Chris Stone Wins The Sports Illustrated Bake-Off, Takes Over The Weekly Magazine

Last month we told you there was a bake-off at Sports Illustrated to determine the magazine's next managing editor. Now we have a winner: assistant managing editor Chris Stone.

Stone is in his 21st year at SI; he had long been Terry McDonell's presumptive heir. But when the bake-off began late this summer, he found in senior writer Jon Wertheim a viable competitor (at least one person at the magazine had Wertheim as a slight favorite in September). McDonell, who awkwardly—and obliquely—announced his departure earlier this year, will become a senior adviser for Time Inc. Paul Fichtenbaum, who is in charge of integrating the web and print teams at the weekly, will take over the Time Inc. sports group.

Next assignment for Stone? Well, SI has lost a significant amount of revenue over the last few years, so there's that to deal with. And in the midst of his excitement over becoming the ninth managing editor of SI, there's also one big fat sobering reminder today of what it's like to run a weekly magazine in late 2012. Best of luck.