The Athletic vs. ESPN City Sites

[boundforboston]

Will The Athletic's city sites be more successful than ESPN's (Boston, Dallas, New York, etc.)? Does the subscription model make enough difference to be successful? Or should ESPN's brand been enough to overcome that?

 

[thizzellewashington]

ESPN doesn't really do the city sites anymore.

 

[MileHigh]

There are only four or five regional sites for ESPN. When's the last time any of them broke anything noteworthy? Or at least were promoted heavily?

 

[wicked]

I believe the writers from the ESPN regional sites were folded into the main ESPN.com staff some time ago.

 

[MileHigh]

Not unexpected. Still, the ESPN regional sites were all the rage a decade ago. Now, it's The Athletic picking that upl

 

[LongTimeListener]

Not unexpected. Still, the ESPN regional sites were all the rage a decade ago. Now, it's The Athletic picking that upl

Totally different though.

ESPN's regional sites were for the stuff that wasn't good enough to make the front page. The Athletic's city sites are the best of what their people offer.

 

[playthrough]

Totally different though.

ESPN's regional sites were for the stuff that wasn't good enough to make the front page. The Athletic's city sites are the best of what their people offer.

I don't remember those sites being that way when they launched. The full promotional force of ESPN was behind them, and didn't they make some dedicated hires? I remember plenty of rumors over where ESPN would go next. Their dotcom dollars were very plentiful back then, now they've completely dried up.

 

[wicked]

The city sites also worked hand in hand with the ESPN O/O radio stations. Boston was the only site that didn't have that link.

 

[boundforboston]

ESPN doesn't really do the city sites anymore.

I guess the question is why will The Athletic be more successful than ESPN's venture. Or why won't it?

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

The Athletic's content is very, very good.

 

[Tweener]

I don't think all of the writing on the site is great, but some of it really is.

The thing I like is that you get more quality features on a team than most newspaper beat writers typically have time for because of game coverage and the smaller items they cover. So, The Athletic has done a good job of putting time into an area of need on a beat.

I know a few writers who work for the site. They seem to really love it, and although even they don't know what the future holds, they're enjoying the ride while it lasts. Hopefully it's a long time.

 

[HappyCurmudgeon]

My question is more...does anyone outside of the sports journalism industry really know that The Athletic exists? Very good writing, good roster of talent but 99% of the people reading the New York papers on the street aren't in the industry and they might like the Mets or the Yankees or the Knicks or whoever but are they invested in the beat writer enough to put the effort to follow them to a new online subscription venture? Or are they just married to the paper/website (that's probably free) for coverage.

I'd like to say I know quite a few sports fans, people I would consider devoted enough to invest time in reading coverage and money in being ticket holders. Not many, if any of them know it exists. It's great that it has a groundswell here but I feel like it needs more contact with the general population.