Time Inc. to Close Sports Illustrated Women
By DAVID CARR NY TIMES

Sports Illustrated Women, a monthly magazine, is closing, a senior Time Inc. executive said late this afternoon.

With a circulation of approximately 400,000 and the brand of Sports Illustrated behind it, Time Inc. executives had hoped that the magazine would succeed in finding a niche among women involved in participatory sports. Other efforts, including Condé Nast Women's Sports and Fitness, have failed to find an audience big enough to attract major advertisers. Women's Sports and Fitness closed in 2000 after three years.

The current version of Sports Illustrated Women was conceived and edited by Susan Casey, a former creative director at Outside, the award-winning adventure magazine based in Santa Fe, N.M. The December issue of Sport Illustrated Women will be its last one.

The magazine's staff was told the news this afternoon.

Time Inc. began testing Sports Illustrated Women in 1997, followed up with four issues in 1999, and it moved to a bimonthly publication schedule in March 2000.