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BloombergBusinessweek August 26, 2019raiding newsrooms in the Bay Area, Cleveland, Detroit, and
Philadelphia. Big-name national writers joined: Ken Rosenthal
(baseball),SethDavis(collegebasketball),StewartMandel
(collegefootball).“WhyI’mJoiningtheAthletic” essays—
loving remembrances of print’s glory days and disdain for
clickbait—became their own subgenre on the site.
The rest of digital media, meanwhile, was in free fall. In
2016, Facebook Inc. announced it would no longer traffic in
headlines “that intentionally leave out crucial information.”
The company adjusted its algorithm to deprioritize publishers
and solidified its grip, with Google, on the digital ad economy.
Traffic plummeted, leading to layoffs. Vice shuttered its sports
department.FoxSportsannouncedit wouldstoppublishing
writtenwork,oneofmanysitesto“pivottovideo.”
DanaO’Neilgota callfromMatherinJune2017, a couple
of months after losing her job covering college basketball for
ESPN. She was one of about a hundred laid off from the net-
work’snewsroomthatspring.“IrememberI hungupthe
phone,andI saidtomyhusband,‘Ifhe’shonest,I justtalkedto
myjournalisticfairygodfather,’” saysO’Neil,whoalsoremem-
beredtheNationalSportsDaily. “Iwasuneasy,”shesays.“But
I said,‘I’mwillingtotakeonemorehardswingatthis.’ ” With
the industry in shambles, it felt as safe a place to land as any.
Starting salaries, according to conversations with more
than a dozen Athletic employees, ranged from $55,000 to
more than $120,000, depending on experience and location.
For a top beat writer in a new market, the company might pay
a 20% premium or more. In the early days, the site offered
bonuses for bringing in subscribers. Every employee gets a
small slice of equity. Stephen Holder, who came from the
Indianapolis Star to cover the Colts last year, says of Mather,
“He’s infamous for his New York Times quote, but he’s pas-
sionate and he made a hell of a pitch.”
The Athletic doesn’t want reporters racing to get a post-
game quote from a head coach to plug into a game summary
on deadline. The mandate is to report what can’t be found
elsewhere—to get the back story on a trade, to break downDATA:THEATHLETICthe tactical move that tilted a game or the strategic shift that’s
shaping a league, and to explore personalities. The standing
order, from Mather, Hansmann, and Chief Content Officer
Paul Fichtenbaum, a former editor of Sports Illustrated, is to
“do the best work of your career.”
“I don’t have to scramble to get something quick off at the
buzzer,” says Anthony Slater, who came from the Mercury
News to cover the Golden State Warriors. Instead, he takes a
few hours after each game to produce a “five observations”
column that uses video clips to break down plays and strategy.
Katie Strang, a reporter in Grand Rapids, Mich., who came
from ESPN, spent much of last year reporting on the trial of
Larry Nassar, the former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State
Universitydoctorconvictedofsexualassaultandchildpor-
nography.“Ialwaystellpeople,‘I writemuchlessbutwork
muchharder,’” she says.
Every Athletic story is available to all subscribers, who can
choose which teams and leagues they want to follow. (A few
stories, usually teasers in new markets or those considered
public service, such as Strang’s Nassar coverage, are free to
read.) Company data show that close to 60% of subscribers are
what it calls super bundlers—people who follow teams from
more than two cities, plus at least one college team, and at least
one league as a whole. In my feed, on a Friday in August, there
was a story about the Boston Red Sox’s fading playoff hopes, a
mailbag-style column about the coming Warriors season, and
a profile of North Carolina Courage forward Kristen Hamilton.
“You can’t get that bundle anywhere else,” Mather says.
Online dashboards for reporters show how their stories
perform. The main internal metric is the number of people
subscribingtoreada story.A hundredormoreis a “home
run”incompanyvernacular.Moststoriesdrawfarfewer—
getting to double digits is considered a success. The dash-
board also shows engagement among existing subscribers.
Out of everyone who follows, say, the New England Patriots,
what percentage open a story about the team? In that case,
40% would be seen as good.
Feedback loops aren’t always kind to journalists, who want
to believe that readers care about finely tuned phrases, hard-
won insights, and nuanced portraits. But traffic data show
that what many want are rumors about where free agents
are going to sign, reminders about what time the Super Bowl
starts, and opinions about whether, if LeBron James had a
time machine, he could beat Michael Jordan one-on-one.
But Strang and other reporters say Athletic readers’ appe-
tites align with their own. “It’s what everyone tries to do when
they write or produce anything,” says Jayson Jenks, who left
the Seattle Times for the site last year. “It has to be informa-
tive or emotional or interesting or fun or thought-provoking.”
“The more phone calls you make for a story, the more
traffic or subscriptions it drives,” says Brendan Quinn, who
covers college basketball in Michigan. He points to a story
hedidlastyearabouttheUniversityofAlaska at Anchorage,
whichupsettheUniversityofMichiganin1988, as the kind
ofreporting-heavy piece that does well.Coming to a Locker Room Near You
Local markets the Athletic coversN YC
L.A.1/2016 8/2019ChicagoTorontoD.C.600k
subscribers$40m
funding roundBostonAtlantaMiamiBay
Area