The Athletic looks to women’s sport, advertising for profitability

Premium sport publication The Athletic is aiming for profitability by the end of 2024, with one of the ingredients of its future financial security to bet big on the popularity of women’s sports. 

Why it matters

Now owned by The New York Times, The Athletic exploded onto the scene in a flurry of big hires as it poached newspapers’ star journalists. WARC compared it to a PSG of football writers when it launched in the UK back in 2019.

But the losses of its early growth years have now given way to a drive for profitability, with the company announcing layoffs earlier this month. Despite this, it intends to keep growing but through new avenues, chief commercial officer Sebastian Tomich told an audience on the Cannes Lions fringe.

What’s planned 

• With profitability in mind, women’s sport is set to be a vital pillar not only of the publication’s coverage but of its emerging advertising strategy.
• There are “more brands interested in women’s sport than products to sell,” Tomich claimed. (The FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023, starting next month, will be an acid test of whether brands “put their money where their mouths are”.)
• A recent partnership with Google is an example of the publication’s new focus and strategy, a move that allowed it to double its coverage of women’s sport.
• Sports with growing fanbases, like Formula 1 or tennis, are increasing areas of focus for the publication, as well as international expansion to new territories, including most recently Spain.

In context

For The New York Times, The Athletic continues to represent a vital foothold in the “world of passions” outside its news coverage, offering a “unifying language” in otherwise divided times.

The Athletic also draws in a relatively affluent audience willing to pay for individual coverage of their favourite team. That’s significant in an age of sports rights fragmentation that leaves fans paying for multiple subscriptions to watch sport. However, the challenge of taking a share from rights holders is a tough ask.

SPT