In 2017, The New York Times published a feature on The Athletic, a newish sports news organization hellbent on becoming “the local sports page for every city in the country.” During the interview, co-founder Alex Mather acknowledged a strategy of poaching sports writers from local papers. He was … less than apologetic.
“We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing,” Mather said. “We will suck them dry of their best talent at every moment. We will make business extremely difficult for them.”
Four years later, is the business of local news extremely difficult? Yes. Will The Athletic be the last ones standing? Probably not, according to a report in Axios.