NYTimes x The Athletic: The 170-year-old giant is buying the digital start-up

1/6/22 7:00PM

The New York Times has a new year's resolution — to get in shape.

It plans to do so by splashing $550m in cash on acquiring The Athletic, the sports media start-up founded back in 2016.

‍Pay to read about sports?

‍The idea that millions of people would be willing to pay $5 or even $10 a month for coverage of their favorite sports was a fairly wild one back in 2016. After all, there were already plenty of free opinions to read on the internet - particularly about sports. But, The Athletic didn't listen to any of that conventional wisdom, building a 1.2 million strong subscriber base in the last 6 years.

To get there The Athletic took a leaf out of the early Facebook growth model, targeting specific sports city by city. It first launched in Chicago in 2016, covering mostly baseball and ice hockey. Then it added Toronto, covering the 3 major teams there, using funding from early investors, before expanding further afield. Going deep in one local area, before branching out.

‍Subs, subs, subs

‍The Athletic has 550 million obvious reasons to take this deal, and from the NYTimes perspective this deal is a big step towards achieving the company's target of 10 million paid subscribers by 2025 and (obviously) strengthens their sports coverage. Those are both great, but the payoff for the NYTimes is likely to take at least a few years.

Apart from the obvious upfront payment, The Athletic is also still a pretty big money pit — spending roughly $120m on its operations last year, while only bringing in ~$65m in revenue. The NYTimes can't put its checkbook away just yet.

Hyunsoo Rim

appy birthday

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Apple is turning 50 today and it doesn’t look a thing like its younger self

From Macs to iPods, iPhones, and now services, here’s how Apple’s business has looked every 10 years.

The entrance of Allbirds seen from Hayes St. in San Francisco, Calif.

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That’s less than 1% of its peak market cap about four years ago.

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JetBlue is raising its bag fees as fuel costs squeeze airlines

JetBlue will reportedly hike its bag fees, as the cost of jet fuel continues to climb amid the war in Iran. It’s the latest example of carriers finding ways to push rising costs onto travelers.

Last week, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said that if fuel prices remain elevated, fares would need to rise another 20% for his airline to break even this year.

As CNBC reported, when one airline raises fees, others tend to follow.

Earlier this month, JetBlue hiked its first-quarter outlook for operating revenue per seat mile to between 5% and 7%, saying that strong Q1 demand helped “partially offset additional expenses realized from operational disruptions and rising fuel costs.” Now, the carrier appears to be making moves to further boost revenue to offset those costs.

Earlier on Monday, JetBlue rival Alaska Air lowered its Q1 profit forecast. The refining margins for the carrier’s cheapest fuel option — sourced from Singapore and representing about 20% of Alaska’s overall supply — have spiked 400% since February.

JetBlue did not immediately respond to a request for comment.