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Type of site | Sports journalism |
|---|---|
| Available in | English, French (Montreal only) |
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California ,United States |
| Owner | The New York Times Company[1] |
| Created by |
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| URL | nytimes.com/athletic |
| Commercial | Yes |
| Registration | Required |
| Launched | January 2016; 9 years ago (2016-01) |
The Athletic is a subscription-basedsports journalism department ofThe New York Times. It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as theUnited Kingdom.The Athletic also covers national stories from top professional and college sports.The Athletic's coverage focuses on a mix oflong-form journalism, original reporting, and in-depth analysis. Its business model is predicated on dis-aggregating the sports section of local newspapers, and reaching non-local fans not reached by a local newspaper.[2]
The Athletic was launched by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann in January 2016 as an independent subscription-based online sports magazine. It gradually expanded its stable of writers over the next few years to provide better coverage of more teams in more markets, including in the United Kingdom. However, the magazine remained unable to earn enough revenue without advertising to make a profit, and the owners began to seek an outside buyer.The New York Times Company acquiredThe Athletic for $550 million in 2022, initially as a semi-independent entity under the continued direction of Mather and Hansmann. In July 2023, the company dissolved theNew York Times' existing sports department, laid off or reassigned its sports staff, and began operatingThe Athletic as a replacement sports department under new management.[3]
As of 2022,The Athletic provided local coverage in 47 cities and regions of North America as well as coverage in theUnited Kingdom.[4] It includes the 32National Football League teams, the 30Major League Baseball teams, the 30National Basketball Association teams, and 23 of the 32National Hockey League teams.
The Athletic was founded by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, former coworkers at subscription-based fitness companyStrava, with the mission of producing "smarter coverage for die-hard fans."[5] The company was built as an alternative to the struggling ad-supported models.[6]The Athletic relies onsubscription revenue, notadvertising revenue, to support the business.[7] Mather and Hansmann believed sports fans would be willing to pay for good reporting and writing, a clean app and no ads.[8] At the time, a few newspapers were trying outpaywalls, but the common industry view was that information on the internet needed to be free.[9]
As part ofY Combinator's summer 2016 batch,[10] the site originally launched in Chicago in January 2016,[11] with Jon Greenberg serving as the founding editor, along with Sahadev Sharma (Cubs) and Scott Powers (Blackhawks). Greenberg and Powers previously worked at ESPN Chicago, while Sharma leftBaseball Prospectus' Cubs vertical to join the website.
In October 2016,The Athletic expanded to a second city,Toronto, to focus onMaple Leafs,Raptors, andBlue Jays coverage.The Athletic hired James Mirtle as editor-in-chief for Toronto.[12] Mirtle had spent over a decade as a sportswriter atThe Globe and Mail before joiningThe Athletic.
A third city, Cleveland, launched in March 2017, with Jason Lloyd as editor-in-chief.[13]The Athletic continued city expansion toDetroit in June 2017 with the hiring ofCraig Custance from ESPN as editor-in-chief.[14]
In August 2017, the site launched in theSan Francisco-area market with long-timeSan Jose Mercury News writersTim Kawakami as editor-in-chief and Marcus Thompson as columnist.[15][16]The Athletic also added national coverage with new writers including baseball veteranKen Rosenthal, shortly afterFox Sports eliminated its entire writing staff,[17][18] as well as college basketball standoutSeth Davis and college football institutionStewart Mandel.[19][20] Mandel led the launch of the national college football section, "The All-American", at the end of August.
The Athletic expanded intoPhiladelphia,Minnesota,Pittsburgh,St. Louis, and the rest ofCanada in September 2017 bringing local coverage to 15 US and Canadian pro sports markets. The vast majority of expansion was aimed at expanding coverage to underserved hockey fans.[21]
In February 2018,The Athletic announced further expansion into three new cities—New York,Dallas, andCincinnati—and launched baseball-only coverage inHouston,Los Angeles,San Diego,Arizona, andKansas City.[22][23][24] The site also introduced expanded national MLB coverage with the addition ofJayson Stark,Jim Bowden, Eno Sarris, and editor Emma Span.[25]
The site announced full coverage inDenver andBoston starting in April 2018.[26] In Denver,The Athletic hired several reporters fromThe Denver Post.[27] In Boston, the initial staff consisted of beat writers previously employed atThe Boston Globe, theBoston Herald, and the SpringfieldRepublican's web portalMassLive.[28] Adding to college football coverage,The Athletic added dedicated beat writers for major programs likeAlabama,Georgia, andTennessee.[29]
In May 2018, the site announced coverage of both domestic and international soccer.[30] In June 2018,The Athletic increased coverage in Los Angeles[31] and expanded intoBuffalo, New York, by hiring several reporters who had been bought out fromThe Buffalo News the same month.[32]
The Athletic continued market expansion in July 2018 with the addition ofAtlanta with formerThe Atlanta Journal-Constitution writers David O'Brien and Jeff Schultz,Baltimore, andWisconsin. The site also added 19 college football writers to cover most of the majorNCAA football programs.[33]
In August 2018,The Athletic launched Fantasy Sports coverage and continued expansion across US markets includingWashington, D.C.,Carolina,Nashville,Indiana,Miami, andNew Orleans.[34] The site also announced expanded NBA reporting withShams Charania[35] and NFL coverage withJay Glazer.[36]
The Athletic completed local coverage expansion to allNHL andNFL teams by September 2018 after adding writers inJacksonville,Houston,Oklahoma,Oregon, andLas Vegas.Memphis was added as the 47th local market covered byThe Athletic in October 2018, expanding coverage to all NBA teams.
The Athletic signed three veteran TV journalists in November 2018, including60 Minutes correspondentArmen Keteyian, in the publication's efforts to produce more video content as a supplement to written coverage.[37]
In May 2019,The Athletic announced an expansion intomotorsports coverage featuring veteran journalistJeff Gluck. WhileNASCAR is the dominant focus of coverage,The Athletic aims to be a destination for all motorsports fans by including other major events, such as theIndianapolis 500.[38]
In August 2019,The Athletic expanded to theUnited Kingdom, predominantly covering domestic and internationalfootball. The team was initially led by managing directorEd Malyon and editor-in-chiefAlex Kay-Jelski.[39][40]
In April 2024, Laura Williamson was announced as the editor-in-chief for UK and Europe. Their stable of writers, includes:Michael Cox and Oliver Kay… David Ornstein andDaniel Taylor.[41][42][43][44][45]
The company began exploring a sale to a larger media company in 2021, following continued unprofitability, driven by high expenses and reliance on venture capital funding instead of operational revenue. As of that time, the site had 1.2 million subscribers and $80 million in revenue, having raised $55 million in venture capital funding.Axios entered discussions withThe Athletic in March of that year but ultimately declined to make an offer.The New York Times was the leading contender for a potential acquisition as of May, withVox Media also expressing interest.[46][47] Buyout talks betweenThe Athletic andThe New York Times ended in June 2021.[48] On November 2, 2021, reports emerged thatsports betting companiesDraftKings andFlutter Entertainment, among other companies, were among some of the bidders for the company.[49]
Ultimately, in January 2022,the New York Times Company announced that it would acquireThe Athletic for $550 million, in a transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. TheTimes noted thatThe Athletic would continue to run independently of theTimes, and co-founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann would continue to lead the operation.[50]
In June 2023,The Athletic underwent a reorganization, cutting 4% of its staff, reassigning 20 journalists, and discontinuing the use of team-specific beat reporters.[51][52] The following month,The New York Times announced that it would shut down its own sports department in favor of distributing content fromThe Athletic and its reporters via its platforms. ExistingNew York Times sports reporters will be reassigned to other departments. The decision was criticized by theNew York Times Guild, which alleged the paper was engaging inunion busting by "outsourc[ing] union jobs on our sports desk to a non-union Times subsidiary under the preposterous argument thatThe Times can 'subcontract' its sports coverage to itself."[53][54]
Investors, media executives, and reporters who don't work for the Athletic all express skepticism about the business. But almost no one will share these sentiments publicly. Who wants to be seen badmouthing one of the only places still hiring journalists? Bringing on writers for top dollar and freeing them from chasing clicks is admirable, the doubters say, but it's no way to make money.
The Athletic has raised a total of $139.5 million over fiverounds.[55]
The first major funding was provided by Courtside Ventures, which provided $2.3 million in seed funding in Jan 2017.[56][57] In July 2017, the company raised another $5.4 million in Series A funding also led by Courtside Ventures.[58] In March 2018, the company announced a $20 million third round of funding led by Evolution Media. Mather reported that this money would be invested into expanding coverage to new cities and increasing the number of writers from the then staff of 120.[59]The Athletic raised another $40 million in a Series C funding round in October 2018, co-led byFounders Fund andBedrock Capital.[60] The money will be used to invest in expanding teams focused on audience, data and editorial teams, subscriptions, podcasts and video.[61]
As of August 2019,[update]The Athletic had 600,000 paying subscribers with an 80% retention rate year-over-year. Most of its subscribers, 60%, follow sports teams in two or more cities.[9] In September 2020,The Athletic announced one million global subscribers, as well as expansion into additional breaking news content formats.[62]
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The Athletic has published multiple investigations regarding workplace misconduct, sexual abuse, and other transgressions in the sports community. In 2018,Athletic journalist Tim Cato published an in-depth report on allegations regarding workplace misconduct within theDallas Mavericks organization.[63] The report detailed how high-ranking members within the Mavericks organization ignored and tacitly approved of financial misconduct and mental abuse.
In March 2021,The Athletic published an investigation regarding sexual misconduct and abuse atLouisiana State University (LSU). In the report, Brody Miller detailed the rampant sexual misconduct that was present at all levels of the LSU organization, and interviews with former players helped support an investigation conducted by law firm Husch Blackwell.[64]
In September 2021,The Athletic released a report detailing the gross sexual misconduct of association football coachPaul Riley in theNWSL. The report detailed Riley's sexual abuse of several players, namelySinead Farrelly andMeleana Shim, as well as an unnamed additional player, while coaching atPortland Thorns FC. The report also revealed that the allegations, first reported to the club in 2016, were partially responsible for the decision not to renew his contract in Portland. Riley, however, immediately assumed a new coaching position within the NWSL. The NWSL, and Riley'scurrent team, responded with no comment. Paul Riley denied all allegations.[65] Riley was fired shortly afterward, and the relevant soccer bodies (NWSL,FIFA and theUnited States Soccer Federation) launched investigations.
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The Athletic produces a number of podcasts.[66]
In August 2025, the brand signed a deal withAcast, with Acast serving asThe Athletic's exclusive sales partner.[67]
We founded The Athletic with this simple mission: produce smarter coverage for die-hard fans.
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