Layoffs have hit The Athletic, the sports subscription site acquired by the New York Times last year for $550 million.
The site announced internally Monday that it would be laying off almost 20 writers — approximately 4 percent of the staff — and reassigning 20 others to different beats, according to multiple reports.
“Welp, some personal news: The Athletic has let me go as part of a small wave of layoffs. But hell, it’s been a good run, 41 years-plus of sports journalism, some of it damned good. I’m sad I don’t get to walk away on my own terms, but that doesn’t often happen. So…,” tweeted longtime Colts reporter Bob Kravitz.
Bob Sturm, a popular voice on Cowboys coverage, tweeted, “Just been informed that my writing career has hit unrestricted free agency as a June 12th cap casualty. :/”
“Wanted everyone to know that today is my last day at The Athletic, sports business is being eliminated as part of the layoffs today. For the first time in my professional life I am a free agent, open to opportunities inside journalism and out,” tweeted sports business writer Daniel Kaplan.
Others who announced they lost their jobs in the cuts included sports business writer Bill Shea, Canadiens beat writer Marc Antoine Godin, NHL editor Josh Cooper, senior Canada writer Sean Fitz-Gerald, Nets writer Alex Schiffer, Cavaliers writer Kelsey Russo, 76ers writer Rich Hofmann, Bengals writer Jay Morrison and baseball writers Zach Buchanan, Corey Brock, James Fegan and Rob Biertempfel.
Despite having 3.3 million subscribers, The Athletic lost $7.8 million last quarter, on top of losing $12.6 million in the second quarter last year and $6.8 million in February and March of last year, the Times has reported in public filings.
An internal memo obtained by the Washington Post said that there will be some adjustments away from local beat reporting to focus more on “leaguewide” stories, although there will still be more than 100 team-specific beat writers.
“We’ve reorganized The Athletic’s newsroom to ensure we’re structured to enact our strategy to cover the most compelling stories that matter to fans across all the teams in a given league daily,” a New York Times spokesperson told the Washington Post, adding an expectation that The Athletic’s newsroom will “be larger at the end of this year than it was last year.”