Sports Illustrated, which set a standard for sportswriting and photography during its 20th-century heyday, was transferred to a new company Thursday. Along with the change, there were layoffs, according to three people with knowledge of the moves.

The number of those who lost their jobs under the magazine’s new steward, Maven, a digital platform company in Seattle, was not immediately clear. Before the layoffs, there were 31 full-time employees at the magazine who belonged to the NewsGuild union and nearly 80 employees who worked at the Sports Illustrated website.

Journalists at the 65-year-old publication arrived at the office in Lower Manhattan on Thursday not knowing whether or not they would have jobs by the end of the day. By evening, after cardboard boxes appeared, some of them had been laid off, the people said.

In a statement, Maven said it planned to “refocus” Sports Illustrated for a January relaunch, adding that it would “strengthen mobile platform delivery and increase the development of complementary video content.”