distributes SI Kids content through Minute Media's partner network. The website is integrated with the parent Sports Illustrated (si.com) brand for cross-promotion, and the company maintains owned social media presence on Instagram, Facebook, X/Twitter, and YouTube alongside email newsletters.

SI Kids monetizes through two primary revenue streams: digital advertising on its youth-focused audience and recurring magazine subscriptions (annual billing cadence) distributed through buysub.com. Its customer base is segmented horizontally across children and youth sports enthusiasts (primary persona), parents and guardians (purchasers of subscriptions), Kid Reporters (content contributors), and professional athletes and sports organizations (indirect beneficiaries of promotional coverage). Specific pricing tiers, revenue figures, and headcount are not disclosed in the available source data.

Name

Sports Illustrated Kids

Legal name

ABG-SI LLC

Website

https://sikids.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1989

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Sports Illustrated Kids is a digital and print sports media brand for children, operating under ABG-SI LLC and powered by Minute Media. It delivers youth-focused sports news, a Kid Reporter journalism program, and a print magazine subscription targeting children ages 6-14 and their parents.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Children's Sports Media

NAICS

Spectator Sports (71121), Educational Services (611), Educational Support Services (611710)

SIC

Services-Miscellaneous Amusement & Recreation (7990)

akta.pro primary industry

Children’s Digital & Interactive Publishing (E-books, Apps, Enhanced Content) (MPAJAFAJ)

akta.pro secondary industries

Children’s Reference & Informational Series Publishing (MPAJAFAN), Children’s Nonfiction Publishing (MPAJAFAE), Children’s Subscription & Book Club Publishing (MPAJAFAO)

Keywords

• Youth sports media
• Children's sports news
• Kids sports magazine
• Youth journalism programs
• Athlete interviews for kids

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Supply Chain, Others

Revenue model

1. Digital Advertising: The website displays advertisements and generates advertising revenue from its youth-focused sports audience
2. Magazine Subscriptions: Physical and digital magazine subscriptions sold through the buysub.com platform, targeting parents and guardians of young athletes

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Sports Illustrated Kids (SI Kids) is the online and print media destination for youth sports news, games, athlete profiles, and game coverage targeted at children. The platform combines free editorial content on sikids.com with a paid magazine subscription (print and digital), supplemented by the Kid Reporter youth journalism program and the annual SportsKid of the Year award recognizing standout young athletes.

Product overview

Sports Illustrated Kids operates as a unified digital and print media platform delivering sports news, games, and athlete coverage specifically designed for children. The core offerings include the SI Kids Website providing online sports articles and multimedia content, the SI Kids Magazine subscription (print and digital), the Kid Reporter Program featuring youth journalism, and the annual SportsKid of the Year Award recognizing young athletes. The platform covers multiple sports categories including Football, Baseball, and More Sports, with content available through both the sikids.com website and the magazine subscription service.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• SportsKid of the Year: Annual award recognizing an outstanding young athlete who demonstrates excellence in sports, leadership, and community involvement
• Kid Reporter

Products and services

• SI Kids Website Online sports news and content platform for children featuring articles, game coverage, and multimedia content across multiple sports categories including football, baseball, and general sports news. Targeted at child and pre-teen readers and accessed free of charge.
• SI Kids Magazine Print and digital magazine subscription delivering sports news, athlete profiles, and sports-themed content for children, published by Sports Illustrated Kids and sold through the buysub.com e-commerce platform. Targeted at parents and guardians buying on behalf of young sports fans.
• Kid Reporter Program Youth journalism program in which young reporters (children and teens) write and publish sports articles for the SI Kids platform, covering major sporting events and interviewing professional athletes. Targeted at aspiring young journalists aged roughly 8-18 and operated under the SI Kids masthead.
• SportsKid of the Year Award Annual award program run by Sports Illustrated Kids that recognizes an outstanding young athlete for excellence in sports, leadership, and character, with profiles of the winner and finalists featured prominently on the sikids.com platform. Targeted at young athletes, their families, and the broader SI Kids readership as inspirational content.

Quantifiable outcome

• Sports Illustrated is a registered trademark of ABG-SI LLC with significant brand recognition in sports media

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature1 record

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Minute MediacoreTechnology or IntegrationMinute Media provides the underlying technology platform that powers sikids.com, handling content management, publishing infrastructure, and distribution systems. The platform enables SI Kids to focus on content creation while Minute Media handles technical operations.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves5 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• ESPN: ESPN is the dominant sports media brand in the US with broad coverage, video content, and youth-oriented segments such as ESPN Kids and ESPN8: The Ocho. As a broad incumbent, it competes for the same sports-content audience and advertiser dollars as SI Kids.
• NickSports (Nickelodeon Sports): NickSports is Nickelodeon's sports-focused programming block and digital property targeting kids and tweens with athlete interviews, game coverage, and sports-themed entertainment. It competes for the same youth sports audience with a video-first delivery model.
• Bleacher Report: Bleacher Report, owned by Turner Sports (Warner Bros. Discovery), is a major US sports media destination with strong social and youth audience engagement. It competes for sports-content attention and advertising revenue, with broader scale but less child-specialized programming.

Direct peers

• Sports Illustrated: The parent brand of SI Kids, Sports Illustrated operates si.com as the primary adult-focused sports news and feature site. SI Kids is the dedicated youth extension of this brand, sharing technology, branding, and editorial resources, making it the most directly comparable peer.
• Highlights for Children: Highlights is a long-running US children's magazine and digital brand serving families with age-appropriate content, games, and activities. It is a direct peer in the children's subscription publishing category, particularly for the magazine and parenting audience that SI Kids targets.
• National Geographic Kids: National Geographic Kids is the children's extension of the NatGeo brand, offering a magazine subscription, website, and educational content for kids. Comparable to SI Kids in operating model (digital + magazine, kid-focused editorial under a flagship parent brand).
• TIME for Kids: TIME for Kids operates a children's magazine and digital platform providing age-appropriate news and educational content. It parallels SI Kids as a kid-focused subscription and digital publishing brand under a flagship legacy media name.
• Scholastic Sports / Scholastic Kids Press: Scholastic's Kids Press Corps and Scholastic-branded sports content provide children with bylines on major sporting events - directly comparable to SI Kids' Kid Reporter program. Both operate youth journalism franchises publishing sports-related kid-authored content.

Others

• The Athletic (via New York Times): The Athletic provides subscription-based sports journalism under The New York Times. It is an adjacent subscription sports publisher; while not directly comparable in audience age, its premium subscription model demonstrates a viable paid digital strategy for sports content that SI Kids could emulate for parental subscriptions.

Regional players

• USA Today Sports / For Kids: USA Today's sports section and youth-oriented coverage offer kid-relevant content under a major US media brand. Comparable to SI Kids as a US-focused mainstream sports publisher with a parental audience overlap, though without a dedicated kids platform.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xtwitter.com/si_kids
• YouTubeyoutube.com/sportsillustrated
• Facebookfacebook.com/SIKids
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/sports-illustrated-kids

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Sports Illustrated Kids