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The Athletic (1 Viewer)

Eephus said:
I used McAfee's 9x rule in a couple of presentations to management about a decade ago.
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I entered that into Google and read a couple of interviews with McAfee (all interesting, one by my former employer), but can't find the 9x rule. What is it? 

 
KingPrawn said:
How is their fantasy football content?
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Eephus said:
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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I liked Ciely's stuff.  No one else really stood out, but I can't say I was looking religiously.  It didn't seem like a huge amount of novel stuff overall.

 
Capella said:
Hired another huge round of CFB writers today, including Andy Staples. Nutty. 
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You never know if things will work out long term but for as long as it lasts, I'll enjoy them getting great writers from horrible platforms on to their very simple, clean platform. If it dies in a few years, at least it was a good few years.

 
Capella said:
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? 
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I thought assuming only a 20% increase was pretty crazy by you, but didn't really feel like challenging it with no better info.

They announced subscriptions are at 500K.

 
RUSF18 said:
I thought assuming only a 20% increase was pretty crazy by you, but didn't really feel like challenging it with no better info.

They announced subscriptions are at 500K.
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They said the annual average revenue per subscriber was $64, which is roughly three times what I did pay, and would pay in the future, to subscribe.  I’d be curious as to what happens if/when they try to start cutting back on the promo deals. 

 
I subscribed with my daughters and used the education rate, need an .edu address, so we all share the content/app.  I like it a lot and use the app daily.  Worth $30 for sure, and in the Spring I recall a nice regular sale price of around $35-40 was being offered.  

Lots of good no nonsense content, which I appreciate, solid writers for the most part....

 
RUSF18 said:
I thought assuming only a 20% increase was pretty crazy by you, but didn't really feel like challenging it with no better info.

They announced subscriptions are at 500K.
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Adding 400k subscribers in two years seems nuts to me, but I hope it’s true. Like the site. 

 
thecatch said:
They said the annual average revenue per subscriber was $64, which is roughly three times what I did pay, and would pay in the future, to subscribe.  I’d be curious as to what happens if/when they try to start cutting back on the promo deals. 
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I’ve never paid 64 dollars once. I assume a fair amount of their subscribers are on the promos. Is 64 even their base price? Thought it was 59.99. 

 
“The Athletic, based in San Francisco, is an ad-free, online-only network for local sports coverage. Subscriptions cost $10 a month or $60 a year, though many customers have signed up at lower promotional rates. The site’s average annual revenue per subscriber is roughly $64, Mather said.”

:shrug:  

 
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bananafish said:
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.
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That's how I view it.  Pieces aren't generally as long as Grantlands' were, but there are lot more of them focused on the teams I'm most interested in.  So it's become my go-to for when I have a few minutes to sit down and read something, as there's pretty much always an article or two I'm interested in.

 
Capella said:
“The Athletic, based in San Francisco, is an ad-free, online-only network for local sports coverage. Subscriptions cost $10 a month or $60 a year, though many customers have signed up at lower promotional rates. The site’s average annual revenue per subscriber is roughly $64, Mather said.”

:shrug:  
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So around $32mil a year? Not a very big piece of pie for the multitude of writers they have.

 
Capella said:
“The Athletic, based in San Francisco, is an ad-free, online-only network for local sports coverage. Subscriptions cost $10 a month or $60 a year, though many customers have signed up at lower promotional rates. The site’s average annual revenue per subscriber is roughly $64, Mather said.”

:shrug:  
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If a bunch of people paid the monthly rate for a while, that would be $120 per year annualized.

The whole key to these services is to get people to sign up and then have them not change due to inertia.  I agree that the $64 seems a little odd, but I don't think that it's out of the realm of possibility that there is a mass that is still paying the monthly fee.

Let's say they have 100,000 people paying $120 per yer, 100,000 paying $60 per year, and 300,000 paying $35 per year (just making up some numbers).  That would come out to $57 per subscriber, so just tweak those numbers slightly, and you could get to $64.

 
I just signed up for the promo deal for the first year.  Super impressed so far.  Love the app, very slick and clean.  No idea if I'll pull the trigger on $120/year

 
I know they are ad free now, but I would bet that they will have some form of advertising at some point. Right now they are working on building their base to give advertisers a reason to buy in. Likewise, people are really liking their content, and will soon find themselves at a point where the content is more important then the ads. Most likely they will begin to offer tiered subscription options—w/ ads and w/o ads, much like Pandora. And just like satellite radio, where people scoffed at 'paying for radio' now it is a major part of their listening preference and the few times they run ads does not seem like a major disruption. 

 
Capella said:
I’ve never paid 64 dollars once. I assume a fair amount of their subscribers are on the promos. Is 64 even their base price? Thought it was 59.99. 
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I originally was paying (I think) $7.99 a month, just during college season.  But I liked it so much I bought it for the year in Jan.  Guessing the people paying $64 were doing the monthly plan.

 
glvsav37 said:
I know they are ad free now, but I would bet that they will have some form of advertising at some point. Right now they are working on building their base to give advertisers a reason to buy in. Likewise, people are really liking their content, and will soon find themselves at a point where the content is more important then the ads. Most likely they will begin to offer tiered subscription options—w/ ads and w/o ads, much like Pandora. And just like satellite radio, where people scoffed at 'paying for radio' now it is a major part of their listening preference and the few times they run ads does not seem like a major disruption. 
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The very second videos begin to launch upon my arrival via mouse click, I'm gone.  I detest the insta-video play.  Awful.

 
I had decided to cancel my subscription because I just didn't have enough content to read for me, but I really liked the idea of what they are doing. 

But then they hired my favorite Buffalo Bills source and I'm back in on a promo rate. 

I don't know if their model will work long-term, but I love that they are really focused on hiring great writers that know their material and are presenting the info in a nice clean accessible interface.

 
Tiger Fan said:
I just signed up for the promo deal for the first year.  Super impressed so far.  Love the app, very slick and clean.  No idea if I'll pull the trigger on $120/year
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?

I just renewed in April for 59.99 for the whole year.

Not a promo rate. I had the promo rate last year.

 
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FWIW, they have a promo today for 50% off for a year's subscription to celebrate them getting to 500,000 subscribers.

 
General Malaise said:
The very second videos begin to launch upon my arrival via mouse click, I'm gone.  I detest the insta-video play.  Awful.
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I get it, and there is a certain number of people any biz loses when they make a shift. However, if people like the product that much, they will make that decision of 'I don't like X, but I'll deal b/c i like the content/product/service more"

also, i'm not saying they are moving toward this, just adding to the discussion of 'how can they survive'

 
Yeah...I don't want to watch videos. I just want to read reasonable legnth articles from good writers. As long as they keep doing that, they'll have my business. Ads on the page wouldn't bother me.

 
Craig_MiamiFL said:
Is the athletic all articles or do they have videos as well?
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they also have podcasts now that you can only get through the athletic app.

i don't listen that much cuz i don't love having to go to the app for it, but they have several of their writers doing both national and team-specific pods.

 
TLEF316 said:
Yeah...I don't want to watch videos. I just want to read reasonable legnth articles from good writers. As long as they keep doing that, they'll have my business. Ads on the page wouldn't bother me.
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The addition of videos or podcasts is great and if I want to seek them out on The Athletic I will do so.  But here's a real life example:  I read Peter King religiously for NFL content.  I'm on the train today, listening to music and I want to read his latest article.  I punch in his website, click to read and immediately, a video launches up and my music is interrupted by talking heads.  That's absolutely obnoxious and yeah, I'm sure there's a way to disable that feature, but it just shouldn't be that way.  If I want to click on a video, let me do it on my own.  Auto play upon arrival is intrusive.

 
General Malaise said:
The addition of videos or podcasts is great and if I want to seek them out on The Athletic I will do so.  But here's a real life example:  I read Peter King religiously for NFL content.  I'm on the train today, listening to music and I want to read his latest article.  I punch in his website, click to read and immediately, a video launches up and my music is interrupted by talking heads.  That's absolutely obnoxious and yeah, I'm sure there's a way to disable that feature, but it just shouldn't be that way.  If I want to click on a video, let me do it on my own.  Auto play upon arrival is intrusive.
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I used to love his postcards from training camp columns.  Now he just does a 2 minute video instead.  Not nearly as good.

 
General Malaise said:
The addition of videos or podcasts is great and if I want to seek them out on The Athletic I will do so.  But here's a real life example:  I read Peter King religiously for NFL content.  I'm on the train today, listening to music and I want to read his latest article.  I punch in his website, click to read and immediately, a video launches up and my music is interrupted by talking heads.  That's absolutely obnoxious and yeah, I'm sure there's a way to disable that feature, but it just shouldn't be that way.  If I want to click on a video, let me do it on my own.  Auto play upon arrival is intrusive.
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:thumbup:

ESPN.com is the worst.  I click to read an article at work and suddenly Stephen A is screaming at me in my office.  

 
SFBayDuck said:
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. 
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Zach Berman was cut from the Philly Inquire in the last few weeks and now is with them. He's one of the Eagles beat guys. 

 
I caved in and got a sub maybe over a year or so ago I want to say Nov/Dec of 2017. Their coverage is amazing and many of the best writers in sports or who cover the breaking news are now over there. I'm shocked Ian Rapoport and Adam Scheftar haven't been had yet by them. The Athletic had an excellent article last summer on the Eagles offense pertaining to Doug Pederson's offense and how it was adapted from Andy Reid and the offense both run is something Andy was trying to for yrs in Philly but never had the right personal for it. While in KC Brad Childress was scouting the perfect QB for Andy's offense. Brad came away with Current Eagles QB Carson Wentz. When Doug Peterson got to Philly he was going to run a similar offense to Andy and talked Lurie and Roseman into doing all they could to get Carson. They got him and Andy has Pat Mahomes but no doubt if Andy's Chiefs had the resources to do what Philly did Wentz might be a KC QB not Mahomes right now 

 
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Signed up yesterday. I like what I've seen so far.

There's a really interesting read by Dan Pompei on how Lamar Jackson got on the Ravens' radar, how they ended up with him, and how things played out until the start of this year's training camp. Though.....I'm a little skeptical of the article saying Flacco told Harbaugh to leave Jackson in during the playoff loss, given how visibly Joe moped all year whenever Jackson entered the game.

I think I got one week (or maybe it was a month) free then, $50 for the remaining part of the year. After that, it goes to $60/year.

 
oh man, the mike leach interviewing all the  old wazzu qbs.

Jorgensen: There were definitely games going on within the quarterbacks. Leach would cycle through stories and then you’d get guys trying to trigger certain stories. They knew what to say in order to get him to go off on a tangent.

Brink: One of the great stories on that was early on my first year. Luke (Falk) was getting so perfect at his craft, and Luke loved making sure he got out to the practice field early enough to get his full warm-up in. So we would be in there waiting for Leach, and Luke would put on this serious face and be like, “I don’t care what you guys do, no matter what, nobody say ####, nobody ask anything, just let him come in and do his thing because I need to get on the practice field.” Classic Tyler Hilinski, he would wait until there would be maybe five or 10 minutes left in film and he would just be like, “So, Coach, what do you think about …”

Connor Neville, 2017-18: You could see Luke losing his #### in the corner. Just like, “Come on, I just want to get the #### out of here.”

Brink: Luke would be staring daggers across the table, and Tyler would be covering his mouth because he would be cracking up.

Isaac Dotson, 2013: I was playing QB at the time, and we had our first position meeting, and 90 percent of the meeting had nothing to do with football. Maybe five plays into watching film, something happened that sparked a classic Mike Leach tangent. For at least an hour, he sat there rewinding and playing the same play over and over while he talked about everything from growing up in Wyoming to having a pet raccoon, getting paddled by the principal at his junior high, the origins of football and eventually just a full-blown Native American history lesson. The one-hour meeting lasted probably three hours. I remember looking at the veteran QBs in the room with a ‘what is happening right now?’ look on my face, but I could tell by their reactions that this was just a normal thing.
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Apodaca: I remember I threw a pick or something, and I remember asking him what coverage that play is good against. And he goes, “Well, you should have just thrown it to this ####### guy because he’s standing there wide-### open.”

Halliday: I said to Leach, “What do I need to do to get the ball there on time?” He was like, “Well, just throw it to the guy who’s ####### open.” I was like, “Yeah, no, I get that dude, but what do you want me to do to get there quicker?” And he was like, “I don’t give a #### what you do. Just throw it to the guy who’s ####### open.”

Tuel: You expect someone with that reputation, with that many successful quarterbacks under his umbrella, to have some secret sauce or special way of calling plays or reading defenses or just some scheme that’s better than everyone’s…He just found a way to make it as simple as he can.

Brink: Every week we’d look at what the defense was going to do inside the red zone. So every week Coach Leach would lean back and be like, “All right, guys. When we’re down in the red zone, they’re going to do one of two things. They’ll be in man or they’ll be in zone.” Early on, you look around at the other quarterbacks like, “Are you serious? That’s what I came to play college football to learn?”

Anderson: Say you’re warming up and throwing routes to a receiver and you ground one about five yards in front of the guy. He would go, “Hey, you’re throwing that #### off your back foot, you’ve got to get your #### into it. Point your #### at him.”
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So I had resigned myself to letting this subscription lapse, since I’m not paying $60/year for it and none of the deals they offer apply to renewals. But apparently once your subscription fully lapses, those deals are applicable again. My sub expired today and I was able to sign up for another year for $24 (holiday sale) on the same account. 

 
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thecatch said:
So I had resigned myself to letting this subscription lapse, since I’m not paying $60/year for it and none of the deals they offer apply to renewals. But apparently once your subscription fully lapses, those deals are applicable again. My sub expired today and I was able to sign up for another year for $24 (holiday sale) on the same account. 
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Lol yea I got it for like 28 bucks back in September since my CC used to renew was stolen and cancelled. When I went to sign up it offered me the discount.
 

I still don’t see how the business plan works. 

 
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