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The Athletic (1 Viewer)

ChiefD

Footballguy
Not sure if any of you fellers is on this yet, but I subscribed yesterday for the year. The writing and stories I've seen so far are fantastic. I used to enjoy reading Jayson Stark from ESPN, and he is the reason I signed on. So far there has been some good stuff on there.

Link to website

Once you sign on you can also share a link to get a $10 Amazon credit if anyone signs up.  Here is the link to that

If anyone uses that second link to subscribe I will donate the Amazon credits to a local charity - or if we all figure out what we can do with them and donate some goods to a charity that's cool too. 

 
Signed up early when it was like $45 for the whole year, mainly for the Philly/Eagles coverage but I also check out the national stuff. Well worth the cost of under $4/month. And they just added my favorite baseball writer, Jayson Stark. 

 
Huge fan.  Signed up to follow Stewart Mandell for college football.  Did the monthly fee for the fall football season and pulled the trigger on the full year as an xmas gift to myself.  
 

I absolutely detest websites that play videos immediately when you visit (looking at your SI....you too ESPN).  All the ads, videos, pop-ups, redirects, etc.....none of that with The Athletic.  It has the look and professionalism of an old fashioned Sports Page, which is awesome.

And, for dinosaurs like me who still like to print stories and read them on paper (yes, I know) the ability to copy/paste articles into Word is so much better than any other sports website around.  Worth every penny. 

 
Huge fan.  Signed up to follow Stewart Mandell for college football.  Did the monthly fee for the fall football season and pulled the trigger on the full year as an xmas gift to myself.  
 

I absolutely detest websites that play videos immediately when you visit (looking at your SI....you too ESPN).  All the ads, videos, pop-ups, redirects, etc.....none of that with The Athletic.  It has the look and professionalism of an old fashioned Sports Page, which is awesome.

And, for dinosaurs like me who still like to print stories and read them on paper (yes, I know) the ability to copy/paste articles into Word is so much better than any other sports website around.  Worth every penny. 


And the writing is superlative.  I think this is the future for website content for those of us who just want to read our stories. 
Agree 100%. 

 
Big fan. Got a year-long subscription right before baseball season. My favorite Ranger blogger, Jamey Newberg and my favorite Cowboy blogger/NFL nerd, Bob Sturm both joined their writing team, so it was an easy choice to make. Have been very happy with the overall quality and feel of the site.

 
Could not be a bigger fan. Got it during CFB season. Phillies and Eagles coverage along with NFL, MLB, CFB, and CBB is the only thing I read. Love that they actually write and can get to better story depth because they don't have an editor deadline for every piece that they publish. Haven't read an article elsewhere on the web in months, worth every penny. 

 
Signed up early when it was like $45 for the whole year, mainly for the Philly/Eagles coverage but I also check out the national stuff. Well worth the cost of under $4/month. And they just added my favorite baseball writer, Jayson Stark. 
Stark is so damn good.  Here's a little treat for any non-subscribers:

 

Is there anything better than the first week of the baseball season – assuming you don’t live in the Midwest or the Northeast, or assuming you try not to leave the house if you do?

But as I was saying, is there anything better than the first week of the baseball season? We saw a Panik attack in San Francisco. We saw one 44-year-old (Ichiro) rob a home run and get an infield hit in the same game. And we saw another 44-year-old (Bartolo Colon) do those Bartolo-paloozan things he does. It’s a beautiful thing, ladies and gentlemen.

So let’s take a fun look at some of our favorite wackiness from Week One:

BARTOLO-MANIA

Where should we begin? Heh-heh. There’s only one place to begin. With Bartolo-mania. Where else?

Bartolo Colon – all 44 years, 313 days and 347 pounds of him – started a baseball game this week. In the big leagues. How entertaining is that? We find this fun because …

— This was the 11th team – the 11th – this guy has started a game for. Here’s your complete list of pitchers who started a game for that many teams since 1900:

Mike Morgan 12
Bartolo Colon 11

So our man Bartolo is now one team short of history? Wow. Can we get him traded to, say, the Brewers immediately (so we can also get to see him hit, of course).

— Have you noticed Bartolo has been around a while? Since the day he made his first start, on April 4, 1997, an incredible 1,650 other pitchers have started a game in the big leagues. That’s enough to fill a rotation for 330 teams!

— This is Bartolo’s 20th season in the big leagues. He now plays on the same team as Adrian Beltre, who is in his 21st season. How long have those two been going at it? Colon has faced Beltre while wearing the uniforms of nine different teams.

— Bartolo pitched Monday at the Coliseum in Oakland – for the 38th time. How long ago was his first start there (on July 31, 1998)? In that game, he opposed:

Rickey Henderson – who retired 15 years ago.
A.J. Hinch – who retired 14 years ago and is now on his second managing job.
Matt Stairs – who played for 11 teams himself after that and has now been a hitting coach for two different clubs.
Tom Candiotti – who just started his 18th season as a broadcaster!


— And the very best part of Colon’s start Monday was that it was also the best start by a Ranger all season. The only other right-handed non-knuckleballers in the last 40 years to throw at least six innings of one-run (or no-run) baseball at Bartolo’s age (or older):

Roger Clemens…Nolan Ryan…Gaylord Perry.

Bartolo-mania. May it last another 21 seasons.
That is sooooooo good.

 
Curious what their biz model is?  Do each individual writer get paid based off of clicks to their stories?

 
Huge fan.  Signed up to follow Stewart Mandell for college football.  Did the monthly fee for the fall football season and pulled the trigger on the full year as an xmas gift to myself.  
 

I absolutely detest websites that play videos immediately when you visit (looking at your SI....you too ESPN).  All the ads, videos, pop-ups, redirects, etc.....none of that with The Athletic.  It has the look and professionalism of an old fashioned Sports Page, which is awesome.

And, for dinosaurs like me who still like to print stories and read them on paper (yes, I know) the ability to copy/paste articles into Word is so much better than any other sports website around.  Worth every penny. 
I absolutely detest all these sites and their freaking pop vids and ads.

I hardly follow things closely anymore. My interest has waned as it is and everytime I click into a story I typically dont wanna read the whole article. I may just skim it or read it all but when it opens a video or an ad blocks my whole effin screen I just click the back button and dont even read anything. 

Every site does it so I can only assume I'm in the extreme minority. All the sites can't keep doing it if people are not making it through the 1st few seconds of a video

 
Heads up - The Athletic has a 50% Off offer right now for opening day.  I let my subscription lapse as I mainly use The Athletic for college football and was going to renew in full in August, but this offer is too good to pass up.  Just paid $29 for another full year.  :thumbup:

Hope I'm not stepping on any FBG toes by promoting another website, but The Athletic is rapidly becoming the gold standard in the sports journalism industry.  

 
General Malaise said:
Heads up - The Athletic has a 50% Off offer right now for opening day.  I let my subscription lapse as I mainly use The Athletic for college football and was going to renew in full in August, but this offer is too good to pass up.  Just paid $29 for another full year.  :thumbup:

Hope I'm not stepping on any FBG toes by promoting another website, but The Athletic is rapidly becoming the gold standard in the sports journalism industry.  
how do we get the 50% off? Not seeing anything on the site

 
I signed up last December for a year at like $26. I think the site and app is OK, and I probably read 3-4 articles a week, but I could certainly live without them. This usefulness of the site probably varies greatly depending on what sports and markets you follow. I probably won’t be renewing unless there’s another super cheap deal. 

 
A friend just gifted me a one-year subscription this weekend.  It was something I was considering signing up for already, as several of my favorite writers have gone over there in the past year.  Loving it so far.

 
I signed up last December for a year at like $26. I think the site and app is OK, and I probably read 3-4 articles a week, but I could certainly live without them. This usefulness of the site probably varies greatly depending on what sports and markets you follow. I probably won’t be renewing unless there’s another super cheap deal. 
For me, I find the college football information incredibly helpful as a gambler, especially for wagering on teams that aren't in the Power 5 or whatever the big boys are called.  And you're right, I do live without it once college football is over, but half off is too good to pass up.

 

 
I subscribed at 50% off but will probably cancel after my year if I can't get a comparable discount.  The content is generally good but I think that says more about the sorry state of a lot of Internet sportswriting (e.g. Fansided) than it does about the quality of The Athletic.

 
I subscribed at 50% off but will probably cancel after my year if I can't get a comparable discount.  The content is generally good but I think that says more about the sorry state of a lot of Internet sportswriting (e.g. Fansided) than it does about the quality of The Athletic.
I read Stewart Mandel religiously, so if I have to pay $29 a year to read him, I'm okay with that.  But I've also found many other writers there that cover college football to be 'must read' for me each week.

I didn't think their baseball content was any good last summer, but I'll give it another go now.  

 
:lmao:

Forgot about Forrestmail.  Man, I can't believe I did that!
You were a true interwebs pioneer.

To get back on topic, the reason my buddy signed me up was all of the Duck coverage.  I knew they had hired Tyson Alger from The Oregonian, who I always enjoyed. 

There was also a pretty scathing piece on Oregon by Dana O'Neil yesterday. 

 
This site is still the best.

Pro-Tip: every once in awhile go to one of the other cities and click on that city so you can see their feed. There is a lot more interesting content on there that you may not see because it's not part of your regular feed.

I've found some awesome articles that way. 

 
This site is still the best.

Pro-Tip: every once in awhile go to one of the other cities and click on that city so you can see their feed. There is a lot more interesting content on there that you may not see because it's not part of your regular feed.

I've found some awesome articles that way. 
This is good to do during playoffs when your team faces an opponent. Or college football before an interesting game. 

 
Basically all I read for sports, their Toronto staff is incredible (I know at one time it was also their biggest subscriber base, not sure if that’s still the case) and they have basically all the good national hockey writers (sorry, wysh).

 
My only source for sports coverage now basically. Great site. Well worth the cost. They always have some deal going on for new subscribers.

 
This is good to do during playoffs when your team faces an opponent. Or college football before an interesting game. 
My son is starting his college search (terrifying) and the best piece of advice I ever got I gave to him - if possible, find the school newspaper of any college you are interested in.  That will give you a truer sense of what's going on than anything else.   :grad:

 
Love this website but the amount of discounts they offer are starting to concern me for their long term health. Constant 40% off deals and then today...76% off. I get the holiday angle but that is...desperate. 

 
Love this website but the amount of discounts they offer are starting to concern me for their long term health. Constant 40% off deals and then today...76% off. I get the holiday angle but that is...desperate. 
That is a *LOT* of very talented writers' mouths to feed, too.  Wonder how the pay is compared to what these guys were making prior and how the pay is structured.  What does Mandel make vs, say, Nicole Aurbach?

 
That is a *LOT* of very talented writers' mouths to feed, too.  Wonder how the pay is compared to what these guys were making prior and how the pay is structured.  What does Mandel make vs, say, Nicole Aurbach?
I was wondering a few weeks ago when they sent FORTY hockey writers to Vancouver for the NHL DRAFT. :lmao:  Who needs that much coverage of the nhl draft? That must have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Are they insane? 

 
Love this website but the amount of discounts they offer are starting to concern me for their long term health. Constant 40% off deals and then today...76% off. I get the holiday angle but that is...desperate. 
Thanks! Been meaning to sign up but my natural procrastination caught up with me. I'm in now.

 
They raised another $22M earlier this year but they can't keep relying on VC forever.  They haven't shown they have a path to profitability.

It's a good website that's become my go-to place for longform sports but I could live without it :shrug:

 
And, for dinosaurs like me who still like to print stories and read them on paper (yes, I know) the ability to copy/paste articles into Word is so much better than any other sports website around.  Worth every penny. 


:lmao:

Forgot about Forrestmail.  Man, I can't believe I did that!
Would you be willing to fax me Word documents for my home teams?  ForrestFax.

 
They just keep hiring from local newspapers, this week snagged the columnist for the Eugene, OR, paper and are sending him to Ann Arbor to cover Michigan football. 

 
They raised another $22M earlier this year but they can't keep relying on VC forever.  They haven't shown they have a path to profitability.

It's a good website that's become my go-to place for longform sports but I could live without it :shrug:
I got a year subscription at 60% off about a month or two ago and have barely checked the site. I think I was interested in Gammons/Rosenthal, but  just dont' take the time. I guess for $21.00 (i think that was the price of a year), it's not a big deal.

 
The article posted above put their subscriber base at 100k two years ago. Assume 20% increase (probably unlikely) that’s a 120k subscribers x $40-60 depending on promotional prices. That’s around uhhhhhh 6 million dollars. 

They’d already be out of business without that VC money. How do they survive? 

 
I love the site but inquired about an internship there last year for this very reason: to learn about their business model. If they can figure it out there's no doubt in my mind that it's the future of sports journalism.

Unfortunately, they don't hire interns and wouldn't budge. I offered to do it for free just for the experience (my mom still lives in SF) and had a two of their reporters, Marcus Thompson and Danny Leroux,  go to bat for me (in the mildest sort of way), but no dice. I guess they really don't want to give their business plan away for nothing  :lol:

I still have the name and number of their HR Director and might try again when I'm ready to graduate. I find the whole thing fascinating.

There's not a ton of info out there but I found this article (from the end of last year) kind of interesting: https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/31/theathletic-interview/

If you have any other info I'd love to hear it.
How do you know Marcus and Leroux?

 
Would you be willing to fax me Word documents for my home teams?  ForrestFax.
Our fax machine rang for the first time in like 7 years and I was pretty excited to see what was going to spit out of there.  Alas, false alarm.  I'm a bit disturbed by how disappointed I was over this fake fax call.

 
The article posted above put their subscriber base at 100k two years ago. Assume 20% increase (probably unlikely) that’s a 120k subscribers x $40-60 depending on promotional prices. That’s around uhhhhhh 6 million dollars. 

They’d already be out of business without that VC money. How do they survive? 
They will have to turn to advertising at some point.  It's the only way that I see it sustaining itself.  They'll need to do it judiciously and discreetly because most I'm sure a lot of their subscribers are there because it is an elegant, ad-free platform for good journalism.  

 
I love the site but inquired about an internship there last year for this very reason: to learn about their business model. If they can figure it out there's no doubt in my mind that it's the future of sports journalism.

Unfortunately, they don't hire interns and wouldn't budge. I offered to do it for free just for the experience (my mom still lives in SF) and had a two of their reporters, Marcus Thompson and Danny Leroux,  go to bat for me (in the mildest sort of way), but no dice. I guess they really don't want to give their business plan away for nothing  :lol:

I still have the name and number of their HR Director and might try again when I'm ready to graduate. I find the whole thing fascinating.

There's not a ton of info out there but I found this article (from the end of last year) kind of interesting: https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/31/theathletic-interview/

If you have any other info I'd love to hear it.
What are you studying, bananafish?

 
I signed up for a 3-day trial to read a specific article, got distracted before I finished it and failed to cancel in time.

Ended up paying the $47 for a year subscription.

Due to the NBA off-season activity, I have probably read a couple of articles on their app per day since joining.  Well worth the money, IMO and the coverage is fantastic.

 
Well, nothing to do with sports, at least not directly. I'm about to start the 2nd year of a full-time MBA program.

My concentrations are analytics, digital innovation and dispute resolution. I'll be the first to graduate with 3  :D

I was originally thinking about a career as a strategic sourcing manager, but that seems incredibly boring now. I suck at boredom.

I went to Dublin in the spring to study the tech and financial industries there and it totally changed my perspective on things. I'm really interested in technology and the future of work, similar to what Andrew McAfee is doing. I'm actually writing a paper right now that I'll send to him for his feedback. One of my favorite professors, who I'm also a graduate assistant for and went to Dublin with, is a good friend of his so I'm going to try to leverage that connection to see if my ideas are original or worthwhile. The result will probably play a large role in shaping my future.

I'm seriously considering a PhD in change management through the lens of game theory and evolutionary psychology. Ultimately I'd like to use technology to make humans more valuable. The lack of meaningful work is a huge component in human misery and it's only getting worse. If there's a solution out there I'd like to find it.

Sorry for the long answer but I'm right in the middle of this decision so it's useful to blab about it. I'd never seriously considered a doctorate before, but it increasingly feels like I can't not do it.

Anyways, back to The Athletic. They have a really good article right now on competitive balance in the NBA from an economist's point of view and their coverage in general is superb (kind of like Grantland, but better). Anyone who takes sports seriously should consider subscribing...it's so cheap and there's not that many places left for good writing.
To your last paragraph, that’s why I’m so interested in their long term health. It’s the best sports website I’ve ever read. 

 
How is their fantasy football content?
I don't think I've looked at it even once.  I generally just use it for college football, but have enjoyed their baseball coverage on occasion.  
Their fantasy baseball content has been pretty good.  I don't follow football much anymore.

The Athletic's fantasy football writers include Jake Ciely, Derek VanRiper, Michael Salfino, Brandon Funston, David Gonos and Gary Davenport if those names mean anything :shrug:

 

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