For many people in sports media, The Athletic arrived like a sort of savior, swooping in when the industry was reeling from mass layoffs and hiring up qualified reporters who deserved comfortable jobs. The average reader subscribed to The Athletic because of the deep roster of writers producing strong content, but many writers subscribed for another reason: for the good of sports journalism.
With that in mind, it was a bit jarring to see, in a New York Times feature about The Athletic published Monday, one of the site’s founders conveying a dramatically less “kumbaya” message about the future of sports media.
By the time you finish reading this article, the upstart sports news outlet called The Athletic probably will have hired another well known sportswriter from your local newspaper. In a couple of years, once The Athletic has completed its breakneck expansion, perhaps that newspaper’s sports section will no longer exist.
“We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing,” Alex Mather, a co-founder of The Athletic, said in an interview in San Francisco. “We will suck them dry of their best talent at every moment. We will make business extremely difficult for them.”
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“In a city like Chicago, there are 100,000 die-hard fans,” Mather said. “That is a very lucrative subscription business. There are over 100,000 die-hard fans of Chicago teams outside of Chicago,” he added, and he says they aren’t served well. “Bleacher Report is empty calories. SB Nation is empty calories. The newspapers are doing nothing.”
Maybe the most aggrieved party in The Athletic’s rise has been Dejan Kovacevic, founder of DKPittsburghSports, who was openly upset when The Athletic moved into his city. According to the Times, Kovacevic claims The Athletic’s founders initially promised they would stay out of the Pittsburgh market.
In an email, Kovacevic said Mather and Hansmann approached him to be an adviser but they couldn’t agree on compensation. The Athletic, he said, promised not to start a Pittsburgh site. Instead, The Athletic Pittsburgh hired a second writer away from DK Pittsburgh Sports recently. Kovacevic also said that Mather and Hansmann were unhappy when he sold a copy of his publishing platform to Greg Bedard, who launched a subscription sports site in Boston this summer, because they said it raised their cost of doing business.
Mather said that when The Athletic’s executives spoke with Kovacevic they had no intention of expanding into Pittsburgh in the near term, and that he and Hansmann “only make ‘promises’ to our customers, employees, investors and partners.”
“We are doing great work,” Mather said. “We treat our writers really well, we pay them well, and we are doing amazing journalism. If someone has a problem with that, that’s on them.”
But as of Monday, The Athletic might have a lot more enemies in sports media. Let’s just say Mather’s highly combative tone is not sitting well with reporters, at local media outlets and elsewhere.
Hmmm. I subscribed to a humble startup that I was rooting for. Perhaps, before being poached, I'll cancel my subscription. https://t.co/PuFEDsg27Y
— Barry Svrluga (@barrysvrluga) October 23, 2017
lol what is this quote https://t.co/iP2KCpq1DP
— Marc Normandin (@Marc_Normandin) October 23, 2017
The internet loves The Athletic, a promising alternative for sports journalism! *a few months later* The Athletic loves vampire capitalism
— Marc Normandin (@Marc_Normandin) October 23, 2017
The tech bros running the Athletic should just shut up, huh?
— Barry Petchesky (@barry) October 23, 2017
why? you think rooting for hundreds of people to lose their livelihoods is a bad look? https://t.co/tKhTialOwm
— keithlaw (@keithlaw) October 23, 2017
YIKES. great that The Athletic is staffing up, but why this attitude? https://t.co/NoR54OnGb8 pic.twitter.com/bh2LM6g9B0
— Daniel Roberts (@readDanwrite) October 23, 2017
Every writer at The Athletic today: JUST SHUT THE F UP AND LET US WRITE!!
— Dan Levy (@DanLevyThinks) October 23, 2017
I’m a subscriber to The Athletic and think their Philly coverage has been fantastic. But man oh man, not a great look here https://t.co/WIjfdiYk6a
— Daniel Victor (@bydanielvictor) October 23, 2017
Seriously. This is awful, @alex3780. https://t.co/vHLI2wASoG
— Michael Rosenberg (@Rosenberg_Mike) October 23, 2017
This is the part you're not supposed to say out loud. https://t.co/NdZa94YO7X
— Kate Feldman (@kateefeldman) October 23, 2017
Damn, The Athletic pivoted to evil
— max (@MaxOnTwitter) October 23, 2017
I like The Athletic. I want them to thrive. Then their founders look like the same tech bros thinking they are changing the world.
— Kevin McGuire (@KevinOnCFB) October 23, 2017
Silicon Valley founder nerds talk like Marvel villains. "Hear now: we offer no quarter. Expect none." Okay man, good luck with your website.
— David Roth (@david_j_roth) October 23, 2017
Even some Athletic contributors aren’t thrilled with Mather’s attitude.
I've loved writing for The Athletic and think we need a new model too. But this quote, and others in here, are difficult to handle. https://t.co/eJiCE0l0ej
— Rian Watt (@rianwatt) October 23, 2017
Every site–every business–has a set of social responsibilities beyond pure business interests. I hope The Athletic takes that seriously.
— Rian Watt (@rianwatt) October 23, 2017
At least one Athletic competitor is making a play at the site’s audience.
Love sports but that article about The Athletic freaks you out? Support a local like: @BostonSportsBSJ @BGlobeSports @bostonherald
— Ryan Bernardoni (@dangercart) October 23, 2017
And lest you think it’s only journalists who are uneasy about the quotes…
why is the athletic making me regret giving them my money
— matt (@ReasonablySober) October 23, 2017
hey Alex, was about to subscribe 2 the Athletic. like the writers. now I won't because you're an awful human + total douche. "suck them dry"
— Matt Hagan (@Haganational) October 23, 2017
I’ve thought about getting an Athletic subscription to support some writers I like but these pompous ass hats just made that far less likely https://t.co/e38PaariEy
— Case (@NBALeftist) October 23, 2017
Cool what a great reason to not subscribe to the Athletic and take my WaPo subscription to my grave https://t.co/FVdp0ISCAf
— Becky (@beckalin) October 23, 2017
Apparently, "The Athletic" co-founder wants sports journalism to go full-blown Donner Party down the road. https://t.co/RugpBK5Gf3
— Ryan Easterling (@RyanEasterling) October 23, 2017
Well…now I am glad I am not subscribed to The Athletic.
— Farnk L. (@Farnk101) October 23, 2017
I've been a subscriber to the Athletic almost since the day they announced their TO site… I didn't realize Lex Luther was in charge though
— Tomas B. (@thooommm) October 23, 2017
Mather has begun responding on Twitter to the widespread criticism of his comments, simultaneously taking back and standing by the sentiments he offered, while suggesting (humorously) he might not have been sober for the interview. [NOTE: Several readers have suggested Mather’s comment about “cold brews” was a reference to coffee, not alcohol, which would probably make more sense.]
Awful is forcing writers to file stories b4 games are over. Awful is laying off entire teams of editors. Awful is asking for 4 stories / day
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
the quotes do come off as arrogant. they are about survival – we are going to survive and survival is hard. newspapers are not.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
i root for them! i voraciously consume local crime and politics news. they are differentiated there. we only compete with them on sports.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
i hope they figure out how to survive, i really do. we plan on making sports tough on them by…paying writers well, doing good work.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
Further context on some less than humble quotes in the NYT: we pay writers well, we treat them well, we ask them to change how they write.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
this makes life very difficult for our local competitors.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
surviving in media is very difficult with the amount of aggregation, the algorithms of FB, etc.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
we‘re going to stay very small and let others spend on video, machine learning, sponsored content. we’re going to focus on doing good work.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
and we are rooting for local papers to get the message. their actions generally defy rationality and lead me to believe they wont.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
and I stand by the brashness of my comments. we have to fight to survive and we will.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
and definitely the last time I have 3 cold brews before a NYT interview.
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017
One of The Athletic’s highest profile writers rushed to Mather’s defense.
You can choose to subscribe or not – free country! But I would encourage you to try us. We’re getting bigger and better all the time.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 23, 2017
And if you’re offended by co-founder’s comment on newspapers, I would say it is far less offensive than way many papers treat their writers.
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 23, 2017
Check timeline of @alex3780 for additional context on what he acknowledges are “less than humble” quotes in NYT…
— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) October 23, 2017
The Athletic has been thriving on a combination of solid content and goodwill. As of Monday, the goodwill might have run out.
UPDATE: Mather tweeted a statement explaining that, contrary to what he told the Times, he is “not rooting for newspapers to fail, but rather hoping to build a product that will give readers more choices, whether that’s in their local market or nationally.”
I'm truly sorry for the tone of my comments in the New York Times today. I learned a lesson in humility that will help me grow as a leader. pic.twitter.com/YwyJnIxiPF
— Alex Mather (@alex3780) October 23, 2017