Same as it ever was, The Athletic sells out to the New York Times

The Athletic sought to be a disrupter in Sports Journalism when it came onto the scene.  It would not sell ads and promised to tell stories instead of following an agenda from a corporate giant.  It now has sold out to a corporate giant. 

Its business model aggressively expanded hiring journalists with impressive resumes, a lot of contacts in their respective industry and longtime credentials.  It went into the areas of MMA, boxing, NASCAR, Sports Business and gaming.  It had its journalists write essays on how they loved The Athletic and it was great to be with a team that wanted to tell stories.  The plan seemed innovative as it would penetrate local markets and entice subscribers with initial deals for subscriptions.  With journalists in various cities, the hope would be to grow a subscription base that would compete with other traditional outlets.  But, after a couple years, it was clear that the outlet was born to be sold. 

The model was an ambitious move considering traditional outlets rely heavily on advertisers. A stand-alone, subscription model was a daring move although we do see it occurring with Sportico.

The deal between the NY Times and The Athletic had been brewing for months and was eventually agreed upon last week.

The signs of selling were there as The Athletic ‘streamlined’ the company by letting go of a lot of its writers.  Notably, it gutted the MMA and Boxing writers leaving a skeletal crew to do reporting. 

While The Athletic still has writers in the traditional sports, combat sports reporting has receded and as it will be folded into the NY Times, its hard to believe that it will return to in-depth coverage. 

My argument is that the landscape of the business of sports journalism is the same as it ever was as getting people to subscribe to an outlet must have a compelling reason for people to pay. With the dearth of ways to get your information for free online, its hard to maintain a subscription base while maintaining quality writers (read: pay them) and the overhead needed to attract more readers.