One of the nation’s largest newspapers is set to change the way it covers sports and could set a blueprint going forward in order to cut costs. The Athletic, which recently eliminated 20 positions within the company, recently refined its sports coverage to focus on storytelling and quality over quantity. On Sunday, 28 members of The New York Times sports department sent a letter to executive editor Joseph Kahn and The New York Times Company chairman A.G. Sulzberger wherein they asked if their jobs were in jeopardy.
The New York Times Company purchased The Athletic for $550 million in the first fiscal quarter of 2022 in an all-cash deal. Initially, terms of the deal outlined the separate operation of the digital sports publication from the existing sports section at The New York Times newspaper. As the newspaper business continues to change with emphasis placed upon digital means of dissemination, the venerable national outlet is now terminating the existence of its own sports department entirely.
The current sports staff, which includes nearly 35 journalists and editors, will not be losing their jobs; instead, they will be transitioned to work in other areas at the granular publication. Furthermore, other reporting niches will create beats focused on topics within the larger scope of sports, such as the business genre tackling money and power in sports. There are currently no layoffs planned at the company; rather, this is a restructuring of ongoing roles.
“We intend to utilize The Athletic — which has among the largest sports newsrooms in the world — to provide Times readers with a greater abundance of sports coverage than ever before,” the company stated. “Under our plan, the digital homepage, newsletters, social feeds, the sports landing page and the print section will draw from even more of the approximately 150 stories The Athletic produces each day chronicling leagues, teams and players across the United States and around the globe.”
Readers of the newspaper will now receive coverage from The Athletic staff, who also receive complementary online access to the platform as part of their subscription. The vertical has yet to finish a quarter with an operating profit and lost $7.8 million in the first quarter of the year. In fact, The Athletic laid off 4% of its newsroom last month in a drastic shift in its coverage plans, favoring quality over quantity. Nonetheless, subscriptions have risen to over three million users, up by nearly two million since the acquisition amid sustained growth.
In an email to staff on Monday titled “Our Plans for Sports Journalism,” Sulzberger and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company, Meredith Kopit Levien, conveyed their desire to become “a global leader” in the field. Kahn and executives at the company met with the sports department in an exchange with belligerent undertones. Members of the sports vertical wanted to know why leadership had waited to impart its decision, a query Kahn felt was “unfair” since the company reassigned staff members instead of firing them outright.
The eradication of its own sports desk in favor of coverage from writers in a non-unionized newsroom with an emphasis on digital platforms is indicative of the dynamism in today’s media market. Moreover, it has the potential to redefine sports journalism and endanger the posterity of the industry. The New York Times Guild intends to fight the resolution with, in its own words, “every tool we have.”
“Times leadership is attempting to outsource union jobs on our sports desk to a non-union Times subsidiary under the preposterous argument that The Times can ‘subcontract’ its sports coverage to itself,” The New York Times Guild said in a statement. “Management gave the Guild virtually no notice of this change. Many members learned of the company’s decision in a Times news alert that popped up on our phones minutes into a meeting called to inform sports staff of our department’s dissolution.”
The move to eradicate the newspaper’s sports department comes just one day after the Los Angeles Times announced a reimagined sports section to its newspaper, doubling down on its commitment to impactful sports journalism. Readers will be immersed in a similar feel to a magazine, better suited to showcase sportswriting and sports photography.
As a result, box scores, standings and traditional game stories are going by the wayside for more in-depth reporting, opinion columns and profiles. The publication will offer traditional features of sports reporting on its digital platforms instead, contrasting with the approach The New York Times has decided to take.
“Our essential subscription strategy is working, even at a moment of considerable pressure on our industry,” The New York Times Company stated. “By finding new ways to serve readers and their passions, we’ve been able to continue to grow as a company and to add nearly 1,000 journalism jobs in recent years, half of which have been in the Times newsroom and half in The Athletic and Wirecutter newsrooms.”
