New editor for Time Inc. Sports Group

Sports Illustrated has a new point guard.

Longtime Time Inc. Sports Group editor Terry McDonell is moving upstairs at Time Inc., to be replaced by Paul Fitchtenbaum, who ran SI.com for years.

Chris Stone will become the magazine’s managing editor, up from his position as assistant ME.

McDonell had guided Sports Illustrated and its associated properties for a decade, pushing digital hard and playing a key role in getting SI onto the iPad. He’ll now be working on digital initiatives as a Time Inc. senior adviser.

Fitchtenbaum, who oversaw SI.com for eight years, is expected to have a similar focus moving forward, following a major reorganization over the summer that integrated SI’s print and digital properties into so-called verticals broken up by sport, eliminating many of the remaining barriers between the two forms of publication.

Sports Illustrated’s ad pages are down 4.8 percent this year through third quarter, though that’s better than rival magazines ESPN the Magazine (off 16.5 percent) and Sporting News (off 78.4 percent with a big cut back on print publication).
 

Tags: chris stone, espn, Longtime Time Inc, magazines, paul fitchtenbaum, print, SI, sporting news, Sports Group, sports illustrated, terry mcdonell, time inc