• NY Times, Monday, February 13, 2006 10:49 AM

It used to be so easy: Every year you'd buy a copy of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue when it reached your local newsstand, you'd pore over it for a couple of days, maybe actually read a story, then pass it around among a few buddies. End of story. Well, not anymore. Speaking of the swimsuit annual, which is to hit retail shelves tomorrow, SI president and publisher Mark Ford says, "It is the mother ship of what we do. We want to leverage the power of that franchise." How so? The magazine "is a multimedia brand. It's a magazine, it's online, it's mobile, it's an event," Ford says. He's not just idly boasting either. The unveiling of the issue will occur tonight on NBC's "Tonight Show Starring Jay Leno." Anheuser-Busch has signed on for a series of promotional events around the country that will boost the issue over the next week or so. Additionally, specially produced videos can be had for one's iPod at $1.99 a pop. In sum, the swimsuit ish of SI will be everywhere. The mission for SI, a Time Inc. title, is to direct traffic, to send consumers here and about in search of SI content, and to meet them there with photos and stories that underscore the brand's meaning. According to SI, when one takes into account all the various ways users can access the content of the annual swimsuit spectacular, it constitutes the most widely read single issue of any magazine in the world.

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