Athletic, Axios talking merger?

To be bluntly honest while also not criticizing individual writers, it's frustrating watching people with literally no beat experience get beats with the biggest sports site of all (the writers mentioned by Ragu are not the only ones). It runs counter to the whole idea of distancing yourself from the field by staffing your startup with the type of institutional knowledge that makes a yearly sub a worthwhile investment. It's a Simmons-esque approach to sports journalism and a deviation from most of The Athletic's initial flurry of hires.

 

Every day, it gets easier to end subscriptions and quit wading through shit to find a daisy or three.

 

She’s a darling because she used to work for Deadspin.

 

Some of The Athletic’s beat coverage for pro sports teams is lacking, I agree. It also seems like some reporters write five or six stories per week, others one to three. That’s all good and well if the one-to-three writer is writing great stuff, but mostly, it’s just OK.

That said, The Athletic’s CFB coverage is outstanding. Many of the beat writers are the best on that particular beat, and the national analysts and insiders are great, too. Never a lack of content, too, with interesting offseason projects and wall-to-wall in-season coverage that includes some good podcasts. The Athletic’s CFB coverage alone is worth the subscription cost.

 

I thought this was an interesting Twitter thread from a veteran journalist in the MSP market who is now a former freelance writer at The Athletic. From about the fourth or fifth tweet on is really the meat of the thread as far as The Athletic is concerned.

 

A touch more self-interested than I want, but important points.

 

Here’s the nut grafs (nut tweets?), which give an interesting insight into how things are running at The Athletic right now:

 

Agree w/wicked that was pretty self-important, but also, good for him. I wouldn't have done it that way but respect to any freelancer ballsy enough to call out the overlords of sportswriting.

 

A freelancer “announcing” he’s not re-joining The Athletic when a) he has no clue they’re bringing freelancers back and b) let’s be honest, probably weren’t bringing him back. These kind of people are the worst.

 

He’s pulling a George Costanza