The Athletic keeps growing .......

The writer who The Athletic hired to cover Mizzou still is a student at the University of Missouri.

 

I'm interested to know his salary. Surely it can't be as much as veteran reporters The Athletic has already poached.

 

I thought students weren’t allowed to make money and have jobs.

 

He isn't that good either. Some of these hires are questionable to say the least.

 

Go on...

 

They're not. They're supposed to be perma-interns.

 

Well, then what are work-study programs?

 

Free labor.

 

They've been spending money and grabbing big names in places where they can potentially own a beat and slower to spend money elsewhere. Mizzou fits the M.O. There is a lot of competition on the beat.

 

I don't think it's the worst thing in the world to go younger on less relevant beats, especially if there isn't a big name to be had. For a team like, let's say, the Charlotte Hornets who are in a small market and aren't relevant on a national scale in any way, is it worth it to them to spend the money to get a big name in there when there isn't enough interest in those types of teams to drive enough subs to pay a more expensive writer's salary? I've got no problem with paying a recent college grad 45-50k and throwing on a beat where there isn't much competition and letting them try to make a name for themselves.

 

A beat like the Hornets is the place to spend the money because with one big hire you get a huge piece of the marketshare of Hornets fans.

Let's keep it in the middle of the country. When the Athletic launched in KC, it hired The Star's Royals beat writer. Outside of MLB.com, he was really the only writer covering the team on a daily basis, so a lot of Royals fans subscribed to keep reading him.

There's nobody The Atheltic could hire to cover Mizzou that would have the same impact. KC and STL both have beat writers. Columbia has three papers. counting the Maneater. Gabe DeArmond has a following at the Rivals site. The Athletic could throw a bunch of money around to steal away a writer from some other outlet and still only get one slice of the pie.