NYTimes x The Athletic: The biggest news organization in the world is looking to get bigger

The New York Times is reportedly looking to acquire The Athletic, the subscription sports news site. The Athletic has raised more than $139m from investors and has spent aggressively on acquiring sports writing talent since its launch back in 2016, amassing more than 1 million paying subscribers along the way (some of whom are on discounted trial offers).

‍The Athletic has channelled the adage "move fast and break things" in its short life. The company has used data to feedback quickly to writers about what stories are doing well, and have even financially incentivised writers to write articles that bring in as many new Athletic subscribers as possible. The company's move into the UK, where it paid up to get a number of well-regarded football (soccer) writers onto their team, coupled with aggressive marketing and discounts, was a classic example of The Athletic's strategy.

‍Paywalls everywhere

‍So far, that strategy has worked. Getting over 1 million paying subscribers for a news product is pretty rarefied air in the world of English speaking news. Only the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Game Informer, the Financial Times and the New York Times itself have broken through that milestone according to data from FIPP.

As consumers increasingly get comfortable with paying for news and insight, more publishers are putting content behind a paywall. Stuck between a rock (advertising) and a hard place (convincing readers to get their credit card out), many news publishers are increasingly choosing the latter.