The NYT and The Athletic

They're using The Athletic and Games and Recipes as part of a bundle. The idea being that a "throw in" like The Athletic will get someone to subscribe to a bundle that includes Games, and vice versa. I wonder how many of the bundle buyers do not have a standard NYT digital sub,

 

I’ve been an Athletic subscriber for several years, on a promo rate the first year and full rate since. (I know a couple of the Chicago writers and am happy to support.)

I’m also an NYT subscriber. When the Times Co. bought the Athletic, I expected a combination deal of some kind.

Instead, if you subscribe to the Times you can get the Athletic for free, as has been noted. Tried to do that through the website and couldn’t figure out how. I presumed they made it complicated to do. Recently got an email from the Times touting the deal. Two clicks and the deal is taken care of. (Plus I got an email from the Athletic saying they’d miss me. No, they’ll miss my $75 annually.)

 

I had an Athletic sub and NYT sub, and re-upped my NYT sub to include the Athletic. Only had to sync my accounts, which was easy after I dug into my profile and figured it out.

The f'king ads in the stories are a pain but so be it.

 

The Athletic has made a small but noticeable tweak in its TV ads. They used to have bylines in the stories that were published but they have since changed all the bylines to “staff reports.”

 

All I've noticed since the NYT bought The Athletic, is that the NYT sports section is horribly anemic - worse than ever. It covers a teeny-tiny range of sports, force-feeds soccer to readers almost daily, and the print edition is filled with gigantic photos more than text. I don't know if it's cause and effect, but it's awfully lazy and a massive comedown from the days when Neil Amdur was its editor. Half the time, I can't even see who's won/lost. It would be better served re-introducing agate type (i.e. during tennis majors, playoffs, cycling's stage races...) It barely covers major international events in its own back yard. There were multiple Olympic champions competing in a track and field meet yesterday and -- zero. Squash? Forget it. Triathlon? Nope. Winter/snow sport coverage? Nope. It's completely stripped of enterprise. Sadly.

 

The NYT sports section was pretty limited before The Athletic. I don't know if it was getting the national edition, but it was a few national columnists and, as pointed out, a overweight focus on international sports.

 

IMO what you've noticed isn't just since the Grey Lady purchased the Athletic. That sounds like the sections I've seen every time I've been up there, picked up a paper locally or browsed online. Monstrous photos, a few columns or features on big-idea things, some small amount of results or analysis of an event.

 

I’ve always been a big fan of the NYT focus on sports and stories from the fringes. Plenty of places to “important” well (and NYT doesn’t exactly ignore the stories of the day) but I’m not sure any 2023 entity does “interesting” in sports as well as NYT.

 

I saw yesterday where The Athletic is doing features on non-mainstream sports, starting with collegiate rodeo at Sul Ross.

I guess that's a lighter version of the NYT sports staff doing the big takeout on freediving or running marathons in prison.

 

Where I'm originally from, enterprisers are rare. Any enterprise seems to be invested in long, boring-ass, play-by-play gamers.

 

I can think of at least 3 major global sports stories this week that the NYT totally ignored.

 

I can think of at least 3 major global sports stories this week that the NYT totally ignored. One was in an event that only happens every 3 years and is regarded as one of the toughest on earth. An American won it for the first time in the event's 50 year history - and there was a TON of drama along the way. Another is a quadrennial world championship (being held in the US) featuring an extremely popular college sport. The other was the record-setting track meet over the weekend, featuring multiple Olympic medalists and medalists to be - 1 year out from the Olympics. (Instead, the NYT wrote fashion story on one of the athletes. RIDICULOUS!) Sports at the NYT has completely lost its way, imo - in terms of both breadth and depth. I don't care what The Athletic is doing. It's an appendage, not a substitute.