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The Athletic keeps growing .......

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by Fran Curci, Feb 3, 2018.

  1. Sports Barf

    Sports Barf Well-Known Member

    Lotta staff turnover is what happens when you aggressively build without a sound market strategy. They’re buying a lot of twitter followers with the hires they make but don’t have any plan of attack for how to convert those followers into subscribers. Just recycling an introductory “why I’m joining The Athletic” puff piece accompanied with a discount subscription offer is not a strategy. “Let’s do a podcast” is not a strategy. Letting your writers write about whatever in blue hell they want, whenever they want, however often or infrequent they want, is not strategy. This is a social experiment with someone else’s money, like 90 percent of the other startups out there.
     
    Fredrick and Writer like this.
  2. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    But why such the bee in your bonnet about them? What are they doing that negatively impacts your livelihood? I mean, just ignore them if they suck so bad. Don't subscribe. I do for now because I find a lot of quality in the writing about teams I follow, including Red Sox and Steelers.
     
  3. Sports Barf

    Sports Barf Well-Known Member

    Free goddamn country pal, I’ll say whatever I want
     
  4. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    Who was saying you can't? Jesus, what a fucking turd you are. Good day.
     
    sgreenwell likes this.
  5. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Maybe. Could also be that it is well funded, and in addition to the print product that has worked well, they were looking for ancillary things that might be additive. So they devoted a small amount of their capital to video, monitored the response to it analytically, and when the evidence was that it wasn't attracting incremental readers, they pulled the plug relatively quickly.
     
  6. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    I watched a handful of videos through their YouTube channel and thought they were very well done, but the numbers seemed awfully low on some. And to prove your point, a friend who is not a subscriber tipped me off to them. I'm a subscriber but hadn't sought out their video content previously.
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2020
  7. HappyCurmudgeon

    HappyCurmudgeon Well-Known Member

    Ok. But they made three big hires to produce high-end digital content and at least try to imitate some of the 60 Minutes style of video storytelling....and then they don't put any real marketing muscle behind it? Seems very odd because I would think a couple of well-done videos, even segments of videos, could open The Athletic up to a much greater audience then hoping a couple thousand Twitter followers tags along with a beat writer.
     
  8. Mr. X

    Mr. X Active Member

    What would your strategy for The Athletic be?
     
  9. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    We have no idea if the “print” strategy has worked well on a large scale. Investors throw money at it, they don’t know.

    Hope it works. No clue if it will.
     
  10. Fredrick

    Fredrick Well-Known Member

    Video gets very few views. The suits that demand video on newspaper sites have absolutely no clue. It's just busywork for reporters.
     
    2muchcoffeeman likes this.
  11. BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo

    BYH 2: Electric Boogaloo Well-Known Member

    Is Zack Greinke one of their investors? They ran another "here's all the weird things Zack says and does" oral histories this week, which I wouldn't do with a guy who has every obvious sign of autism, but I'm not the boss.
     
    Sports Barf likes this.
  12. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    We have something of an idea. They have said they were closing in on a million subscribers and that every market they had been in for more than a year was profitable and that they expect to be profitable as a whole this year. Assuming those are all truthful (they aren't audited statements). ... That doesn't necessarily mean what they are doing has long-term viability, or that it is worth the crazy valuation the last round of investment fetched. ... but you don't get a million people to plunk down cash on a print product unless something about it is working.
     
    MNgremlin and sgreenwell like this.
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