OT: NY Times Co. purchasing The Athletic
January 6th, 2022 at 4:37 PM ^
The Athletic was a failing business that sold subs for $1 for the entire year, so they could turn around and say they have a ton of subscribers and get sold.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:42 PM ^
If they have 550 million subscribers it sounds like it was a good deal.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:47 PM ^
The NYT has a lot of money to spend, they will likely offer a discounted Athletic Sub with a NYT sub or something like that. The Athletic has been losing like $50million every year since they started, so who the fuck knows what they are thinking.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:59 PM ^
I'd love a combined deal.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:11 PM ^
I am sure they will have it, otherwise why buy them? I think the athletics main problem is that there is a 23 year old kid for every sports team in America, willing to spend 20 hours a week making blog posts, youtube videos, podcasts, etc. for their favorite team, for free. Not to mention all the other competition. It is also hard for consumers to justify spending money on access to articles about something they already spend too much time and money on.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:19 PM ^
The Athletic provides a type/quality of content that is not found on free sites (at least for most sports/teams). The coverage for baseball in particular is different and higher quality than can be found on free sites.
Some parallels to news... NYT gives something much higher quality (a lot more depth) than you get on free news sites.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:36 PM ^
I though watching baseball was boring but there are people out there paying to read about it.
January 6th, 2022 at 6:01 PM ^
Yup. Me.
January 6th, 2022 at 6:04 PM ^
With baseball...you can't just watch it once in a while. If you watch a lot of games it becomes fascinating.
Also...each season is like a saga. If you follow the whole thing it is interesting. If you just dip in for a game here and there...it is not very entertaining.
January 6th, 2022 at 8:14 PM ^
This is an excellent point about baseball. +1
January 6th, 2022 at 4:43 PM ^
yeah, it was pretty obvious after a while that this wasn't going to work. How on earth were they paying all of those top tier sportswriters as well as the rest of the regional group at $1 per month per sub. When my sub expired, I logged in to quit and they offered the same deal for another 6 or however months. People obviously weren't willing to pay more. I'm happy they tried a pay model and really hope NYT can get it to work, but its just so hard with all of the free info out there. Its like the various UM sites. I'm happy they are there and people like them, but the info ends up here 3 minutes later and I don't really care about knowing about whatever it is in that small period before the news breaks.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:02 PM ^
They are not really focused on breaking news. I enjoy being able to read the analysis (overall decent but not amazing) and the fact that they cover a lot of sports and teams, so one sub covers a lot of ground. I hope they succeed.
January 7th, 2022 at 2:07 AM ^
I loved the idea when it came out and they started accruing serious talent.
I don't have a lot of subscription money to throw around.
When they offered that ultra-cheap Black Friday deal last year, I pulled the trigger. I was excited...
And, well, I found that there were significant stretches where I just didn't have the time to bother.
It's not that it's bad, it's just that it's... kind of a mishmash, and my tastes and ability to invest time have changed, and paywalls are a bit of a pain because it makes it tricky to, say, follow a social media link from your phone.
The Michigan stuff was ok. I don't dislike their Michigan guys, but I get fine stuff here. The Detroit sports teams all stink, which was a significant negative drag on my interest in their coverage of those teams. I like some of the national guys they have, but not so much that they were must-reads every week.
It's fine. It's nice. It's an excellent idea that is executed reasonably well.
I wish I were more into it.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:44 PM ^
And it might work for both! I do not subscribe to the Times or the Athletic, but I have considered subscribing to both. If one subscription gets me both sets of content, that could be the push that moves me from thinking to buying. If there are enough people like me, then the Athletic's former owners will get a nice payday and the Times will recoup its investment.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:45 PM ^
Do you have any insight on how the Athletic is a failing business? And I'm asking that from a general standpoint of being curious, not just being dick. Is there any good info out there on their subscriber base, their operational costs, etc. ?
January 6th, 2022 at 4:49 PM ^
Yes, it has been discussed on a few podcasts I listen to. I am sure there are plenty of articles out there. They have lost a legit $40-$50 million every year.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:54 PM ^
Yikes.
Maybe they can make it up with volume???
/s
January 6th, 2022 at 5:00 PM ^
Uber posted a net loss of $2B in Q4, so these guys have a lot of growth to achieve before they become a respected US company.
January 6th, 2022 at 6:29 PM ^
Yeah but Ubers potential market is the entire global transportation sector. The Athletics potential market is US sportsfans who enjoy long form articles about non breaking news.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:59 PM ^
Missed the opportunity to pivot to porn/gambling/weed.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:59 PM ^
Funny, but you can subscribed to the NYT right now for $1 a week for a year. A pretty good discount. It's the second time I've signed up at that price.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:13 PM ^
I got the Wall Street Journal for $4 month also.
January 6th, 2022 at 8:19 PM ^
The only downside is that WSJ gives you much more of a hassle when you try to cancel before the promotion rate expires.
And WSJs online comment section is a cesspool of bigotry and vapidness, whereas with the NYT, the comments are well thought out and moderated, though you can always tell when the third shift of the Russian troll factory starts because all of the timestamps are synced.
January 6th, 2022 at 9:23 PM ^
Change your address to a California address and you can cancel it with a click of a button. I’ve done it a few times. Ca law prohibits forcing you to call.
January 6th, 2022 at 9:39 PM ^
Thanks! It took me more than 2 hours to cancel my WSJ subscription. Super frustrating. It's like having to cancel a gym membership by physically going to the gym (something in most gym/MMA/etc contracts)
January 7th, 2022 at 9:18 AM ^
Same here. I went to cancel and they extended it another. $4/month is worth it to me.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:39 PM ^
Good luck to the NYT
January 6th, 2022 at 4:48 PM ^
"i'm sure this will work out great too"
--finance guy who also green lighted $580 million for MySpace
January 6th, 2022 at 4:53 PM ^
....same finance guy who kept pumping Million$ into WeWork.
January 6th, 2022 at 4:58 PM ^
The Athletic is great IMO. If the NYT can keep it afloat then good for everyone.
January 6th, 2022 at 9:36 PM ^
It's not profitable - NYT is absolutely going to gut it and fire lots of writers to try and get a profit from it. As a fan of the Athletic I'm bummed.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:03 PM ^
On the outside it seems like a good match, looking deeper the NYT seems to have an issue of how they handle acquisitions. Hopefully they've hired better consultants this time.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:07 PM ^
"Why I'm leaving The Athletic..."
January 6th, 2022 at 6:55 PM ^
Because they're owned by a reputable publication?
I bet you're a thrill seeker; only interested in sinking companies. Something tells me you were a big Toys R Us guy, Dave
January 6th, 2022 at 5:08 PM ^
Here’s to hoping my NYT sub includes this (or not I don’t read the athletic after trying it twice)
January 6th, 2022 at 5:13 PM ^
I wonder how many of their subs are from the UK/Europe. They’ve invested a lot in their Premier League and European soccer coverage.
January 6th, 2022 at 6:56 PM ^
Yeah it seems like there are a lot of Brits on there these days
January 6th, 2022 at 5:19 PM ^
NYT has an OK track record with this type of acquisition, so maybe they deserve the benefit of the doubt, but that seems a little rich. Either way, this is a funny outcome for a Founders Fund portfolio company.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:20 PM ^
God bless the founders. They had a great idea, made it happen, and then sold before they went under. It's the American dream.
I recently cancelled my subscription, but will be curious to see if I can get it back at a reduced rate when I call to cancel my NYT subscription.
As for the NYT, after losing a billion on the Boston Globe, losing half that here would be an improvement. But this was always the plan, right down to the font.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:33 PM ^
This feels weird to me ... I don't read NYT for sports content. I can get sports -news- from reddit or twitter. My sports-writing dollars go to two places: here (HTTV) and Defector (former Deadspin staff, not for everybody), and I don't see myself paying extra for "NYT sports". But of course, I don't pay extra for NYT cooking or NYT crosswords, and it seems like they're making plenty of money.
January 6th, 2022 at 8:23 PM ^
I got a year of NYT cooking for $20 at Thanksgiving. It's fantastic.
January 6th, 2022 at 5:53 PM ^
The old gray lady acquiring a younger online sports media company at nearly $500 per subscriber? Makes sense for them I suppose.
January 6th, 2022 at 6:36 PM ^
Supposedly they are staying the same and running separate, but we know how that usually goes.
Also, LOL at all the Twitter “I’m cancelling my subscription immediately” dorks. People have lost their minds.
January 6th, 2022 at 7:07 PM ^
Not really a fan of either…shrugs.
January 6th, 2022 at 7:25 PM ^
I enjoy the Athletic and expect there to be zero changes to either NYTimes or the Athletic.
If you think a business is successful enough to purchase, assuming they did their diligence, then you don't fuck with the business model that made it successful in the first place.
January 6th, 2022 at 8:40 PM ^
There won't be immediate changes, but give it some time and NYT will decide that cost cutting needs to occur at the Athletic
January 6th, 2022 at 7:32 PM ^
I’ve never subscribed to The Athletic, but I read a recent hardcopy issue of Sports Illustrated while waiting at the tire store and I was surprised at how good the writing and overall content was, at least in that issue. I like magazines I can hold in my hand, and I’m not a fan of reading long form stuff on a screen.
January 6th, 2022 at 7:40 PM ^
I am a subscriber to the Athletic. I like it a lot. Good writing. It’s where SI went after SI effectively died.
Looks like the the NYT is overpaying to get an excellent mailing list.
January 6th, 2022 at 8:22 PM ^
Does this mean my dollar a year subscription is going to end?
January 6th, 2022 at 8:27 PM ^
Eventually