Offended by Sports Illustrated? There’s a Plan That Might Suit You

Sports Illustrated has gone swimsuit optional.

For the first time, Sports Illustrated this week published a notice offering subscribers the option of not being sent the magazine’s annual swimsuit issue.

The notice appeared in a box on SI’s letters-to-the-editor page in its March 24 issue. Most of the letters concerned the magazine’s swimsuit issue, including one that denounced it as “pornography.”

Sports Illustrated spokesman Dave Mingey said it was the first year that the magazine had published such a notice to readers, “although we have offered that option for a few years.”

Mingey said SI received “about 79” letters this year critical of the swimsuit issue, adding that the number has been declining since 1975, when the magazine started keeping track. Although some irate readers have canceled their subscriptions in years past, Mingey said none did so last year.