Nick Baumgardner is leaving the FREEP
Wow, that sucks. I really liked his writing and the podcast with Orion Sang.
MGOBLOG press conference scheduled for tomorrow?
Hopefully he still covers Michigan it some capacity. I really enjoyed is objective style.
Yeah when I get too pumped about a recruit or new coach and stuff like that he seems to get me to slow my roll a lil bit.
I’ll be shocked if The Athletic didn’t poach him.
Thinking the exact same thing.
If they did, and he's reunited with Quinn, I may actually have to subscribe. Their podcasts were Awesome
!BRING BACK THE WOLVERINE BEAT!
An article in Bloomberg today says they just hit 500,000 subs. I assume most subs just pay the $60 annual fee. That’s $30,000,000 in annual revenue and they are poaching a lot of talent. I’m already not looking forward to paying to join eventually.
I bit the bullet a few months ago during a promotion and don't regret it fwiw. With football starting in the next few weeks it's possible they'll run another promotion.
I actually doubt that most subscribers pay the full fee. They've been aggressively offering discounts all year. Still, even if the average subscription is bringing in $30, that's a bunch of money.
I wonder if certain blog owners will ever admit that the subscription model really does work well.
The Subscription Model can work, but The Athletic has been floating in VC money for like 4 years now. Who knows if it would have worked without having such an upfront infusion of capital.
However, I'd venture a guess that Brian is earning at least a couple hundred grand a year from this site and the other various items put on by MGoblog, which is surely more than anybody is making writing for The Athletic. Although I love MGoBlog, I probably would have left a long time ago if they started asking for a subscription fee.
You know this is true by the fact that he pays other guys to work here. People with well trafficked sites can easily earn 100k in ad revenue alone, even sites smaller than this. And BTW if that is true he earns every penny
$30M a year in total revenue, compared to what they must be spending in salary and business expenses(Do the math on what one road trip costs, with flights, hotels, meals, etc., then multiply by a couple thousand)? I would bet they're not even close to breaking even.
The deal from the beginning always seemed to be that they'd build their subscribership as much as possible, and then sell it off to the highest bidder. The really big names that they signed all got stock options and should make out pretty well in the deal. Not so sure about some of the others.
The Athletic is like most hot startups in that it isn't profitable yet and may struggle to ever get there consistently until it significantly raises prices or can otherwise lower overhead. I read somewhere they've gotten about $90M in various rounds, and while they claim to be profitable in most markets quickly they are overall not profitable yet. And since they aren't public it's hard to dig into their books and see how close they are.
MGoBlog has a cadre of employees and a ton of traffic for a blog it's size. It probably doesn't need to consider a subscription model quite yet.
I am one of those that never thought I would never spend a dime on something that I could get for free. But spending $60 a year is well worth it to avoid banner adds that take up half my screen, video pop-ups that auto play and stick in the corner, ESPN Insider clickbait, etc. And by the way, the Athletic content is miles ahead of anything put out by the News, Freep, or MLive and better than ESPN, Yahoo, or Bleacher Report for that matter.
I award you a fifth rose for superlative commentary.
I plan on cancelling my sub exactly one (1) day before my paid year ends. The site is ok, but I rarely go to it.
Not to mention advertising.
Companies can cook those subscriber numbers. How many of those are active? I used to work for a sports company that claimed over 5 millions subscribers. But they didn't tell you how many of those accounts were unique individuals and not just people with multiple accounts.
I thought that too, but they just got a new Michigan reporter and they have a Michigan State one as well. If it's the Athletic, maybe it's more than just a single team coverage. Nick is good, so I'd assume this is a fairly big promotion and he says he isn't going far.
Windsor?
Toledo?, a southern A2 suburb covering the Rockets? Just kiddin’, liked his work, wish him well!
(subsequent edit/add) I like his insight and attention to the game w/out too much fan-awe. That being said, Orion Sang does a decent job of covering the people side of M sports, but probably needs some seasoning in the technical side of analyzing M schemes, etc. Nick did a nice job of that.
How in the hell are traditional newspapers still alive? They are nothing more than a hand-held news website that refreshes content every 24 hours and when it refreshes it does so with news that's usually six hours old or older.
I'm stunned that any of them still exist much less employ writers.
They still deliver a million Sunday editions each week.
I wonder how many of those 1 million deliveries are to subscribers under the age of 40?
it's a number between four and nine.
No kidding. I am 61 and cancelled my subscription a long time ago. However, one of the greatest guy quotes I ever heard, "There is something special about a cup of coffee, a cigarette, and the sports page."
Because local news coverage is still critically important and valuable? As is investigative journalism that doesn’t need to update every hour?
I'm guessing its because they still have good enough traffic on their websites to be able to pay people. You're right though, any newspaper that isn't in a major city is likely to die in the next five to ten years. After that its a question of how much longer the major city papers can hold out.
Breaking news as quickly as possible isn't the only measure of a news source. Having knowledgeable people dissect an issue or get an array of sources to cover it from various angles is just as important. A lot of internet sources are basically just a long tweet these days to try and get a story out as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, it's a bit of a death spiral since traditional newspapers, with a few exceptions, don't have the revenue to really generate in depth reporting either.
Eyeballs baby!
Every Twitter thread Nick has started...
Guy 1: You are an MSU slappy!
Guy 2: You are a U-M homer.
Guy 3: Fire Harbaugh, bench Shea.
The funny part is that Nick tends to respond. You can tell it really annoys him.
His writing has improved tremendously over the years. To me, Baumgardner has a similar approach to writing about football as Magnus does. He has been able to communicate high-level football knowledge about scheme, line play, assignments, etc. to an increasingly savvy audience).
Good luck to him, and I hope he keeps striving to write with punch and authority.
He won't go far.
Sorry to see him go. He was one hell of a lot better than Rosenberg and Markie Snyder, that superstar who is now head of Marketing for Lake Orion schools. Those two were pathetic.
The Freep is a waste of internet space these days.
He's leaving for Spartans Wire.
I subscribe to this take
Good luck to Nick. The Athletic?? Seems to get all of the good sports journalists.
Oops, already mentioned.
Nick has always come off as one of the good guys in the industry . Wish him success wherever he goes
I’m disappointed with The Athletic. Will not renew. Actually started looking at Bleacher Report and enjoy it.
Wait, are you Said No One Ever?
Forgot to switch to his joke account.
Another fly deserting a sinking shit.
I was really hoping he would take over the Michigan spot for the Athletic. I enjoy his writing and he keeps covering Michigan.
He was a ray of sunshine in the darkness that is the Freep . . .
Translation:
Even after Snyder & Rosenberg left and Sharp died, the Freep is still a piece of shit tabloid rag.
I'm getting out while I can still rinse the stink off of me.
He was one of the reasons I lifted my Freep ban. I hope he is going to keep covering Michigan.