James Heckman.

Maven, the Seattle-based media company that purchased publishing rights to Sports Illustrated last year, is laying off 31 employees (9% of its staff) due to the coronavirus crisis.

CEO James Heckman outlined the changes in a letter to staff sent today. The company is also cutting senior management compensation by 30 percent, slashing non-payroll expenses, and landed a $12 million line of credit from B. Riley Financial to help steady its ship amid an economic downturn and cancelled sporting events. theMaven estimates a $30 million reduction in revenue this year.

“As our normal way of life and doing business has been dramatically disrupted, so has the entire media industry, including advertising budgets,” Heckman wrote in the letter. “While our unique visitors, engagement, video views, and partner signings are strong and continue to grow efficiently, the industry is seeing a dramatic pullback in ‘sponsorship’ budgets and a 40% decrease in programmatic CPMs.”

Sports Illustrated journalists represent 6% of the overall cost reduction.

Other media companies such as Gannett and BuzzFeed are also making cuts amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

Maven launched in 2017 and purchased publishing rights to Sports Illustrated last year. The publicly-traded company raised $20 million in October.

Maven made headlines following layoffs at Sports Illustrated this past fall, which drew criticism from employees and unions including the LA Times Guild and the NewsGuild of New York.

Maven previously planned to have 200 team-specific websites under Sports Illustrated and 60 “financial journalist partnerships” within TheStreet, which it acquired last year. It also owns Say Media and Hubpages, among other content websites across various topics.

Heckman is the Rivals.com founder and a former Yahoo executive. He helped Rivals.com raise $70 million in venture capital, but the site hit a wall during the dot-com bust and eventually sold to a Tennessee company, which was then sold to Yahoo in 2007 for a reported purchase price of $100 million.

“Our revised budget plan is anticipatory, and gets ahead of the curve in a surgical way,” Heckman wrote in the letter. “We wish we could change the circumstances, but we are now positioned — with a talented, experienced team, diverse revenue streams, and a powerful business platform — to weather the ongoing COVID-19 storm and help independent media companies who are not.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect the fact that Maven is the publisher, not the owner, of Sports Illustrated. 

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