FanHouse Swimsuit Issue

Swimsuits have always been a moneymaker for Sports Illustrated. But more than ever before, the magazine is generating revenue from women in bikinis using sources beyond just the annual Swimsuit Issue.

Time, Inc. is a huge company that publishes more than 100 magazines. Of all the issues of all the Time, Inc. magazines, the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue is the single most profitable, especially once you add in the Swimsuit Issue video, the Swimsuit Issue calendars, the Swimsuit Issue web site and so on.

Because of that, every single Time, Inc. employee gets a copy of the Swimsuit Issue, so that they can all bask in the glow of the money-making machine. You might think being told to look at the Swimsuit Issue would be a good job assignment, but one employee, Time blogger Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, isn't happy about being forced to look at the Swimsuit Issue.

In a blog post headlined, "My Company Made Me Look at Porn," Cullen writes that she doesn't like it one bit:

Who decided I wanted to look at 100-some pages of barely dressed girls with abs made of slate and boobs that defy reason? SI boasts that women cherish the swimsuit issue because it offers us fashion ideas for the bathing season. Seriously?

Honestly, in this age of sexual harassment lawsuits, I find it kind of amazing that Time would force the swimsuit issue upon its employees. I'm betting they won't next year.
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