The Athletic: Inspiring a New Wave of Sports Journalism
What does the ‘Netflix of sportswriting’ mean for the future of journalism?
Founded and launched in 2016, The Athletic began life as an exclusively American sports journalism website. But in apprehension and prior to the introduction of the new Premier League football season in 2019, The Athletic has since extended itself over the pond to dominate sports journalism in the UK. With a team of 57 sports journalists and counting, The Athletic boast an incredible roster of lured-in and poached talent including the likes of David Ornstein, Jack Pitt-Brooke, Oliver Kay and a mouth-watering selection of more.
The Athletic are the ‘Netflix of sportswriting’, but what does that mean for the future of journalism?
Changing journalism forever
The pandemic has posed a problem that many start-ups haven’t been able to overcome, but in the curious case of The Athletic, they weathered a months-long sports shutdown to emerge as the new future of sportswriting.
“It should have been the end for us,” co-founder Adam Hansmann said.
The Athletic have now amassed over 1 million paid subscribers after surviving months of postponed and cancelled sports. But having weathered the storm of a potentially business ending drought, The Athletic are looking ahead with wind in their sails.
“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.”
New wave sports journalism
Sports journalism and sportswriting has paved the way for a new form of journalism, it was just a surprise to us all that subscription service journalism has proved to be the new model to follow.
New wave sportswriting is evident through the rise of podcasts, video content and talkshow style discussion boards that we see in daily journalism today.
Podcast journalism
The Athletic have also disrupted the podcast medium of journalism by providing a platform of coexistence alongside sportswriting on the website. The Athletic not only produce a wide range of sporting podcasts but they also host a platform on their website that is dedicated to podcasting.
The Athletic are quick to stifle any competing markets and have monopolised the way in which we consume sports journalism.
Talkshow style discussion boards
Talkshow style content is a relevantly new phenomenon that was introduced by Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) in which they host weekly discussion boards to talk about the form of Premier League footballers. A panel of carefully selected fantasy football professionals come together and discuss potential transfers within the world of fantasy football and debate player’s form, tactics, results and fixtures from games happening in real-time.
How did The Athletic persuade readers to pay for journalism?
The business model behind The Athletic is simple: pay for journalism you’d usually read for free, but without the burden of advertisements. Now this sure seems counterintuitive, but it’s working. The Athletic also use free trials in attempt to lure and captivate subscribers.
“The try-before-you-buy concept isn’t something unique to us. It’s a good policy and it works.”
Becoming the ‘Netflix of sportswriting’ requires a dubious amount of persuasion, especially to an audience who have never had to pay for journalism before, but The Athletic offers so much more than just journalism.
“The whole point was to have something for everyone, and that’s why you can personalise your feed [on the app and site]. You can tailor which clubs or writers you do or don’t read.”
What is the future of sports journalism?
Surviving and emerging from a hiatus of global sports as a result of a pandemic has led to believing that the future is bright for sports journalism and sportswriting, but what exactly does this look like?
It’s all very unclear at the moment but will sports journalism all now follow the same path of The Athletic? Are we doomed to see monetised and commercialised journalism now? Or is that actually a good thing?
At least we know one thing that is for certain: the quality of reporting and the quality of coverage improves through subscriptions. Will we move away from microblogging and back into more credible and a more effective form of journalism?
I hope you enjoyed reading about my thoughts on the future of sportswriting and how The Athletic has changed sports journalism forever. I would love to hear your thoughts on The Athletic’s rise to fame and journey to the top. Did you see it coming and could you have anticipated a subscription service for journalism would lead the market?
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