The Athletic keeps growing .......

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When people see their $24.99 intro rate balloon to $72 a year, they’ll wish they hadn’t priced so low at the start.

 

I subscribe, mainly to support friends/former colleagues who are now writing for it. Obviously, I'd really like for it to work.

A few thoughts:
_ The amount/quality of writing varies quite a bit depending on the beat. Some of the content is great. Some is just OK. Most of it is the garden-variety sports writing and analysis you get for free in a lot of places.
_ In general, I think because we're journalists, we overvalue how much good writing matters. If that's how The Athletic is going to try and differentiate itself, I don't think it's going to work. The stone cold truth is that there are very, very few reporters who will make people open their wallets because their prose is just so incredible. I think the writing on the site is very good - better than average sports writing - but I'm dubious that's enough.
_ The nagging question I continue to have is why would people subscribe to The Athletic when they can get similar content for free in so many other places. One of the few subscription models that has worked in sports is the Rivals/247 genre and that's because they offer something (detailed recruiting news) that can't be found anywhere else. The Athletic just seems like a luxury item for a sports fan, not an essential.

 

I subscribe. The articles range from mediocre to really good. But it is a convenient way to get extensive coverage of a specific team I am interested in without bumping into paywalls at the local paper.

 

The churn rate will be interesting to see, but I bet they hold on to more subscribers than you think. There is a reason many subscription services (NYT, Spotify come to mind) have ridiculously low trial rates. Once they get folks to renew after that first year, they’re golden. Will it be enough, that remains to be seen.

 

If you live in Peoria, randomly became a Giants fan and don’t care about anything else to do with San Francisco, you’ll spring for The Athletic before you do the SF Chronicle.

 

But will you spring for The Athletic before you decide the team website, fan blogs, Reddit, Twitter, etc. are sufficient (and free)?

 

I subscribe to NY Times digital. I did the $7 a month one year sale. When the year was up, I got a notice my new rate would be $15 a month. I called their number to cancel. Immediately was transferred to another dept. I said the increase would be too steep for me. The rep said I could get another year at $7, no questions asked. I said ok.

 

What about Boston Sports Journal? What did they say?

 

Year’s not up yet

 

How many people do that? How many people actually call the cable company and spend 30 minutes haggling over the price? Half of them or more are drones who won’t put in the effort.