Media

Sports Illustrated rebuilding its mobile and web sites

Sports Illustrated is looking to get its digital game on.

SI will relaunch its mobile and Web offerings Tuesday in a bid to break into the top 10 in the high-stakes sports niche. The Time Inc. sibling follows the namesake news mag’s digital redo in March.

“We realized we really needed to rebuild from scratch,” said Jim DeLorenzo, vice president and general manager of SI Digital. “We obviously did this whole thing thinking mobile first.”

The new SI layout will be less grid-based with a more continuous stream of content and far more potential for video and social media, according to DeLorenzo.

Later this week, Time Inc. will launch 120 Sports, a live-streaming 24-hour online network with sports content from MLB, NHL, NBA and other partners.

SI also hopes to tap into the booming fantasy-gaming business on July 1 with Fan Nation, a daily sports-fantasy service that will carry a modest registration fee.

“We think daily fantasy is about to explode,” said DeLorenzo.

SI.com was given a jolt in April 2012, when its affiliation with Turner Sports Network ended and $3 million in profits disappeared, forcing it to make editorial cuts.

Turner struck a $175 million deal for Bleacher Report and now sits in third place in the sports category, with 55.4 million unique visitors, comScore stats show.

As of May, SI has posted 49 growth percent since the year-earlier period, but still ranks in 11th place with just under 20 million unique visitors.

ESPN is No. 1 with 68 million unique visitors, while No. 2 Yahoo! Sports/NBC Sports Network had 56.3 million.