3 ms·

I’m not sure how what is presented is much different (or better?) than local sports coverage already present in these cities? I can go on Cleveland.com (the pl

by PKop 9y ago

I’m not sure how what is presented is much different (or better?) than local sports coverage already present in these cities? I can go on Cleveland.com (the plain dealer website) and find quality coverage of Cleveland sports for free.

adventured 9y ago
Their bet is that they can out-compete existing local sports coverage by focusing narrowly just on sports. Cleveland.com is a comprehensive news source. Local news is continuing to die as a business, it's only going to get worse for them. The Athletic also doesn't use advertising, so it starts off by default with a significant product-experience advantage. Narrow almost always wins in a situation like this. Traditional local news has everything to lose, while they simultaneously flail about in a death-spasm as their business model continues to melt out from under them. The Athletic will be able to leverage one profitable market to kill the local sports coverage in another market they want to enter. Scale it up to a couple dozen markets, and they'll have the ability to easily enter any new market they choose and take down the local competition by a dozen different means (eg poaching writing talent en masse). If I were them, as I build up profitable locations, I'd then intentionally run at a loss in new markets and hammer the local competitors (who mostly don't have other markets to lean on). It's an extraordinarily easy business line to follow on how to vanquish existing local sports coverage.
- PKop 9y ago
  My assumption was that the local established writers / reporters have an inside track on information and relationships with teams, and for example will attend (almost?) every game, pre-season, press conferences, have a presence in the locker rooms etc etc. But your point makes sense that as a business, the local media has the disadvantage of using resources in other areas of "news", vs. focusing exclusively on sports. So, "targeting" these cities would have to include recruiting these people already working there. Otherwise, initially I would always be able to get up to date and "inside" information from the established sources. I'm just thinking out loud, but essentially, this all depends on what the meaning of "focusing on" means, as the local sports media individuals are certainly focused on their local teams.

by PKop 9y ago

adventured 9y ago

Their bet is that they can out-compete existing local sports coverage by focusing narrowly just on sports. Cleveland.com is a comprehensive news source. Local news is continuing to die as a business, it's only going to get worse for them. The Athletic also doesn't use advertising, so it starts off by default with a significant product-experience advantage. Narrow almost always wins in a situation like this. Traditional local news has everything to lose, while they simultaneously flail about in a death-spasm as their business model continues to melt out from under them. The Athletic will be able to leverage one profitable market to kill the local sports coverage in another market they want to enter. Scale it up to a couple dozen markets, and they'll have the ability to easily enter any new market they choose and take down the local competition by a dozen different means (eg poaching writing talent en masse). If I were them, as I build up profitable locations, I'd then intentionally run at a loss in new markets and hammer the local competitors (who mostly don't have other markets to lean on). It's an extraordinarily easy business line to follow on how to vanquish existing local sports coverage.

PKop 9y ago
My assumption was that the local established writers / reporters have an inside track on information and relationships with teams, and for example will attend (almost?) every game, pre-season, press conferences, have a presence in the locker rooms etc etc. But your point makes sense that as a business, the local media has the disadvantage of using resources in other areas of "news", vs. focusing exclusively on sports. So, "targeting" these cities would have to include recruiting these people already working there. Otherwise, initially I would always be able to get up to date and "inside" information from the established sources. I'm just thinking out loud, but essentially, this all depends on what the meaning of "focusing on" means, as the local sports media individuals are certainly focused on their local teams.