Sports Illustrated Halts Swimsuit Issue in Libraries
Debra Lau Whelan -- School Library Journal, 3/8/2007
If you’re still awaiting the arrival of this year’s Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, we have some news for you. It’s not coming.
Time Inc., the magazine’s publisher, has decided to withhold this year’s issue from libraries nationwide, claiming that they have received negative feedback from parents, teachers, and librarians that the scantily-clad models are too risqué for children.
Since libraries fall under one category in the publisher’s subscriber database, all libraries—including academic, public and K-12 school libraries—were affected. And many librarians aren’t happy with the decision.
Pat Scales, an SLJ columnist on First Amendment issues and a recently retired middle and high school librarian in South Carolina, says she always subscribed to the magazine and never had any problems with it. “If the publisher has made this decision because they feel that kids shouldn’t see the swimsuit issue, then they are applying their own brand of censorship,” Scales says. “In this case, they are substituting their judgment over the judgment of librarians.”
Scales says that librarians subscribe to periodicals “based on the overall scope of the publication and its appeal to readers,” and that the decision about what to do with the swimsuit issue should be left to librarians, not the publisher. “I worry about the next step—will it be National Geographic, or Science News?,” Scales adds.
She’s not alone. On SERIALST, an online discussion group for serial and periodical librarians, one academic librarian from Lynchburg, VA, wrote “shame on the people at Time, Inc., who apparently have decided to censor our receipt of Sports Illustrated.” Another librarian called the new policy “completely ridiculous.”
Although libraries weren’t warned of the new policy in advance, Rick McCabe, a Sports Illustrated spokesman, dismisses charges of censorship, saying “we didn’t intend to upset any subscribers.” All libraries can request the issue—which hit newsstands on February 14—by calling a toll-free customer-service number or by visiting the magazine’s Web site (www.SI.com/customer service). Some librarians have already requested the issue through their serials vendor, and McCabe adds that the decision could change next year if there’s an overwhelmingly negative response to the new policy.
The swimsuit edition, which started in 1964 as part of the magazine, became a stand-alone issue in 1997, and is by far the best-selling issue. While average weekly newsstand sales total about 90,000, the annual swimsuit issue sells a whopping 1.4 million to 1.6 million, McCabe, says. Libraries make up less than 1 percent of the magazine’s 3.2 million subscribers.
Librarians—particularly those in schools—have grappled with the swimsuit issue, with many questioning its educational value. Some throw it out, while others put it on the shelf, just like any other periodical. Others have been known to mark over swimsuit models’ private parts with a pen and some keep it behind the desk until a patron requests it. Of course, some don’t have a problem with the swimsuit issue because it always manages to disappear.
