The NYT and The Athletic

I guess if your stated mission was to kill printed sports sections, putting the dagger into the Ol' Grey Lady's back, chest, clavicle and liver is somehow fulfilling.

 

What's staggering is that the NYT Styles section wasn't the first section to be axed. Styles is a massive waste of space, and is usually 2-5 years late on trends.
The NYT entertainment section is the next-most useless.

I guess I can safely get rid of my bazillion-year NYT subscription now (whose annual delivery cost exceeded what the Sports section would pay for a feature).

Even its unique Tuesday Science section is a whisper of what it was. Same for the Sunday NYT Magazine which is usually just 3 depressing, long-winded anecdote-heavy features per issue.

On a positive note... guess this also means no more battles with agents who try to shut you down in the middle of a story because they just promised the NYT an exclusive (...as if the NYT ever had to worry about other outlets ... and as if your angle would be identical to the NYT). This happened to me multiple times. On a related theme: track athlete Kara Goucher's recent memoir details the NYT (with Nike's help) orchestrating her pregnancy announcement... and then Nike failing to pay her b/c of her pregnancy. Pretty icky. Bottom line: it was Goucher's story to tell, not the exclusive property of the NYT. I digress

 

Hardball politics?

 

Really enjoyed this from Ray Ratto on the NYT gutting the sports desk. Via Defector by way of the Sunday Long Read: https://defector.com/new-york-times-sports-the-athletic

 

Whatever happened to that Chad Felter clown?

 

oof

 

No reason not to, but wow, nice job of dropping a nuke on the bridge on your way out of town. Actually admire it.

 

Not sure which is worse

Why I'm going to the Athletic.

or

Why I'm leaving the Athletic.

 

Memo to the older sportswriters out there: trashing your former workplace just makes you look like an asshole.

I get that jobs can be really frustrating. I've been unhappy at jobs and it sucks.

But nobody, and I mean nobody, gives a shit that your draft anniversary piece didn't run as prominently as you would have liked. No one cares that editors spiked your Jay Mariotti piece.

Don't launch your new endeavor with a column whining about how your last gig wasn't perfectly to your liking.