I'll give it a year before it's shut down and fully merged into the NY Times experience.
The Athletic to be acquired by The New York Times Company in Q1 2022
- Thread starter Hoof the ball
- Start date
Rest in peace.
Does anyone actually pay for the athletic?
That went fast. Feels like yesterday that @Wumminator opened that thread about journos defecting to some new website.
Plenty of people do and still do. Some fantastic writers there.
Absolutely. For now, anyway.
It's somewhat ironic that great writers left publications in order to join a small team of sports journalists, now only to find themselves under the ownership once more of a great big corporate news enterprise.
I'm impressed they managed to pull this off.. I didn't think the tech startup model could work in journalism
It’s worth every penny.
Is that at full price? I’m a subscriber but not at full price because, with all the promotions, it seems almost impossible to get it without a massive discount. I sort of like it but wouldn’t go near it at full price. Some clubs are well covered (Liverpool, Chelsea) but others not so much. United’s writers include Andy Mitten and Carl Anka, both are generally poor and/or boring. I’d not be that bothered if it disappeared as there’s quite a lot of stuff on there that I’m not really interested in.
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Wasn’t the whole purpose of leaving their respective newspapers to run their own service where they write whatever without the newspapers calling the shots? This seems like a step back to what they left.
I don’t think you can blame the journalists, they don’t have any say in that kind of stuff.
2 years from now Ornstein and others will be back at BBC, Guardian, Telegraph etc.
Oh no this is bad
Nyt has been terrible in the past few years hope it doesn't spill into athletic.
Nyt has been terrible in the past few years hope it doesn't spill into athletic.
In what regards?
They have about $70m revenue and around 1.2m or something subscribers, so they're doing something like $5-$6 per user a month in revenue, which is pretty good.
I'm like you though I'd only have it at a massive discount, I'm currently paying a pound a month. They do occasionally have some great articles though that would make me consider spending a little more.
I'm mostly talking about their political side and editorials. I'm very right wing in most regards but still try to get a more balanced view on things so I had subscription for a rather long time , but they just kept getting worse and almost unbearable at times so I just canceled it a while back.
This may be a product of me getting more averse to opposing views as time goes by but even then I found a lot of things they put out there ludicrous and not worth the money.
Anyway I try to not be to political here as this ain't the appropriate thread but I do still hope they keep the quality high as I really enjoy reading athletic from time to time.
Edit: also their sporting editoriasl has been trash since I can remember.
Doesn't have to be that way. Remember Grantland? It was managed as a separate, high quality branch of ESPN.
If the idea is to completely merge The Athletic into NYTimes then it's a stupid one.
I had it for a couple of years, at reduced rates, but I've packed it in now. Wasn't using it enough to justify the cost.
All the articles by Mitten, Whitwell, etc about United are always tweeted anyway. And I can still listen to their podcast on Spotify.
All the articles by Mitten, Whitwell, etc about United are always tweeted anyway. And I can still listen to their podcast on Spotify.
The NYT are just the “progressive” faction of the right wing in mainstream media. They’re still ***** for American empire, so long as it’s woke.
But I share your disappointment that they will own The Athletic now, though not surprised. I never subscribed but I did enjoy the content that I got to read. But hey, that’s capitalism for you. You make the big money, you get to buy the papers you want and push your own agenda.
I don't think they will merge the brands to one, the user bases don't have a huge cross-over
also, the NYT is typically liberal so merging them might alienate a large portion of the Athletics readers
The Athletic spent a lot of money building a niche brand, would be a bit silly to throw that away
also, the NYT is typically liberal so merging them might alienate a large portion of the Athletics readers
The Athletic spent a lot of money building a niche brand, would be a bit silly to throw that away
Grantland had some of the writing, forget just sports, anywhere at its peak. ESPN and Simmons ego killed it.
I have an Athletic subscription at $3 a month. Worth every penny.
I'm on a discounted subscription but use it enough to justify a 5-10 pound outlay a month.
Seems a surprisingly big amount of money for NYT to spend considering the fragile business model. Imagine it will continue independently but NYT will focus on profitability. I could see the European football being phased out in the next few years.
Think they've been a good and fresh contribution to sports journalism, even if some of the United writers (Mitten, Anka) are pretty poor.
Seems a surprisingly big amount of money for NYT to spend considering the fragile business model. Imagine it will continue independently but NYT will focus on profitability. I could see the European football being phased out in the next few years.
Think they've been a good and fresh contribution to sports journalism, even if some of the United writers (Mitten, Anka) are pretty poor.
Politics aside , there has been a major shift in the legacy media's coverage of news and opinions to the more faux outrage and click baity headlines and content akin to the drivel on the social media. It became really noticeable around 10 years ago and they don't seem to be able to compete so they just try to emulate what gets the clicks on Twitter and the likes of it and erodes the quality of it more and more.The NYT are just the “progressive” faction of the right wing in mainstream media. They’re still ***** for American empire, so long as it’s woke.
But I share your disappointment that they will own The Athletic now, though not surprised. I never subscribed but I did enjoy the content that I got to read. But hey, that’s capitalism for you. You make the big money, you get to buy the papers you want and push your own agenda.
Athletic has been pretty sensible and measured in their coverage and content and has avoided the pitfalls of sensational journalism that is synonymous with football so I really hope nyt doesn't mess with that but I guess there is only so far you could go with that approach.
Am I wrong or would it mostly be a cost-saving exercise to do it? Say, they'd opt to integrate the athletic into their own site as a way to manage costs instead of operating two different sites, with different editorial teams and hence paying the wages of double the people. Edit - Branding too.
The NYT's sports section is basically non-existent these days, so sharing staff might be difficult. I could see them doing some sort of bundle deal in the beginning to get more people subscribed to NYT digital edition to increase ad revenue on the main site as people wander over to see what else they are getting.
The Athletic brand in itself isn't strong enough to lift NYT; they're paying for the content, which is good, which also means they're paying for the people. Not enough overlap between NYT/Athletic customers for a merger to make sense. Athletic app has better podcast integration than NYT app so they might use some of the technology too. But from a business POV this only makes sense to me if Athletic continues independently (with perhaps NYT overseeing budget to trim costs and improve profitability).
A lot has changed in recent years regarding how many of us spend our money. I used to go see movies at the theater, but not any longer. I subscribe to several streaming sites and even I watch just one two movies a month it’s totally worth it to me. The $7.99 a month I spend on The Athletic works for me as I follow other sports fairly closely and it covers them very well.
I'm conflicted on who to blame more between ESPN and Simmons
The Ringer isn't half bad but quality wise they can do better. It doesn't help that ESPN poached some of the talent from Grantland (Zach Lowe for example)
Can't say I read it but I really like their baseball podcastI'm conflicted on who to blame more between ESPN and Simmons
The Ringer isn't half bad but quality wise they can do better. It doesn't help that ESPN poached some of the talent from Grantland (Zach Lowe for example)
fair enough, not criticizing at all. One of my points is that in the UK it’s very hard to actually get it at full price. It’s ridiculously cheap with the promotions and when I went to renew it they gave me another promotion.
So I’ll have had it two years before I get the chance to pay full price and have got to notice I’m not massively into it. I would probably move on if it came to full price because Telegraph Football (only) is 20 quid a year and, though not as big, I probably get as much decent stuff there over a week.
I’ve also got a bit bored of The Athletic banging on about Covid/Vaccines all the time (not that I’m an anti-vaxxer). That’s been going on long enough now to not really feel like renewing. Glad you enjoy it though, I can see why people do.
I would say it was 70/30 on ESPN. Simmons has some serious issues (the expose by the NYT delved into some serious issues) but one his strong points was identifying and mentoring young writers. I love longform sports writing and Grantland created so much good content. The Ringer spends too much time focusing on just NFL (meh for me) and NBA (ok, but not my favorite). Way too much pop culture content now, at least in comparison to Sports content.I'm conflicted on who to blame more between ESPN and Simmons
The Ringer isn't half bad but quality wise they can do better. It doesn't help that ESPN poached some of the talent from Grantland (Zach Lowe for example)
I think the sensationalist tabloid material has been around for a really long time, but just got worse and more ridiculous over the past 10–20 years with the rise in internet journalism. Probably better to keep an eye on good sports journalists who you could trust to put out a thoughtful and well informed piece. I mainly get all my news from the Caf
I got their Christmas offer which was like a £1 per month for a year
I had a year free and a year for £2 a month I think. It’s worth it, some really nice in depth articles but I’m already at critical mass with my subscriptions and didn’t bother renewing for full price.
Yeah caf is good especially seeing how most don't have time to lurk on Twitter and see who's reliable and not. Also we all know that caf is immune to bouts of hysteria and exaggerationI think the sensationalist tabloid material has been around for a really long time, but just got worse and more ridiculous over the past 10–20 years with the rise in internet journalism. Probably better to keep an eye on good sports journalists who you could trust to put out a thoughtful and well informed piece. I mainly get all my news from the Caf
This was my thinking. I've never seen any article under the athletic umbrella, that the gist hasn't been available easily elsewhere for free.
I'm just gonna drop these two links:
Firefox: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/bypass-paywalls-clean/
Chrome: https://gitlab.com/magnolia1234/bypass-paywalls-chrome-clean
I'm curious why you think Simmons' ego killed it. I've read his work since the Page 2 days, and although I find him too repetitive now, I never found his ego to be a problem. It seems like he gets a lot of hate, but I feel his unique approach to sports writing and risk-taking should be applauded much more than it has.
I think you need to separate the writer from the administrator/publisher. He butted heads multiple times with ESPN executives but was always protected by John Skipper (ESPN CEO at the time). That ended when he went after Goddell and the NFL. Right or wrong (and I think he was right) he has been told that the NFL was off limits for criticism. He was unable to toe that line and it, and other things, led to his contract not being renewed and then the death of Grantland.