The Athletic “gutting” British newspapers

JustAGuest

Full Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2013
Messages
742
Their stated business strategy is pretty disgusting:

“We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing,” Alex Mather, a co-founder of The Athletic, said in an interview in San Francisco. “We will suck them dry of their best talent at every moment. We will make business extremely difficult for them.”
That's enough to keep me away. With so much free content available, I struggle to see the value in a paid subscription. I doubt this will be sustainable long term.
 

hubbuh

New Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2010
Messages
6,110
Location
UK, hun?
Their stated business strategy is pretty disgusting:

“We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing,” Alex Mather, a co-founder of The Athletic, said in an interview in San Francisco. “We will suck them dry of their best talent at every moment. We will make business extremely difficult for them.”
Ew, steering well clear.
 

Bastian

Full Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2015
Messages
18,444
Supports
Mejbri
Taylor’s second piece leaves a lot to be desired. The one about Clough was top drawer but the one about our recruitment is, frankly, strange. The headline presents a story on spy firms while the story fails to conclude if this is privacy infringing use of unethical software (see Fin fisher, Hacking team) or if this is just a frivolous way to hemorrhage more money on conducting due diligence.
Then Taylor drops the line that we’re looking for four signings in January without any further elaboration or context.

Puzzling.
 

jem

Full Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
9,257
Location
Toronto
Taylor’s second piece leaves a lot to be desired. The one about Clough was top drawer but the one about our recruitment is, frankly, strange. The headline presents a story on spy firms while the story fails to conclude if this is privacy infringing use of unethical software (see Fin fisher, Hacking team) or if this is just a frivolous way to hemorrhage more money on conducting due diligence.
Then Taylor drops the line that we’re looking for four signings in January without any further elaboration or context.

Puzzling.
Yeah it's a pretty poor article. In discussing the decision not to pursue Felix, he quotes an insider saying that "Michael Rickets was a world beater for one season," which is a frankly moronic reason for not going after one of the top young talents in the game. Taylor offers no commentary on this and proceeds to say that United still held out hope for Sanchez at that time, which seems unlikely as they seemed to have made up their mind on Sanchez by the end of last season (it's not like he put in any further bad performances this season to finally convince them to give up on him.)
 

Bastian

Full Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2015
Messages
18,444
Supports
Mejbri
Yeah it's a pretty poor article. In discussing the decision not to pursue Felix, he quotes an insider saying that "Michael Rickets was a world beater for one season," which is a frankly moronic reason for not going after one of the top young talents in the game. Taylor offers no commentary on this and proceeds to say that United still held out hope for Sanchez at that time, which seems unlikely as they seemed to have made up their mind on Sanchez by the end of last season (it's not like he put in any further bad performances this season to finally convince them to give up on him.)
Yeah, it seems like the classic second album there from Taylor. Saved all his gold for that first article on Clough and then had to quickly write some filler material, where he stumbles upon two interesting melodies that he drowns in all the tidbit noise.
 

jem

Full Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
9,257
Location
Toronto
Yeah, it seems like the classic second album there from Taylor. Saved all his gold for that first article on Clough and then had to quickly write some filler material, where he stumbles upon two interesting melodies that he drowns in all the tidbit noise.
I like the Athletic (and Taylor) but I think they are trying to hard to make every article profound, and a result you get this kind of article, which seems like it has something to say, but really doesn’t.
 

Bastian

Full Member
Joined
Jul 16, 2015
Messages
18,444
Supports
Mejbri
I like the Athletic (and Taylor) but I think they are trying to hard to make every article profound, and a result you get this kind of article, which seems like it has something to say, but really doesn’t.
Yeah, I'd rather fewer articles and guaranteed quality.
 

Dan_F

Full Member
Joined
Dec 17, 2012
Messages
10,317
That article about us picking up injuries due to some shift to an intense pressing style of football was dreadful. Anyone who’s watched us can see that isn’t what we’re doing, no matter how much people want to try and believe it is.

It even included a stat about us regaining possession higher up the pitch 0.5 times per game more, when Ole was caretaker manager. Then said it is now back to the same level. So seriously what was the point of the story.

I’ve found it to be no more interesting than reading free stories from regular newspapers. They need to sort out a high quality podcast too.
 

FrankDrebin

Don't call me Shirley
Joined
Aug 25, 2019
Messages
19,877
Location
Police Squad
Supports
USA Manchester Red Socks
Yeah it's a pretty poor article. In discussing the decision not to pursue Felix, he quotes an insider saying that "Michael Rickets was a world beater for one season," which is a frankly moronic reason for not going after one of the top young talents in the game. Taylor offers no commentary on this and proceeds to say that United still held out hope for Sanchez at that time, which seems unlikely as they seemed to have made up their mind on Sanchez by the end of last season (it's not like he put in any further bad performances this season to finally convince them to give up on him.)
That's one of the dumbest arguments I've read for not making a formal approach for a top,top talent.
I mean, the source could've just said the fee Benfica were wanting was OTT,which is absolutely fair. But to make a crappy comparison to Ricketts one off season is,frankly,laughable.:lol:
 

jem

Full Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
9,257
Location
Toronto
That's one of the dumbest arguments I've read for not making a formal approach for a top,top talent.
I mean, the source could've just said the fee Benfica were wanting was OTT,which is absolutely fair. But to make a crappy comparison to Ricketts one off season is,frankly,laughable.:lol:
Exactly - I don't think anyone would've been too put out by United's refusing to pay 120 million for a teenager, but at least be honest about that.
 

UncleBob

New Member
Joined
Aug 21, 2014
Messages
6,330
That's one of the dumbest arguments I've read for not making a formal approach for a top,top talent.
I mean, the source could've just said the fee Benfica were wanting was OTT,which is absolutely fair. But to make a crappy comparison to Ricketts one off season is,frankly,laughable.:lol:
They're making shit up, it's that simple.
 

jem

Full Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
9,257
Location
Toronto
But..but its a paid subscription news site. It must be true because you pay for it.
You pay for it!!
Oh god ,my world has turned upside down.
I don't think Daniel Taylor is necessarily making anything up; I just think he was fed a ridiculous line from a United staffer.
 

jem

Full Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2010
Messages
9,257
Location
Toronto
I just read a fantastic Michael Cox article in the Athletic about United's chance creation from open play (focussing heavily on the Newcastle loss.) It's a very fascinating, if sobering, read. Fred, McTominay and Mata do not come out well from Cox's analysis, while Maguire actually emerges with a fair bit of credit (his gilt-edged miss notwithstanding.) Anyway, for any subscribers, I highly recommend it.
 

Macern

Pee pee pants
Joined
May 11, 2014
Messages
13,538
Location
Oslo, Norway
1 year for £30, is it worth it? I’d love to subscribe, but it sucks having to pay 30 up front.
 

VorZakone

What would Kenny G do?
Joined
May 9, 2013
Messages
32,618
They had an article about City Football Group being worth a certain amount after selling a stake to an investment firm. But they made the mistake of saying Manchester City was worth a few billions instead of City Football Group.

That's shitty journalism.
 

NWRed

Full Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2019
Messages
1,154
66% off today. I've taken the plunge, really a bit of a bargain at that price.
I paid £19.99 a couple of weeks ago, it's been worth it so far.

Also got Autosports Black Friday deal, £19.99 for 12 months, which is quality too.
 

Gentleman Jim

It's absolutely amazing! Perfect even.
Joined
Jun 14, 2015
Messages
3,144
Location
Salford
Supports
city
66% off today. I've taken the plunge, really a bit of a bargain at that price.
Me too, I’ll give it a year and see what I think.
I also like following football in general, NFL, MLB and Boxing so should get my moneys worth.
 

TMDaines

Fun sponge.
Joined
Sep 1, 2014
Messages
13,906
I pretty much read everything United on there. I subscribed during the Xmas sale. Well worth it. I'd pay the same for the Guardian if they offered it.
 

TMDaines

Fun sponge.
Joined
Sep 1, 2014
Messages
13,906
Rebooted: We’re picking up the football season from March 1999
With professional football in 2020 brought to a standstill by the coronavirus, from today, The Athletic is rebooting that famous season, bringing our in-depth style to the moments you remember, ones you have forgotten and others that never saw the light of day back then. Whether your team won trophies, suffered misery or did something in between, we will find the human stories that made it a vintage season.
Should be some nice reading for United fans over the coming weeks.
 

Teja

Full Member
Joined
Aug 17, 2014
Messages
5,701
Good old fashioned capitalism. Let them fight it out, if traditional news media wants to retain talent, let them pay more to keep it. If they have no money, figure out a way to monetize better - they're only fighting against another media outlet, not tech giants that are quasi monopolies at this point and you have to play by their rules or else.
 
Joined
Jan 8, 2017
Messages
2,824
As a fan of MLS, the Athletic has been a godsend over here as there is so little high quality in-depth reporting on the league and they snapped up all the major MLS-dedicated reporters. Don't know if UK readers have had the same view though, although there was obviously much more quality reporting on English football pre-Athletic
 

P-Nut

fan of well-known French footballer Fabinho
Joined
Oct 16, 2015
Messages
21,602
Location
Oldham, Greater Manchester
Think I'll grab a subscription to this whenever the new season kicks off. Read a few articles they have done over the last few months and they have been great reads.
 

Judas

Open to offers
Joined
Jun 28, 2010
Messages
35,964
Location
Where the grass is greener.
One of the better 20 quids I've spent, read at least one article a day. Not sure I'll re-up the subscription for 59 quid when it runs out next year though, but if I can get another good deal I will.