OT - The Athletic

[WD40 720]

Off topic but just seen that the athletic has been sold to the New York Times. They’ve basically been giving subscriptions away since they launched and don’t think they’ve seen huge subscriber growth. I imagine NYT could be ruthless and swing the axe hard here.

What would happen to the likes of Michael Bailey if they did, after walking out of their high profile news desks before?

[Midlands Yellow 3,984]

5 minutes ago, WD40 said:

Off topic but just seen that the athletic has been sold to the New York Times. They’ve basically been giving subscriptions away since they launched and don’t think they’ve seen huge subscriber growth. I imagine NYT could be ruthless and swing the axe hard here.

What would happen to the likes of Michael Bailey if they did, after walking out of their high profile news desks before?

Hopefully a straight swap for Dave or Connor? 

[WD40 720]

3 minutes ago, Midlands Yellow said:

Hopefully a straight swap for Dave or Connor? 

Rate MB over both of them but can’t see Archant welcoming back a turncoat with open arms. Might be wrong. He’ll probably have to freelance until something more reliable comes up. 

[Google Bot 3,275]

Why would they buy and then axe?  i.e. What would NYT get out of that, a load of subscribers I guess?

It could be that Bailey is made chief Josh Sargent reporter, of course! 😉

As for Dave and Connor, both lovely guys but Connor bores me to tears - they haven't really got anyone who engages with people like Bailey does.  Turncoat or not, they need an injection of character for sure.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Google Bot

[WD40 720]

Just now, Google Bot said:

Why would they buy and then axe?  i.e. What would NYT get out of that, a load of subscribers I guess?

It could be that Bailey is made chief Josh Sargent reporter, of course! 😉

My assumption is it’s mostly the US business they wanted, and yes to hit 10m subscribers. Can’t see a US form being that bothered in football in general but you never know. 

[Google Bot 3,275]

I presumed The Athletic was UK based.  Now reading wiki, didn't realise it was a US company to start with - that really surprises me.  6 Years and sold for $550Mil - pretty good going.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Google Bot

[Midlands Yellow 3,984]

9 minutes ago, Google Bot said:

Why would they buy and then axe?  i.e. What would NYT get out of that, a load of subscribers I guess?

It could be that Bailey is made chief Josh Sargent reporter, of course! 😉

As for Dave and Connor, both lovely guys but Connor bores me to tears - they haven't really got anyone who engages with people like Bailey does.  Turncoat or not, they need an injection of character for sure.

“Hello to one and all” Connor, a big fan of Paddy obviously. 

 

[WD40 720]

18 minutes ago, Google Bot said:

As for Dave and Connor, both lovely guys but Connor bores me to tears - they haven't really got anyone who engages with people like Bailey does.  Turncoat or not, they need an injection of character for sure.

Connor needs to become waaayyyyyyyyy more succinct. Loves waffling on.

I agree with you MB does it much better than both.

[Newtopia 517]

I am sure Michael will be fine, he is a talented guy.  I am sure Archant might want him back, I suspect Michael wouldn’t want to go back.

Edited February 11, 2022 by Newtopia

[Kingston Yellow 220]

MB is a complete tart / wannabe media luvvie.  

Give me Paddy (and all his cliches) and Connor (in spite of his woke, apologetic style) any day.  

On their day, they’re at least knowledgable and coherent.  Just buy them a decent microphone each.  The quality they currently use is embarrassing. 

Dave, on the hand….. 

 

 

[Midlands Yellow 3,984]

7 minutes ago, Kingston Yellow said:

MB is a complete tart / wannabe media luvvie.  

Give me Paddy (and all his cliches) and Connor (in spite of his woke, apologetic style) any day.  

On their day, they’re at least knowledgable and coherent.  Just buy them a decent microphone each.  The quality they currently use is embarrassing. 

Dave, on the hand….. 

 

 

Paddy and Bailey all day long, the other two just come across as fans who aren’t very good. 

[Greavsy 2,413]

35 minutes ago, Midlands Yellow said:

fans who aren’t very good

Sounds like TNC to me! 

[Danke bitte 965]

1 hour ago, Google Bot said:

Why would they buy and then axe?  i.e. What would NYT get out of that, a load of subscribers I guess?

It could be that Bailey is made chief Josh Sargent reporter, of course! 😉

As for Dave and Connor, both lovely guys but Connor bores me to tears - they haven't really got anyone who engages with people like Bailey does.  Turncoat or not, they need an injection of character for sure.

Bailey has always reminded me of a young James Richardson from Football Italia. Always rated him, affable, good humoured and knowledgeable. 

Sorely missed from the EDP as the others just don’t have the personality to hold your attention. 

[PurpleCanary 5,558]

1 hour ago, Google Bot said:

I presumed The Athletic was UK based.  Now reading wiki, didn't realise it was a US company to start with - that really surprises me.  6 Years and sold for $550Mil - pretty good going.

The title is pure Americanspeak. In English English an athlete is a track and fielder, whereas in American English it is often used for what we would call players.

[PurpleCanary 5,558]

6 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

The title is pure Americanspeak. In English English an athlete is a track and fielder, whereas in American English it is often used for what we would call players.

The Athletic has 400 journalists and made an operating loss of $55m for the last year. It obviously needed saving by someone with deeper pockets.

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,220]

Scale and sell, scale and sell. 

Shareholders fund losses, corporate finance frantically chases buyers in the background. 

Parma 

nota bene: ideally you start with an idea the eventual buyer should have thought of for themselves. Then you throw money at it to make the point, then you shine endless light on it to the target. Then you sell out before you have to really make a sustainable profit. It’s probably worth the added ballast to the successful original target anyway. Repeat.

Edited February 12, 2022 by Parma Ham's gone mouldy

[Newtopia 517]

I like them all, Connor has improved hugely, I genuinely look forward to his stuff, and you can tell he likes that presenting type role, love NCFC, and he offers far more substance these days.

Dave seems really genuine, and it always makes me smilie in his match reports when he agonises over whether to give players a 6 or 7 out of 10, whilst other aspects of his comments show a much more nuanced understanding and analysis of the game than those scores.

[Christoph Stiepermann 1,135]

I quite like the Pink Un' guys but i don't watch or read their reports for their knowledge or expertise, just some noise to have on when I'm washing up or cooking or whatever and none of them irritate me like so many other media personalities and journalists do. MB and PD were the best combo but the other guys do a good job as well. 

MB writes some great stuff for the athletic and it's nice to get some inside tidbits every now and again. His match reports are always good but man his podcasts and live shows are difficult to listen to, full of irritating segments and too much waffle not related to the football

The one journalist related to Norwich who gets on my nerves is Stuart Hodge, just can not let other people talk and interrupts people constantly, I don't dislike him personally but FFS sometimes just keep it to yourself and let others speak!

Edited February 11, 2022 by Christoph Stiepermann

[king canary 7,606]

3 hours ago, WD40 said:

Rate MB over both of them but can’t see Archant welcoming back a turncoat with open arms. Might be wrong. He’ll probably have to freelance until something more reliable comes up. 

Turncoat?

In the real world adults leave jobs for other jobs all the time.

[Ulfotto 632]

OT but has the Norwich fan been served better for coverage - pinkun, athletic, tnc and along come Norwich.

[WD40 720]

1 hour ago, king canary said:

Turncoat?

In the real world adults leave jobs for other jobs all the time.

Maybe you don’t remember the reporting at the time do the athletic business model. These were quotes from the Athletic CEO about their model from 2017.

“We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing,” “We will suck them dry of their best talent at every moment. We will make business extremely difficult for them.” 
 

They landed in the UK and followed the exact model up and down the country to try and poach the best journalistic talent in big market football areas. Now they’re vulnerable would those local players want these guys back? Maybe  

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/sport/article/the-athletic/amp

[AJ 1,219]

The New York Times is trying to make paid subscriptions work and has been buying features to add better content. The Athletic is just their most recent addition, they also bought Wordle last week. Everything will be behind a pay wall. Will be interesting to see if they keep The Athletic separate. 

As for MB, he's very good at his job so I'd doubt he'd struggle to get employment elsewhere if he needed to but I doubt much will change other then the ownership.

Edited February 11, 2022 by AJ

[newyorkcanary 14]

The Athletic's NFL coverage is superb. NYT paid top dollar, but for US sports, The Athletic is great content.

[Michael Starr 519]

I never understood the Athletic business model. It was always a short term swoop and scoop approach. Driven by the continuous special limited sign up offers. It felt like a money grab. Sure, It works for the massive American sports where there are literally millions of fans in sports that are franchised, and maybe it works for the major football teams but not for the rest, and they advertise as an all in one service. So you'll have maybe 50 journo's making high impact, high profit coverage and the rest are there scraping because they offer alternative less popular profit draining coverage.

The Premier League money comes from TV channels, who make money through advertising. Not from the fans. I guess this is where The Athletic wanted to go... by incorporating advertising longer term to a captive audience once the competition (papers) had disappeared.

Honestly, I feel like the Athletic will disappear as quickly as it arrived, although Paywall services will probably be here to stay. Ideally, ones better than Pinkun+

Edited February 12, 2022 by Michael Starr

[The Bristol Nest 513]

9 hours ago, WD40 said:

Maybe you don’t remember the reporting at the time do the athletic business model. These were quotes from the Athletic CEO about their model from 2017.

“We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing,” “We will suck them dry of their best talent at every moment. We will make business extremely difficult for them.” 
 

They landed in the UK and followed the exact model up and down the country to try and poach the best journalistic talent in big market football areas. Now they’re vulnerable would those local players want these guys back? Maybe  

https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/sport/article/the-athletic/amp

Ah. Now I understand why you started this thread. I thought it was parochial and petty but that is an unpleasant mission statement. F The Athletic.