The Athletic “gutting” British newspapers

[Pexbo]

IMO Daniel Taylor is an absolute gem of a football journalist and worthy of subscription alone.

For me though, the reason why The Athletic is succeeding is not just because of who they are hiring but because of either how they are allowing or how they are encouraging the journalists to write. It's a big shift away from the cheap, low brow tabloid stuff a lot of them have had to send in at times.

There's a real emphasis on building a background and context to their articles and giving you much more than a shallow, superficial take on something. There's less emphasis on capturing the story that is unfolding that week; which manager has lost two games in a row; which player is injured again and who has hit some form or who has been up to no good and more emphasis on stories which might have been overlooked at the time but developed into interesting, complex stories about the people involved once the dust has settled and the full picture has become apparent.

 

[arnie_ni]

Half price today... going to purchase

 

[madzo2007]

Got a 3 month free trial today, does anyone know how to see stories from before the start of March without having to go author by author?

 

[padzilla]

Is this a service worth subscribing to?

 

[Scarecrow]

Is this a service worth subscribing to?

Yes, it’s fantastic.

They have a free trial, so you can check for yourself.

 

[Solius]

40% off if you subscribe today or literally any other day that has ever existed.

 

[P-Ro]

40% off if you subscribe today or literally any other day that has ever existed.

So they're like the DFS of journalism?

 

[The Cat]

40% off if you subscribe today or literally any other day that has ever existed.

3 month trial then 60 quid if you forget to cancel.

Would at least wait until there is more to write about I think.

 

[crossy1686]

Is this a service worth subscribing to?

For inside knowledge, they're brilliant. The journalists who work there have great connections at all the clubs and are first to know many things. The only issue I found, as a United fan, is that there isn't enough United content to warrant a subscription when I could subscribe to something like United we Stand and get the inside scoops from Andy Mitten who is also well connected at the club.

If you're a fan of football journalism and very good journalism at that, then definitely subscribe. Personally I don't care about Jody Morris and his career path to Chelsea first-team coach so I passed after a month or two of being signed up.

 

[11101]

More expensive than Amazon Prime or Netflix for the occasional inside story? I didn't get it before and i definitely can't see how it's going to make sense with the likely state of the economy over the next few years.

 

[Dan_F]

Not sure I’d pay £60, but I’m assuming you can still get it heavily discounted through most places. It was probably worth the £30 I paid for a year.

I’m surprised they didn’t put the podcasts behind the paywall, as someone else said, the talk of the devils podcast usually features everything written by Andy Mitten or Laurie Whitwell.

 

[crossy1686]

Not sure I’d pay £60, but I’m assuming you can still get it heavily discounted through most places. It was probably worth the £30 I paid for a year.

I’m surprised they didn’t put the podcasts behind the paywall, as someone else said, the talk of the devils podcast usually features everything written by Andy Mitten or Laurie Whitwell.

Then generally tease the articles and mention snippets from them. They go into a lot more detail in the articles themselves obviously. Personally I find the podcasts to be enough to satisfy my needs.

 

[Tiber]

I just signed up to a 90 day free trial. It would need to be very good to make me want to pay money to keep access after the trial, but I will give it a go.

 

[arthurka]

I just signed up to a 90 day free trial. It would need to be very good to make me want to pay money to keep access after the trial, but I will give it a go.

Signed up recently and I have to say it's pretty darn good.

 

[AR87]

Signed up recently and I have to say it's pretty darn good.

I like that they have quality, in-depth content for clubs up and down the PL. For myself as an American fan of the sport it's really worth it for that alone. Their piece on Burnley's defense a week ago was fantastic for example.

 

[RUCK4444]

I like that they have quality, in-depth content for clubs up and down the PL. For myself as an American fan of the sport it's really worth it for that alone. Their piece on Burnley's defense a week ago was fantastic for example.

Sounds good, might look into the subscription fee and take the trial access at least.

 

[Ali Dia]

My 3 month trial is coming to an end. Im thinking I'll keep it. Money is a little tight right now but Its worth it.

 

[Dan_F]

My subscription ran out a few days ago, and I got an advert on my IG advertising £1 a month for 12 months. £7.99 after, but you can just cancel it again.

I hope the link works, let me know if not and I’ll delete it. I used the same email address as before too.

https://theathletic.com/checkout2/intro1/introperiod12

 

[MarkCanuck]

My subscription ran out a few days ago, and I got an advert on my IG advertising £1 a month for 12 months. £7.99 after, but you can just cancel it again.

I hope the link works, let me know if not and I’ll delete it. I used the same email address as before too.

https://theathletic.com/checkout2/intro1/introperiod12

Worked for me here in Canada. $1.25 instead of $9.99. Thanks

 

[Dan_F]

Worked for me here in Canada. $1.25 instead of $9.99. Thanks

No worries. Seems crazy that they’re offering it for that price.

 

[SuperiorXI]

No worries. Seems crazy that they’re offering it for that price.

Where is the incentive to subscribe? Any 'insider' info is immidiately de-valued since it's dropped straight onto other social media platforms. Interview quotes etc, too.

 

[TheHeya]

My subscription ran out a few days ago, and I got an advert on my IG advertising £1 a month for 12 months. £7.99 after, but you can just cancel it again.

I hope the link works, let me know if not and I’ll delete it. I used the same email address as before too.

https://theathletic.com/checkout2/intro1/introperiod12

Can you turn auto renewal off straight away? And can you pay £12 upfront for the year or does it take it out every month like Netflix etc

 

[JJ12]

Where is the incentive to subscribe? Any 'insider' info is immidiately de-valued since it's dropped straight onto other social media platforms. Interview quotes etc, too.

Its for in depth stories and quality writing. Certainly not for rumours or transfer news.

 

[freeurmind]

Is it worth it?

 

[Rocksy]

Is it worth it?

Yes, absolutely. The writers are great but Ia think it's more that they are allowed to write much longer, in-depth articles. The writers for each club and the writers who go across clubs are able to go into a lot detail on how clubs work and train. I'm loving my subscription...

 

[Dan_F]

Can you turn auto renewal off straight away? And can you pay £12 upfront for the year or does it take it out every month like Netflix etc

I don’t think so. Maybe set a calendar reminder for next year. It’s just £1 per month, no £12 option, so I’m guessing they are relying on people not bother to turn it off.

Where is the incentive to subscribe? Any 'insider' info is immidiately de-valued since it's dropped straight onto other social media platforms. Interview quotes etc, too.

It’s £1 a month...I listen to their podcasts too, which are free anyway, but it’s a huge amount of content for £1 a month. I don’t mind paying that at all.

 

[gormless]

I had a free trial a few months ago. I was very impressed by the longer reads, so I bit the bullet and subscribed.
I had no idea a 20 minute read about Dong Fangzhou’s life could be so fun

 

[Gio]

Can you turn auto renewal off straight away? And can you pay £12 upfront for the year or does it take it out every month like Netflix etc

I turned it off straight away when I subscribed 12 months ago. Worked fine.

 

[esmufc07]

My subscription ran out a few days ago, and I got an advert on my IG advertising £1 a month for 12 months. £7.99 after, but you can just cancel it again.

I hope the link works, let me know if not and I’ll delete it. I used the same email address as before too.

https://theathletic.com/checkout2/intro1/introperiod12

Worked for me, thanks. Would never pay £8 a month but £1 a month is nothing so will give it a go.

 

[jungledrums]

My subscription ran out a few days ago, and I got an advert on my IG advertising £1 a month for 12 months. £7.99 after, but you can just cancel it again.

I hope the link works, let me know if not and I’ll delete it. I used the same email address as before too.

https://theathletic.com/checkout2/intro1/introperiod12

Thanks man! Worked for me. Appreciate you sharing.

 

[Gary_Walsh_Nou_Camp_Hell]

Is this a service worth subscribing to?

Just being able to listen to Totally Football without all the paddypowet ads is worth the fee alone.

Some of the journalism is pretty good. But i also find it funny that some of them act like they are reporting on something a lot more important than football

 

[redmanc]

For £1 a month for some extra reading i'll take it, thanks!

 

[KM]

1 dollar per month is a no brainer I think. They have excellent journalists working for them.

 

[SqualorVictoria]

For someone that also follows the American leagues, it's a no brainer. I don't even care about anything other than NHL (besides football), and even then, well worth it.

 

[Samid]

No worries. Seems crazy that they’re offering it for that price.

No it's pretty much the sensible thing to do. With digital subscriptions of this kind every new subscriber costs them absolutely nothing. They're producing the content anyway so people reading it at a 90 % discount for a year still means they're earning the 10 % they wouldn't have earned without the discount offer. Just look at the last few posts in this thread. People will happily sign up for the discount, they would have been reluctant to pay the full price.

100 people signing up for $1.25 per month for the first year is much better than 15 people signing up for $10 per month. Two key things here are the auto-renewals and the fact that they get your email. Targeted email lists is one of the most powerful tools in online marketing. Having worked a bit with digital subscriptions my experience is that a lot of people sign up for discount offers but very few of those bother turning off the auto renewal when the discount offer is up. A lot of that is down to them being satisfied with what you offer but you've also got quite a few casuals who don't care about money and/or are too lazy to turn it off.

 

[Dan_F]

No it's pretty much the sensible thing to do. With digital subscriptions of this kind every new subscriber costs them absolutely nothing. They're producing the content anyway so people reading it at a 90 % discount for a year still means they're earning the 10 % they wouldn't have earned without the discount offer. Just look at the last few posts in this thread. People will happily sign up for the discount, they would have been reluctant to pay the full price.

100 people signing up for $1.25 per month for the first year is much better than 15 people signing up for $10 per month. Two key things here are the auto-renewals and the fact that they get your email. Targeted email lists is one of the most powerful tools in online marketing. Having worked a bit with digital subscriptions my experience is that a lot of people sign up for discount offers but very few of those bother turning off the auto renewal when the discount offer is up. A lot of that is down to them being satisfied with what you offer but you've also got quite a few casuals who don't care about money and/or are too lazy to turn it off.

I’m not sure that you’re completely correct, I’m sure there’s plenty of people who would have paid £7.99 a month, who will now be getting it for £1 a month.

It also has an impact on the business going forward. People will value it as a £1 a month service after a year of being on that. If they get enough subscribers to make that work then fair play to them. Makes you wonder why other digital media is so much more expensive though.

 

[WeePat]

No it's pretty much the sensible thing to do. With digital subscriptions of this kind every new subscriber costs them absolutely nothing. They're producing the content anyway so people reading it at a 90 % discount for a year still means they're earning the 10 % they wouldn't have earned without the discount offer. Just look at the last few posts in this thread. People will happily sign up for the discount, they would have been reluctant to pay the full price.

100 people signing up for $1.25 per month for the first year is much better than 15 people signing up for $10 per month. Two key things here are the auto-renewals and the fact that they get your email. Targeted email lists is one of the most powerful tools in online marketing. Having worked a bit with digital subscriptions my experience is that a lot of people sign up for discount offers but very few of those bother turning off the auto renewal when the discount offer is up. A lot of that is down to them being satisfied with what you offer but you've also got quite a few casuals who don't care about money and/or are too lazy to turn it off.

I actually forgot to turn off the auto-renewal last year, and they took £56 out of my account last month when the new 12 months started. I I felt like an idiot when I had to contact them to get a refund.

 

[rotherham_red]

I'd say if you get it at the £2.50 p/month rate it's decent value, but any more than that and I'd just go without, especially since the likes of UtdReport provide the gist of the articles within minutes on Twitter.

 

[WeePat]

My subscription ran out a few days ago, and I got an advert on my IG advertising £1 a month for 12 months. £7.99 after, but you can just cancel it again.

I hope the link works, let me know if not and I’ll delete it. I used the same email address as before too.

https://theathletic.com/checkout2/intro1/introperiod12

Thanks for this btw. I signed up again. This is a great offer.

 

[RedFish]

Can’t justify it with al the free content available. I dhad a subscription, and it wa just ok imho.