Wired’s McClusky leaving for Sports Illustrated

Wired’s Mark McClusky is leaving to run digital for Sports Illustrated, reports Peter Kafka of Recode.

Kafka writes, “If that news sounds familiar, there’s a reason: Last week, Joe Brown, who ran Wired’s website, left to run Popular Science. In McClusky’s case, he’s leaving after an 11-year run up Wired’s masthead; by the end of it he was the title’s head of operations, heading up product and biz dev.

“Like Brown, McClusky is returning to a publication where he got his start — in his case as a reporter for the sports weekly, back in 1994. Now he’s going [to] run the magazine’s website, as well as all the other digital properties in Time Inc.’s sports group, which includes Golf and SI Kids.

“Running a digital sports publisher in 2016 is a tricky job, especially for an incumbent, who has to battle competitors that range from upstarts to Facebook and Twitter. That list includes Bleacher Report, which Time Warner bought back when SI and Time Inc. were part of that company, and ended up using as a replacement for SI’s digital stuff.”

Read more here.