Aw, Man

The Swimsuits Were Skimpy, but the Magazine Was Invisible

Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue — devoted to the athletic rigors of wearing a wet bikini — is often criticized for its soft-core content. But this year, another controversy erupted over the magazine’s self-censorship.

Public libraries often find that the issue quickly disappears from the shelves. But last week, some subscribing librarians found that this year’s swimsuit issue had never even arrived. A spokesman for Sports Illustrated, a Time Warner property, confirmed on Friday that the Feb. 14 swimsuit issue had been withheld from about 21,000 subscribers identified as “libraries or classrooms.”

Many of the subscribers affected were libraries at universities and other educational institutions. None of the affected subscribers had been informed of the decision to withhold the issue. . . .

When she contacted her Sports Illustrated customer service representatives, Ms. Joyce was first told that there were no more copies of the issue available, before finding out that her library had been flagged as a “public institution” and as such would not receive the issue. . . .