For Sports Illustrated CEO Ross Levinsohn, leading the company into the future successfully has required a repositioning of the brand’s monetization strategy. Across most of Sports Illustrated’s history, which started more than seven decades ago, this notable brand has raised the majority of its revenue through print subscriptions and ads. More recently, however, consumers have been shifting away from magazine subscriptions in favor of digital news and content. As was the case for many print brands, Sports Illustrated initially produced an income-generating website to address the situation. However, as the trend continued, it became clear to the Sports Illustrated CEO that a new monetization plan was needed to optimize the brand’s digital revenue.

Ross Levinsohn has held many prestigious positions throughout his 40-year career that have prepared him to tackle this issue successfully. His executive leadership skills have been well-used in high-level positions at Whisper Advisors, Fox, Yahoo!, Maven Media, Guggenheim, CBS Sportsline and several other prominent enterprises. Many of his experiences have prepared him to manage Sports Illustrated’s issue. For example, while Levinsohn was working as the CEO at Maven Media, he managed monetization planning for hundreds of brands. One of these brands, The Street with Jim Cramer, presented Levinsohn with an amazing opportunity to produce more money through the establishment of a next-level paywall. This opportunity specifically involved introducing cryptocurrency content to meet consumers’ growing interest in the topic. Levinsohn strategized to offer this new stream of content through a specialized paywall.

Levinsohn was presented with a different type of situation at Sports Illustrated, but he addressed the problem with a new paywall as well. Specifically, Levinsohn needed the brand’s current content streams to produce more revenue online. This was creatively accomplished when Levinsohn debuted a premium subscription level. Behind this paywall, premium subscribers could enjoy first access to early release content. Numerous other print publishing brands dealt with a comparable issue related to declining print subscriptions. Some of these brands enthusiastically were inspired by Levinsohn and took a similar approach to address the matter.