The Athletic keeps growing .......

Just spitballing: When the economy next hits the skids, will people give up their local newspaper subscription or their Athletic subscription first? Maybe the Venn diagram circles don’t overlap as much as I’m thinking.

 

The venture capital money won't last forever, but it might not need to.

The Athletic is a tech start up - and that's how its investors will judge it.

That said, at some point, reality intrudes.

Uber lays off 400 as cost-cutting efforts ramp up – TechCrunch

 

Bloomberg reported it, but simply based on what the private company said.

 

We all know that MANY of their reporters were recruited from the local papers. Even with the dire state of newspapers, not many full-timers would quit to join an enterprise that didn't offer health benefits.

 

I was referring to the source of my post, which appears on page 133.

Sorry for the confusion.

 

I see. Thank you.

 

If local news reports here are any indicator, Uber probably will end up paying out the wazoo for the number of court settlements for lawsuits re: drivers who have been convicted of or have pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting passengers. I seem to read about one of those every six or eight weeks.

Also: our transit systems are falling apart at the seams while Uber prices are subsidized by VC, which leads to a bunch of other problems.

 

Do other markets have much crossover between The Athletic writers/podcasts and local sports radio?

I think that's something that drives the success of the platform in Minnesota, for example. Writers are regularly doing radio interviews, which can only help the brand. There's even a weekly radio show entirely done by The Athletic, in addition to their regular radio show appearances.

 

In Boston, I don't recall hearing them on the radio, but my impression is that the Boston stations do fewer media interviews than the typical local sports talker. One of the Boston RSNs does talking head programming, but I think almost all of the people appearing on the network are employees of it.

For all the talent the site got for Boston, I don't hear it referred to often.

 

I have a subscription and for the most part I like it. I follow most of the writers for the teams I like on Twitter, and did before they were at the Athletic, and also have the app on both my phone and tablet. So I am not immune to updates from them. Yet there are times I go days without reading a story whether I just didn't pay attention, they didn't catch my eye, whatever. Then I'll look at the site and go through a bunch that I find interesting all at once. Maybe that's typical media consumption any more, but if I am typical and I'm guessing plenty do less with it than I do, then is this a recipe for success?

 

I am just trying to fill in pieces, not arguing the basic premises of the post. But the Big Lead says 336 editorial employees. Many of these are free lancers but the advertising, IT and business departments probably drive close to 500.

The Athletic Keeps Hiring at a Remarkable Rate