The Athletic

[muwarrior69]

Will the Athletic survive?

https://www.outkick.com/the-athletic-lost-all-time-high-55m-in-2021-prompting-more-talk-of-major-changes/

[Uncle Rico]

Will the Athletic survive?

https://www.outkick.com/the-athletic-lost-all-time-high-55m-in-2021-prompting-more-talk-of-major-changes/

Doubtful.  It’s too bad because the coverage they provide is vastly superior to the other coverage out there. 

The job Eric Nehm and Will Sammon do is incredible and much more in-depth than the fluff pieces of local journos.  Eric’s piece with Jrur Holiday a month ago on defense was one of the best things done with NBA coverage from a local level in my lifetime

[BM1090]

Doubtful.  It’s too bad because the coverage they provide is vastly superior to the other coverage out there. 

The job Eric Nehm and Will Sammon do is incredible and much more in-depth than the fluff pieces of local journos.  Eric’s piece with Jrur Holiday a month ago on defense was one of the best things done with NBA coverage from a local level in my lifetime

Nehm is awesome. He knows his stuff and clearly the players respect him enough to sit down and have those conversations. He’s a must read for me.

[GB Warrior]

Nehm's work with the Bucks is elite.  Sammon is also good, but the Brewers have always had some solid reporters with JS, as well as McCalvy.

In my mind, the Packers' coverage by local media is embarrassingly bad given their popularity. Silverstein is old school with a rudimentary understanding of the modern game, and then McGinn is somehow still hanging around. Schneidman is decent for The Athletic, but still green in the market.

[The Hippie Satan of Hyperbole]

I dropped it this year. They obviously do good work but I just didn’t read it enough to make it worth the while.

[lostpassword]

Eric’s piece with Jrur Holiday a month ago on defense was one of the best things done with NBA coverage from a local level in my lifetime

I am on a $1 per month rate right now.  Wasnt planning to renew but that piece has me reconsidering.  Incredible peice of work.

[brewcity77]

I dropped it this year. They obviously do good work but I just didn’t read it enough to make it worth the while.

Same, they jumped me up to $80 for the year and that was it for me. Of course, now I'm getting all the discount deals so I may reconsider, but there are so few Marquette articles or other things that I really seek out that it only occasionally feels worth it.

[Ardmore Mug]

I got hit with that $80 renewal.. I told them cancel... They came back and I got it for $30!!! 

[mu_hilltopper]

Help me out .. I read TA's revenue for 2022 was expected to be $100m.   Add in a $55m loss (yes, that's 2021) .. and TA is spending $155m per year.

I'm really scratching my head on how they could possibly spend that much.  Backend sales/offices + server costs + payroll for writers == $155m?   That seems 10x out of whack.

I would expect the cost to employ writers is a pittance. 

[jficke13]

Help me out .. I read TA's revenue for 2022 was expected to be $100m.   Add in a $55m loss (yes, that's 2021) .. and TA is spending $155m per year.

I'm really scratching my head on how they could possibly spend that much.  Backend sales/offices + server costs + payroll for writers == $155m?   That seems 10x out of whack.

I would expect the cost to employ writers is a pittance.

I would guess, knowing what I know about the writing economy, that they over-invest in "names" in the hope that they draw readership and drive top line growth. Granted, I come from the fiction-writing ecosystem, which is no doubt different in a lot of ways. But there will be projects that pay wildly above "market" to get a George R.R. Martin story included in an anthology to headline it, the rest of the contributors getting standard rates. The publisher's bet here is that GRRM draws enough readership that it oustrips their inflated pay for his contribution.

I feel like TA did that a couple years back. There was a raft of splashy "I'm leaving ESPN[or wherever] to go to The Atlantic" announcements. I'm guessing they paid a huge premium for every one of those deals, but never either had the top line growth they'd hoped for, or didn't care because that their bottom line was hemorrhaging because  "ZOMG GROWTH" was the only metric they cared about.

I'm not 100% on this, but it feels like the transition from the ZOMG GROWTH phase of modern venture capital to the "we should probably make money somewhere" phase is very fraught. Suddenly the splashy T&L spend, the rockstar employees who aren't really performing like rockstars after all, well cuts need to be made but nobody wants to make them.