The Athletic keeps growing .......

Might have to give this a try. But if I do, I'm not wasting my time with SBNation or The Ringer anymore. There's only so much reading time.

 

What a spending spree. Either this thing is going to be a smash hit, or crash nose first into a mountain.

 

PC Nation is overrated anyways

 

How long did Yahoo's stable of sportwriting superstars last?

 

I sent them a pitch a few weeks ago and got no response, so I pitched the piece to another MLB-centric site and it got placed. I don't mind rejection slips, it's part of the racket. But not responding to a half page pitch is pretty damn unprofessional.

 

I might have to look into St. Louis now with Miklasz. I know he has his detractors, but the P-D sports section was stronger with Bernie's columns and opinion. I do think Jose and Ben are doing a good job...

 

I'm curious to find out how much these writers are getting paid and how competitive it is with the gigs they're leaving.

 

Honestly, when I signed up for The Athletic, I had no idea they'd be going this big. It was a few cities and cost a couple bucks a month. I'm getting more national coverage than I ever expected. I know they'll be raising prices soon, but they've delivered more than what I signed up for.

 

What are you getting there that you can't get elsewhere? Honest question.

 

Nothing, I suppose. I just don't have time to go skipping around the internet anymore to piece together coverage. I want my sports page back, the kind I used to work for, where I go one place and get everything in one spot.

I'm a Cleveland fan. Just having Travis Sawchik and Jason Lloyd write about my favorite teams alone is worth the price of admission. Between national writers like Jason Stark, Ken Rosenthal, Peter Gammons, Stewart Mandel, I feel like I'm reading ESPN from the early 2000s. I loved ESPN.com in the early 2000s. There are other writers I just randomly like to read, like Eric Koreen and C. Trent Rosecrans, even if I don't have much interest in what he's writing about.

It just reminds me of reading a newspaper from 25 years ago. Or a website 15 years ago. No one is tricking me into clicking a headline. The app works flawlessly. I don't have to sift through rote gamers. The writing is at the forefront. That's worth $5 a month to me.

Do I think it's going to last? No. But I like they're giving it a shot.

 

I wouldn’t give them $200 for a lifetime subscription. That to me would come off as desperate. Like a kickstarter for a doomed venture.