According to multiple reports, the New York Times will be purchasing The Athletic for approximately $550M later this quarter. The Athletic is a subscription based sports news site which boasts over 400 editorial employees according to its website.
New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien stated “We are now in pursuit of a goal meaningfully larger than 10 million subscriptions and believe The Athletic will enable us to expand our addressable market of potential subscribers” in a news release earlier today.
The cash deal aims to bring aboard The Athletic’s 1.2M existing subscribers while allowing The Athletic to continue working as a separate sports room from the NYT department.
Founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann said “We started The Athletic to bring fans closer to the teams, players and leagues they love through deep, immersive journalism and storytelling…Today marks a thrilling milestone for that dream, one realized because of the hard work of every single one of our employees. We are proud to have The Athletic become part of the Times Company’s family of subscription products.” The two former Strava employees founded the company in 2016 covering Chicago area teams. The organization has since expanded to cover over 200 different sports organizations globally.
The Athletic is currently the second largest employer of sports journalists in North America trailing only ESPN. The website has published numerous exposes over the years detailing abuse, sexual misconduct and more. Among the prominent stories The Athletic uncovered are the Dallas Mavericks workplace misconduct scandal, the NWSL sexual misconduct allegations, and the purported abuse which took place at LSU.
The deal will make the Times a much more prominent player in the sports market, and aims to bring a younger, more diverse crowd of readers into the fold.