The Athletic keeps growing .......

Has there ever been another sports personality whose reputation did such a dramatic turnaround in so short of a period of time as Reilly?

When he went to ESPN the opinion here was it was a money grab, but he’ll do OK. By the time his contract was up, he was a laughingstock.

 

Reilly makes Vombatus seem funny.

 

Great news, who wants people to make money.

 

Yeah well you can't hire people on the cheap forever either.

 

Does anybody have any clue how many subscribers The Athletic has in North America? It was apparently a number that impressed the latest round of investors.

50K? 100k? More? Less?

 

Does anybody know if they're bonused at all?

Example does it make any difference if I click the subscribe link from a local beat writer or Reilly or anyone else? Do they get a piece per X subs they bring in? Almost like using the promo code from the host you actually like for those repetitive radio ads for strawberry and pajamas.

 

Yes.

 

From CJR in October 2017 is probably the best estimate. I think it’s fairly accurate since they keep drawing investors.

The Athletic doesn’t release exact subscriber counts, but Mather says it’s on pace to beat its goal of 100,000 paying subscribers by early 2018. In Chicago, its most mature market, the site is seeing subscriber growth of better than 15 percent per month.

 

Thanks. Some rough math. I pay $70 a year. If they are averaging that much for 100k subscribers and paying the staff an average of $50,000 (is that a fair estimate? I'm not sure), that about covers payroll.

The $20 million investment should give them a nice runway.

 

I think a solid percentage of the bylines you see are freelancers rather than staff members.

 

What about The Athletic inspires such animosity?

 

Their staffers, at least the well-known ones, are getting big paychecks. Even in the smaller markets they have to be well over $50K. Big-market guys, I’m thinking six figures.

The math doesn’t work on subscriptions alone, yet. That’s what the venture capital is for.