5 ms·

New York Times to Buy The Athletic for $550M

17 points by danso 5y ago

boeingUH60 5y ago
The Athletic is a pretty good sports site, but its business was never built on making profits, rather bleeding cash to show growth to VCs, raise money, and then dump the thing on a bigger media co. like NYT. Not begrudging them for their success, but it's funny how this is a valid business model in America and the general western startup world. Bleed cash, never show profits, then cash out to a bigger player, whom may be a greater fool or wise man depending on how they handle the acquisition. We've seen it many times, e.g. Postmates (sold to Uber for $2.7B), Jet.com (sold to Walmart for $3.3B), MuleSoft (sold to Salesforce for $6.5B), e.t.c. Here's me yelling in my meh, third-world country and gushing on how some are lucky to be born in very vibrant, strong economies where things like these happen regularly.
- whb07 5y ago
  One can migrate to any of the G20 countries at least in a very straight forward manner. Next best option seems using the internet to target customers from that area and or getting a remote job. Imagine being born in a “meh” 3rd world country 50 years ago with no internet to make all this possible.
  - boeingUH60 5y ago
    > Next best option seems using the internet to target customers from that area and or getting a remote job. I actually took the remote job path. I work as a freelance tech journalist and content writer for some foreign publications and companies and earn pretty good money, especially for a fresh college graduate. As to migration, one doesn’t just pack their bags and move to another country, it ain’t easy. My country has many problems, but I dread what it’ll feel like leaving all my family and friends behind along with a system that, though bad, I’m familiar with, and move to a place where I know no one and have no fallback support. Nonetheless, I do plan to leave my country for some point in my life, but I’ll definitely go back. Also, I’m currently trying the really difficult route of building a successful online business that targets foreign customers but most of my efforts are proving futile at this point (I won’t give up, however).
    - 999900000999 5y ago
      Not to mention learning another language, dealing with visas, and adapting to a new culture are all very difficult things. I'm taking Chinese right now and while I might visit a Chinese speaking country for a good while, I don't know if I could actually function and earn an income. At a restaurant I frequent Door Dashers often just show their phone when they pick up orders. The manager doesn't like that , but many of the Dashers struggle with spoken English. The manager expects them to clearly state the name on the order. I joke with the manager， if it was flipped around. And he had to pick up an order for 吸尘. Even if you can read it, it's very hard to pronounce that name correctly. And this is an extremely simple example, imagine renting an apartment. Or getting a plumber.
- vagrantJin 5y ago
  > some are lucky to be born in very vibrant, strong economies where things like these happen regularly. You aren't alone. The envy is real. And yet, some part of me strongly feels that the whole thing is flimsy - the result of economic engineering magical powers rather than hard won progress. It feels like a prosperity gospel megachurch and the altar is the Fed. I can't really explain it well enough in my limited vocabulary.
  - MarcelOlsz 5y ago
    None of this has ever made me jealous or bothered me because I don't respect it. If I'm at a get together or a dinner party and someone tells me they're into crypto, or running startups etc, I don't care, I feel bad for them. "Making money" is not a passion. I have respect for things that existed 2000 years ago: namely craftsmanship whether its leather work or art or writing or music etc. Someone having a fat bank account doesn't bother me at all.
    - ZhangSWEFAANG 5y ago
      but for most people, they are respected, so for "the respected", it is a justified pursuit.
- rPlayer6554 5y ago
  I think this model is less crazy than it seems. Businesses need to do product development and loose tons of money on ideas that don't work all the time. What's happening is big corps realize that many ideas can only really start outside of their corporate mindset, but can only survive with it. So startups do the initial development on a product until it's something people want, then the corporation tries to turn it into a profitable business. Admittedly I have no idea if it's a maintainable model....these companies loose a heck of a lot of money.
- basch 5y ago
  One way the "dump" on a bigger company can work, is when that company sells some kind of bundle. Microsoft can buy a product, throw it into Office 365, and suddenly there is a huge new customer base. Now the product becomes entrenched into workflows, and is one more reason to buy the kitchen sink vs a piecemeal best in breed. People might not buy Office 365 FOR that additional component alone, but they now wont go shopping elsewhere. MS wont raise the price of O365 because of the additional component. As long as you are paying max rate, they know you (or every licensed person) cant actually consume everything in the license. The charge is for the possibility of opening a program, not actual usage. The same probably works for the NYT. They can expand their bundle with more quality offerings, without raising the price, and without expecting people to subscribe ONLY for The Athletic. It does make their bundle more attractive vs competitors.
dmitrygr 5y ago
I read as “the Atlantic” and got scared a bit. They are one of the last few places doing real investigative journalism. Luckily I misread
- RONROC 5y ago
  Hold on there partner. In terms of journalistic integrity The Atlantic is just as much of a PR machine (rather than newsroom) similar to the Times. I don’t know how long you’ve been an Atlantic reader but I can’t, for the life of me, remember them publishing anything of note within the past couple of years. In comparison to the New Yorker, Economist, Harpers, and Laphams, The Atlantic has been (in my opinion*) at the bottom of the totem pole for a while now. Apart from that, here’s some food for thought: the following long read [1] posits in so many words that people concerned with the sex trafficking of minors are now paranoid and brushing up against conspiracy theorists, and that the “epidemic” here is that these people are confused and just not thinking straight. Furthermore, here’s [2] a picture of Laurene Powell Jobs in very casual attire with none other than Ghislaine Maxwell, the cheerleader for the closest thing to an ape-shit global underage sex trafficking conspiracy we, as a society, have ever seen. Please do not mistake this as me conflating one thing for another. Whatever you think of this, it’s beyond a lapse of professional journalistic responsibility at best and outright psychotic at worst. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/children-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-epidemic/620845/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/childre... [2] https://i.redd.it/td3bys2f9y481.jpg https://i.redd.it/td3bys2f9y481.jpg
- rchaud 5y ago
  Wait, they are? I generally like The Atlantic's articles, but aren't the vast majority of them narrative essays and editorials? Did they break a major news story recently?
  - nojito 5y ago
    Some investigative pieces. For example, this piece on a fly by night company that seemingly disappeared. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/01/afghanistan-civilian-private-security/581263/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/01/af... Or the piece about Amazon workers and quotas. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazon-warehouse-reports-show-worker-injuries/602530/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazo...
andrewclunn 5y ago
Here's the article from The Information (referenced in the linked piece). Important as without corroboration from two different sources, this woudl be more rumor than news: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nyt-to-buy-the-athletic-for-550-million https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nyt-to-buy-the-athle...
aml183 5y ago
I run a media company and I’m shocked at the purchase price! The Athletic and NYT make a lot of sense. NYT increased its total subscriber #’s and can make more money through bundling. I assume a lot of NYT audience might be interested in purchasing the Athletic and Vice versa. But Axel Springer paid 5x revenue for Politico which was a better business with a “tech” product that had significant recurring revenue. Athletic sold for at least 7x revenue. VCs got lucky here, but I can see the NYT doing very well with this deal!
- boeingUH60 5y ago
  Ha! I think I was one of the first 1,000 subscribers to Payload. Your newsletter is one of my mandatory daily reads, along with Axios Pro Rata, Morning Brew, The Hustle, and Front Office Sports. The newsletter space has been surreal to watch in recent years. People making bank over what seems so simple when looking from the outside, until you understand that readers like me really value getting those news summaries everyday.
  - aml183 5y ago
    Thanks, that’s awesome! That means the world to us. If you ever want to chat, just DM me on Twitter @amlewis4.

17 points by danso 5y ago

The Athletic is a pretty good sports site, but its business was never built on making profits, rather bleeding cash to show growth to VCs, raise money, and then dump the thing on a bigger media co. like NYT. Not begrudging them for their success, but it's funny how this is a valid business model in America and the general western startup world. Bleed cash, never show profits, then cash out to a bigger player, whom may be a greater fool or wise man depending on how they handle the acquisition. We've seen it many times, e.g. Postmates (sold to Uber for $2.7B), Jet.com (sold to Walmart for $3.3B), MuleSoft (sold to Salesforce for $6.5B), e.t.c. Here's me yelling in my meh, third-world country and gushing on how some are lucky to be born in very vibrant, strong economies where things like these happen regularly.

whb07 5y ago
One can migrate to any of the G20 countries at least in a very straight forward manner. Next best option seems using the internet to target customers from that area and or getting a remote job. Imagine being born in a “meh” 3rd world country 50 years ago with no internet to make all this possible.
- boeingUH60 5y ago
  > Next best option seems using the internet to target customers from that area and or getting a remote job. I actually took the remote job path. I work as a freelance tech journalist and content writer for some foreign publications and companies and earn pretty good money, especially for a fresh college graduate. As to migration, one doesn’t just pack their bags and move to another country, it ain’t easy. My country has many problems, but I dread what it’ll feel like leaving all my family and friends behind along with a system that, though bad, I’m familiar with, and move to a place where I know no one and have no fallback support. Nonetheless, I do plan to leave my country for some point in my life, but I’ll definitely go back. Also, I’m currently trying the really difficult route of building a successful online business that targets foreign customers but most of my efforts are proving futile at this point (I won’t give up, however).
  - 999900000999 5y ago
    Not to mention learning another language, dealing with visas, and adapting to a new culture are all very difficult things. I'm taking Chinese right now and while I might visit a Chinese speaking country for a good while, I don't know if I could actually function and earn an income. At a restaurant I frequent Door Dashers often just show their phone when they pick up orders. The manager doesn't like that , but many of the Dashers struggle with spoken English. The manager expects them to clearly state the name on the order. I joke with the manager， if it was flipped around. And he had to pick up an order for 吸尘. Even if you can read it, it's very hard to pronounce that name correctly. And this is an extremely simple example, imagine renting an apartment. Or getting a plumber.
vagrantJin 5y ago
> some are lucky to be born in very vibrant, strong economies where things like these happen regularly. You aren't alone. The envy is real. And yet, some part of me strongly feels that the whole thing is flimsy - the result of economic engineering magical powers rather than hard won progress. It feels like a prosperity gospel megachurch and the altar is the Fed. I can't really explain it well enough in my limited vocabulary.
- MarcelOlsz 5y ago
  None of this has ever made me jealous or bothered me because I don't respect it. If I'm at a get together or a dinner party and someone tells me they're into crypto, or running startups etc, I don't care, I feel bad for them. "Making money" is not a passion. I have respect for things that existed 2000 years ago: namely craftsmanship whether its leather work or art or writing or music etc. Someone having a fat bank account doesn't bother me at all.
  - ZhangSWEFAANG 5y ago
    but for most people, they are respected, so for "the respected", it is a justified pursuit.
rPlayer6554 5y ago
I think this model is less crazy than it seems. Businesses need to do product development and loose tons of money on ideas that don't work all the time. What's happening is big corps realize that many ideas can only really start outside of their corporate mindset, but can only survive with it. So startups do the initial development on a product until it's something people want, then the corporation tries to turn it into a profitable business. Admittedly I have no idea if it's a maintainable model....these companies loose a heck of a lot of money.
basch 5y ago
One way the "dump" on a bigger company can work, is when that company sells some kind of bundle. Microsoft can buy a product, throw it into Office 365, and suddenly there is a huge new customer base. Now the product becomes entrenched into workflows, and is one more reason to buy the kitchen sink vs a piecemeal best in breed. People might not buy Office 365 FOR that additional component alone, but they now wont go shopping elsewhere. MS wont raise the price of O365 because of the additional component. As long as you are paying max rate, they know you (or every licensed person) cant actually consume everything in the license. The charge is for the possibility of opening a program, not actual usage. The same probably works for the NYT. They can expand their bundle with more quality offerings, without raising the price, and without expecting people to subscribe ONLY for The Athletic. It does make their bundle more attractive vs competitors.

dmitrygr 5y ago

I read as “the Atlantic” and got scared a bit. They are one of the last few places doing real investigative journalism. Luckily I misread

RONROC 5y ago
Hold on there partner. In terms of journalistic integrity The Atlantic is just as much of a PR machine (rather than newsroom) similar to the Times. I don’t know how long you’ve been an Atlantic reader but I can’t, for the life of me, remember them publishing anything of note within the past couple of years. In comparison to the New Yorker, Economist, Harpers, and Laphams, The Atlantic has been (in my opinion*) at the bottom of the totem pole for a while now. Apart from that, here’s some food for thought: the following long read [1] posits in so many words that people concerned with the sex trafficking of minors are now paranoid and brushing up against conspiracy theorists, and that the “epidemic” here is that these people are confused and just not thinking straight. Furthermore, here’s [2] a picture of Laurene Powell Jobs in very casual attire with none other than Ghislaine Maxwell, the cheerleader for the closest thing to an ape-shit global underage sex trafficking conspiracy we, as a society, have ever seen. Please do not mistake this as me conflating one thing for another. Whatever you think of this, it’s beyond a lapse of professional journalistic responsibility at best and outright psychotic at worst. [1] https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/children-sex-trafficking-conspiracy-epidemic/620845/ https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/01/childre... [2] https://i.redd.it/td3bys2f9y481.jpg https://i.redd.it/td3bys2f9y481.jpg
rchaud 5y ago
Wait, they are? I generally like The Atlantic's articles, but aren't the vast majority of them narrative essays and editorials? Did they break a major news story recently?
- nojito 5y ago
  Some investigative pieces. For example, this piece on a fly by night company that seemingly disappeared. https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/01/afghanistan-civilian-private-security/581263/ https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2019/01/af... Or the piece about Amazon workers and quotas. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazon-warehouse-reports-show-worker-injuries/602530/ https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/amazo...

andrewclunn 5y ago

Here's the article from The Information (referenced in the linked piece). Important as without corroboration from two different sources, this woudl be more rumor than news: https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nyt-to-buy-the-athletic-for-550-million https://www.theinformation.com/articles/nyt-to-buy-the-athle...

aml183 5y ago

I run a media company and I’m shocked at the purchase price! The Athletic and NYT make a lot of sense. NYT increased its total subscriber #’s and can make more money through bundling. I assume a lot of NYT audience might be interested in purchasing the Athletic and Vice versa. But Axel Springer paid 5x revenue for Politico which was a better business with a “tech” product that had significant recurring revenue. Athletic sold for at least 7x revenue. VCs got lucky here, but I can see the NYT doing very well with this deal!

boeingUH60 5y ago
Ha! I think I was one of the first 1,000 subscribers to Payload. Your newsletter is one of my mandatory daily reads, along with Axios Pro Rata, Morning Brew, The Hustle, and Front Office Sports. The newsletter space has been surreal to watch in recent years. People making bank over what seems so simple when looking from the outside, until you understand that readers like me really value getting those news summaries everyday.
- aml183 5y ago
  Thanks, that’s awesome! That means the world to us. If you ever want to chat, just DM me on Twitter @amlewis4.