The Athletic keeps growing .......

You're taking this too literal. He's not saying that there tons and tons of great reporters who are not on Twitter; he's just saying that some of the best reporters, such as Shefter and Woj, aren't wasting endless time egaging with trolls and spewing constant hot takes.

 

There's a big difference between filing a story" immediately after the game" and, say, four hours after the game. The idea is to satisfy the customer, not the employee. The writer gets some time to write not to make the job more pleasant but to make the writing better. Believe me, the "paying more than newspapers" factor will be enough to attract and retain writers who also can dispense with video duties.

 

It doesn't make sense for each site to establish its own rules (which I doubt is the case, anyway). That's because the site is telling me, as a reader, that I should pay for coverage because I can get stories on all my favorite teams (such as the Dodgers and Dolphins and Missouri Tigers). If all those sites operate with different rules, that's not going to be satisfying to a customer who builds expectations about what he or she can read when.

 

By my count, The Athletic has at least 41 NBA writers -- 11 national plus 30 (0r more) people covering the teams. Haven't done a head count on MLB, NFL or NHL yet but figure the numbers are similar. How much must all that cost? And how are most of them going to be able to shine and, you know, ever get a raise? Even ESPN doesn't throw numbers at each sport like that. The folks specifically on the teams aren't covering them like traditional beats, either, so the potential for feature and opinion overlap/exhaustion is great.

 

See, this is the line of thinking that has me a little skeptical about The Athletic.

From a journalist's perspective, working for The Athletic sounds pretty awesome. It's more of the stuff we like to do (analysis, features) and less of the mundane busy work. But at the end of the day, no one cares about our workload or enjoyment. The Athletic will survive or fail depending on if the reader finds it informative and indispensable.

I enjoy The Athletic but that's because I'm a journalist. Will the random accountant in Des Moines who enjoys sports feel the same way? I hope so, but I'm not sure. The Athletic continues to feel like a luxury item and I'm not sure there's a market for that.

 

To be fair, ESPN was heading that way before the money it’s throwing at the NFL forced it to start chopping people by the dozen.

 

From my experience, those go hand-in-hand. Is there anything more pleasant in print journalism than the notion that one is making the most of their writing skills?

 

How many are African-American?

 

It may vary from market to market, but I feel like interest in the site has grown for the common fan as well to where there's a big enough desire for the site. It isn't just journalists who enjoy reading it.

And really, I think your example of a random accountant in Des Moines is the type of person the site appeals to. Not living in a pro sports town, someone in Des Moines is more likely to follow teams from multiple markets. So rather than spending $10/month for coverage of his favorite Chicago-based team and $10/month from his favorite Minnesota-based team and $10/month from a KC-based team, can get coverage from all three markets in one place and for one price.

 

I hope you're right. My impression is that The Athletic might get caught between the micro (the day-to-day beat reporting, breaking news, standings, box scores) and the macro (big ESPN, SI features). I'm not sure there's a market for the in between. I guess we're going to find out.

 

I saw somewhere that the Athletic says all of its sites around for at least a year are breaking even. Of course numbers can be fudged however you’d like to make a point.

 

I don't know what your promotional price was, but I just reupped for another year at $60 (same price I signed up at initially). I don't even look at the site/app daily, but for only $5/month, it's nice to have the access when I do have an article I want to read.