Expansion
In October 2016, The Athletic expanded to a second city, Toronto, to focus on Maple Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays coverage. The Athletic hired James Mirtle as editor-in-chief for Toronto. [12] Mirtle had spent over a decade as a sportswriter at The Globe and Mail before joining The Athletic.
A third city, Cleveland, launched in March 2017, with Jason Lloyd as editor-in-chief. [13] The Athletic continued city expansion to Detroit in June 2017 with the hiring of Craig Custance from ESPN as editor-in-chief. [14]
In August 2017, the site launched in the San Francisco-area market with long-time San Jose Mercury News writers Tim Kawakami as editor-in-chief and Marcus Thompson as columnist. [15] [16] The Athletic also added national coverage with new writers including baseball veteran Ken Rosenthal, shortly after Fox Sports eliminated its entire writing staff, [17] [18] as well as college basketball standout Seth Davis and college football institution Stewart Mandel. [19] [20] Mandel led the launch of the national college football section, "The All-American", at the end of August.
The Athletic expanded into Philadelphia, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and the rest of Canada 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, and Cincinnati—and launched baseball-only coverage in Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Arizona, and Kansas City. [22] [23] [24] The site also introduced expanded national MLB coverage with the addition of Jayson Stark, Jim Bowden, Eno Sarris, and editor Emma Span. [25]
The site announced full coverage in Denver and Boston starting in April 2018. [26] In Denver, The Athletic hired several reporters from The Denver Post . [27] In Boston, the initial staff consisted of beat writers previously employed at The Boston Globe , the Boston Herald , and the Springfield Republican 's web portal MassLive. [28] Adding to college football coverage, The Athletic added dedicated beat writers for major programs like Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. [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 into Buffalo, New York, by hiring several reporters who had been bought out from The Buffalo News the same month. [32]
The Athletic continued market expansion in July 2018 with the addition of Atlanta with former The Atlanta Journal-Constitution writers David O'Brien and Jeff Schultz, Baltimore, and Wisconsin. The site also added 19 college football writers to cover most of the major NCAA football programs. [33]
In August 2018, The Athletic launched Fantasy Sports coverage and continued expansion across US markets including Washington, D.C., Carolina, Nashville, Indiana, Miami, and New Orleans. [34] The site also announced expanded NBA reporting with Shams Charania [35] and NFL coverage with Jay Glazer. [36]
The Athletic completed local coverage expansion to all NHL and NFL teams by September 2018 after adding writers in Jacksonville, Houston, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Las Vegas. Memphis was added as the 47th local market covered by The Athletic in October 2018, expanding coverage to all NBA teams.
The Athletic signed three veteran TV journalists in November 2018, including 60 Minutes correspondent Armen 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 into motorsports coverage featuring veteran journalist Jeff Gluck. While NASCAR is the dominant focus of coverage, The Athletic aims to be a destination for all motorsports fans by including other major events, such as the Indianapolis 500. [38]
In August 2019, The Athletic expanded to the UK, predominantly covering domestic and international football. The team is led by managing director Ed Malyon and editor-in-chief Alex Kay-Jelski, and includes: Michael Cox, Raphael Honigstein, Daniel Taylor, and many beat reporters. [39] [40]
Sale to The New York Times Company
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 with The 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, with Vox Media also expressing interest. [41] [42] Buyout talks between The Athletic and The New York Times ended in June 2021. [43] On November 2, 2021, reports emerged that sports betting companies DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment, among other companies, were among some of the bidders for the company. [44]
Ultimately, in January 2022, The New York Times Company announced that it would acquire The Athletic for $550 million, in a transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2022. The Times noted that The Athletic would continue to run independently of the Times, and co-founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann would continue to lead the operation. [45]
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. [46] [47] The following month, The New York Times announced that it would shut down its own sports department in favor of distributing content from The Athletic and its reporters via its platforms. Existing New York Times sports reporters will be reassigned to other departments. The decision was criticized by the New York Times Guild, which alleged the paper was engaging in union busting by "outsourc[ing] union jobs on our sports desk to a non-union Times subsidiary under the preposterous argument that The Times can 'subcontract' its sports coverage to itself." [48] [49]
