Meoli done at the Sun

[Tony-OH]

13 hours ago, Frobby said:

Just saw that The NY Times is buying the Athletic.   Interesting.  

Well that blows. Nothing good can come from a political element buying a sports writing site. Plus now they just annoyed half their audience. 

[Tony-OH]

12 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Fascinating.  I wonder if all the talk about bleeding out tradition media was BS and this was their actual plan from the start?

Seems like a nice payday, they raised 139M over the years and are selling for 550M.

My guess is that it's going to work out better for the venture capitalists than it will for the Times.

Wow, if that's true good for them. That's a nice little pay day. Hopefully the writers will see some of that.

[Sports Guy]

43 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Well that blows. Nothing good can come from a political element buying a sports writing site. Plus now they just annoyed half their audience. 

Yea, this is my concern too.  Let’s hope they keep the same model and don’t try to turn into some kind of woke sports page.

[Frobby]

25 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

Yea, this is my concern too.  Let’s hope they keep the same model and don’t try to turn into some kind of woke sports page.

I don’t read the Times sports page much, but their sports page has never struck me as particularly woke.   Nor do I know much about whether there are any Athletic reporters who spend much time on the politics of sports.   

Personally, I hate it when politics intrudes onto the sports page, but it’s inevitable that it does, particularly right now with the issues surrounding Covid, vaccines, masks etc. that are directly impacting who is available and eligible to play.   No matter your views on that topic, it’s hard to avoid discussing it when your team or players you follow are directly impacted.   Believe me, I’d much rather read about what Joe Blow is doing to improve his curve ball.    

In any event, the early reports are that the Athletic will continue to run independently.   

 

[Moose Milligan]

I'm preferring to take a wait and see approach with what happens to The Athletic.  Kudos to two guys for seeing a need for good sports journalism, gathering good writers and being able to sell what they created.  One should be so lucky.  

[Sports Guy]

2 minutes ago, Frobby said:

I don’t read the Times sports page much, but their sports page as never struck me as particularly woke.   Nor do I know much about whether there are any Athletic reporters who spend much time on the politics of sports.   

Personally, I hate it when politics intrudes onto the sports page, but it’s inevitable that it does, particularly right now with the issues surrounding Covid, vaccines, masks etc. that are directly impacting who is available and eligible to play.   No matter your views on that topic, it’s hard to avoid discussing it when your team or players you follow are directly impacted.   Believe me, I’d much rather read about what Joe Blow is doing to improve his curve ball.    

In any event, the early reports are that the Athletic will continue to run independently.   

 

My concern isn’t what the writers at The Athletic have done in the past…it would be what perhaps the NYT wants them to do in the future.

My hope is this is just the NYT buying something to make money and have no intention of changing it.  If I had to guess, that’s what they will do.  

[Frobby]

22 minutes ago, Sports Guy said:

My concern isn’t what the writers at The Athletic have done in the past…it would be what perhaps the NYT wants them to do in the future.

My hope is this is just the NYT buying something to make money and have no intention of changing it.  If I had to guess, that’s what they will do.  

That’s my guess too.   They might do a little cross marketing, for example, Times subscribers can try the Athletic for free for one month, or get a discounted package of the two, something like that. But there’s not much reason to mess with what makes the Athletic content distinguishable from what you get on your local sports page.   

[NCRaven]

The Times is essentially buying their subscriber list.

[Can_of_corn]

2 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I'm preferring to take a wait and see approach with what happens to The Athletic.  Kudos to two guys for seeing a need for good sports journalism, gathering good writers and being able to sell what they created.  One should be so lucky.  

I don't think the quality of sports journalism has improved.  They just gathered scattered writers under one roof.  In the long run it might be for the worst.

[Moose Milligan]

50 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

I don't think the quality of sports journalism has improved.  They just gathered scattered writers under one roof.  In the long run it might be for the worst.

Eh, I dunno.  I'd rather pay for it than the Sun, WaPo, etc.  

[DrungoHazewood]

38 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

Eh, I dunno.  I'd rather pay for it than the Sun, WaPo, etc.  

I don't see them as overlapping very much.  I don't get much sports news from newspapers.  And I have yet to see a site like the Athletic that I want to read so much I add it to the already-too-long list of subscriptions I have.

[Porky]

4 hours ago, Moose Milligan said:

I'm preferring to take a wait and see approach with what happens to The Athletic.  Kudos to two guys for seeing a need for good sports journalism, gathering good writers and being able to sell what they created.  One should be so lucky.  

I subscribe to The Athletic and I like it. I'm not a big Dan Connelly fan personally, so I wish that someone else covered the O's - but what they offer more than justifies the pretty affordable price.

I'm interested to see if the Baltimore Banner covers sports in their new paper. Excited to see what those folks put together as an alternative to The Sun.

[Can_of_corn]

1 hour ago, Moose Milligan said:

Eh, I dunno.  I'd rather pay for it than the Sun, WaPo, etc.  

That's fine.

But the quality writing was there before the Athletic showed up.  I don't see quality writers deciding to write about sports instead of another topic because the Athletic is there.

[Frobby]

4 minutes ago, Can_of_corn said:

That's fine.

But the quality writing was there before the Athletic showed up.  I don't see quality writers deciding to write about sports instead of another topic because the Athletic is there.

It may give them flexibility to write longer form pieces, and perhaps cater to a more sports-oriented audience.   But generally, they have just hired people who were already doing what they’re doing now.