Those are all good examples. But the New Yorker has supposedly never made money, it has always existed due to the largesse of the Newhouse family/Conde Nast, and in recent years has begun charging $100 a year for subscriptions (though discounts and sales seem to have returned) and digital access. They are one of the few with a unique enough product to where they are able to do it, but its future is not secure if and when the family sells or members die. NG is a non-profit, supported by its other products. Wired is itself a product of the digital age, and has the same owner as the New Yorker. It's too bad Conde Nast didn't see SI as something worth buying because they really are the only magazine company left. Relix is more in the events, concerts and merch business (that's where their owner's money comes from). I'd be worried about them right now.
In all those cases, yeah, there has been some innovation but it really comes down to someone with $ and passion, and to getting out of the magazine business. Which, for most titles, ultimately just leads to the end of the print product. You can't say SI didn't try but Warner and AOL just couldn't compete with ESPN (and didn't ever really want to be in the magazine business to begin with, they just wanted the IP and synergy).
There should still be room for an SI-like magazine - a New Yorker of sports, really, in contrast to the Athletic's more daily rhythms, but nobody stepped up who believed in that.
