“Why I was Let Go from The Athletic”Originally Posted by bm1475
“Why I was Let Go from The Athletic”
More layoffs today.
Jay Morrison and Zach Buchanan (was with the DBacks) were among the cuts.
The Athletic's business model has never worked. They're still losing tens of millions a year. I don't think they can "layoff" their way out of this. Too many sports fans like me that just refuse to pay for my news
Revering4Blue (06-13-2023)
I got a free one year subscription from BetMGM for making like $50 worth of bets over a week (so basically nothing). Not a great sign. I've read some of their stuff, and it's fine, but I wouldn't pay what they're asking for it.
Chip R (06-13-2023)
I get it, I like it and I'm unhappy with some of their cuts and decision to cover more soccer and NFL. I constantly rip Leatherpants article and wonder why they would employ him rather than real journalists. Bowden should be sweeping floors in a factory, not covering baseball in any media nor working in baseball.
Where we gonna go?
chicoruiz (06-23-2023),RiverRat13 (06-12-2023)
Agree, and I'm guessing they pay him enough to pay for 10 beat journalists.
Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
*BaseClogger* (06-12-2023)
Bob Kravitz, a fixture in Indianapolis, too. Sad mostly because I don't think there's anywhere else for him to go though he seems intent on retiring.
Stinks to hear about Jay but it was hard to see them sticking with two Bengals beat reporters. I enjoyed Jay and Paul’s podcast but will be out if Paul tries to fill Jay’s spot with more Mo Egger.
I mainly subscribed to The Atlantic for Landis, Wasserman, and C. Trent. One is gone, one has moved into a different role, and the podcasts they did are gone as well.
I thought The Athletic's model made sense, but it was expensive. They were bringing some of the best beat writers and journalists together from each city and field.
I will probably still hold out for a little longer. Their podcast game has gone down hill. What I don't quite understand is OSU has one of the biggest following in all of sports. They have a massive beat (a lot of it is behind paywall) but The Athletic doesn't have an OSU focused podcast anymore. In looking, they currently have a ND, Miami, and MSU. I get ND, but MSU and Miami??!
I think it was tough to justify two beat writers on the Bengals beat. You may see more outsiders write articles for them. You may see one beat reporter cover multiple teams. But overall I think they need to up their game, or it will be another failed media company.
I really liked the podcast Wasserman did with Andy Staples after Landis moved on. Now Andy Staples is gone too. They have lost a ton of great writers/podcasters over the years.
The cuts stink as many of the writers let go were good- they are going to stop reporting on the business of sports, which I think is important.
But what do I know, I still miss buying the National to read the articles and look at all the box scores - and I also bought the Thursday USA today for the NL stats on all the players.
Where we gonna go?
Chip R (06-13-2023)
I would guess those MSU and Miami pods are going to be gonezo soon. It is all dependent on the talent. MSU and Miami still has their beat writers.
Ari now hates OSU, so he is probably refusing to do one, probably wants to do a Michigan pod. He is the worrrrssssssttttt.
What would you say.....ya do here?
It did but unless you have an ownership with really, really deep pockets and they are willing to suffer financial losses it couldn't last. When the NY Times bought them, they were just another entry on the balance sheet. The goal is no longer journalism, it's making sure the stock price goes up. Now these writers who left their previous gigs have no jobs. I'm not sure they could go back to their previous employers since most papers follow the same model. Hopefully they will catch on somewhere.
If they're not making money by now, when will they? They hired pretty expensive talent. For this to work they'd need to hire folks fresh out of college or the Doug Dirts of this world
You can't succeed by doing that. You just become click bait, and no one is going to pay a premium for that. They may have expanded a little too fast, probably went into too many markets too quickly, maybe misjudged the interest in several cities.
I find myself reading less and less OSU coverage from the site because I don't like the new writer as much as I liked Bill Landis. Nothing against the guy, I just don't know who he is and how much he actually knows about OSU.
What I do find somewhat disheartening is what they have done to their podcasts. There was a time when they had a whole B1G section of podcasts. Not just OSU focused, but several others talking about different aspects of the conference and the games. Those are all gone now. I don't know how a media company survives today without podcasts. Maybe my age group is in the sweet spot for that medium, and the older folk don't listen and the younger kids don't either, but the absence of them is pretty alarming.
As for Ari I still like him. He gets a little hyperbolic, and when he was on with Landis, he was always able to settle him down. Heck even Andy Staples was a good check when he got over the top.
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