's entire staff was told in an email on Friday that they were being laid off. 

Authentic, the group that purchased the iconic brand for $110million in 2019, has ended its agreement to publish Sports Illustrated in both print and digital.

An email sent to staff on Friday, and reported by Front Office Sports, read: 'We were notified by Authentic Brands Group (ABG) that the license under which the Arena Group operates the Sports Illustrated (SI) brand and SI related properties has been officially revoked by ABG. As a result of this license revocation, we will be laying off staff that work on the SI brand.

'Some employees will be terminated immediately, and paid in lieu of the applicable notice period under the [the union contract]. Employees with a last working day of today will be contacted by the People team soon. 

'Other employees will be expected to work through the end of the notice period, and will receive additional information shortly.'

Sports Illustrated 's entire staff was told in an email on Friday that they were being laid off

The Sports Illustrated Guild posted their own statement on X, adding: 'We have fought together as a union to maintain the standard of this storied publication that we love, and to make sure our workers are treated fairly for the value they bring to this company.

It is a fight we will continue.'

It comes just months after Sports Illustrated's reputation was damaged by being less than forthcoming about who or what is writing its stories at the dawn of the artificial intelligence age.

The once-powerful publication fired a company that produced articles for its website written under the byline of authors who apparently don't exist. But it denied a published report that stories themselves were written by an artificial intelligence tool.

More to follow