The NYT and The Athletic

Probably a fun little story for some intrepid reporter out there who might be on the scene.

Fear and Loathing at Athleticpalooza

 

Not sure why how many NBA writers they have matters, but 62 is quite deceiving. I'm more interested to know how many full-time writers (aka people who get benefits). Because that might not be in the 60s. They used to have at least a few part-time contributors who have been cut the last couple of years.

 

Everything that's out eventually comes back in again. Fascism. Bell bottoms. Why I'm taking this beat at The Athletic essays.

Driving home to cover the Mets was an opportunity you say yes to

 

Do they believe anyone cares about their life-career story, and especially in such a long fucking essay? Jeez.

Just make a short announcement and do the job. Mostly, just do the job.

 

God what a miserable existence. The fn METS is what this guy “says yes” to

 

I don't blame the writers. It's pretty clear these are a required part of the gig. Would love to know how many of the replies in the comments are real and not internally generated, though.

 

Don't. Praise. The comments.

 

Y’all need to lay off Sammon. He’s good people and has been good at multiple stops leading up to the Mets gig.

Clearly it’s a way to push new beat writers and sell subs. Have to imagine they have the numbers to support the method.

I’m by no means an Athletic supporter, but this is a little out of pocket.

 

I don't think anyone is laying into Sammon (well, maybe except @Sports Barf but he lays into everyone ). I certainly wasn't. Just noting that the very lame why I'm... essays are being ordered from above.

 

Poor put upon Sammon.

 

As someone who used to run a Patch site and had access to numbers - Yeah, people eat these kind of columns up. They usually do pretty well traffic-wise, and hell, it's not normally something that takes a ton of hours and resources to put out. As a jaded sports fan, no, I don't give a shit when the Red Sox get a new beat writer, but I can understand why others would be interested in a column about "hey who's this new person?"