The franchise

the long version

Sports Illustrated magazine is one of the great publishing success stories of the past 50 years - a pop-culture phenomenon generating profits of more than $1 billion since 1984. But if its success seems inevitable in retrospect, you don't know the whole story. The Franchise: A History of Sports Illustrated Magazine is the first book to tell the story, documenting the development of one of the most fascinating and dominant franchises in all of American sports, from its obscure beginnings to its present day prominence. Filled with never-before-told inside stories about the sport of magazine publishing and its most charismatic and powerful players - it is a book for anyone who cares about sports, good writing, and the high-stakes world of the media business.