Yankees owner George Steinbrenner passed away this week, and his death—lamentable as it is—provided an opportunity for Sports Illustrated to take advantage of the flexibility offered by digital publishing, Peter Kafka reports on AllThingsD’s “MediaMemo”. While it’s too late to change this week’s print edition of the magazine, the iPad edition is getting a new cover and a new cover story eulogizing Steinbrenner.
“We all sort of looked at other, and said, ‘you know, this is an opportunity to do this,’ and why wouldn’t we?” [Sports Illustrated editor Terry] McDonell says.
iPad readers will still get all the content of the print edition, including the LeBron James cover story whose cover is being displaced by the Steinbrenner one (and both covers—they can switch back and forth on the app). The Steinbrenner story will go up on the free SI.com website later this week for print buyers to read.
McDonell says that Sports Illustrated does not plan to make a habit of this sort of last-minute change, but will do it again for certain really big stories.
