The newspaper The New York Times announced on Monday that it will close its Sports section and will rely on the website The Athletic to cover the sports news that appear in its print and digital editions.
The New York Times acquired The Athletic, a website specialized in sports news, for 550 million dollars in January 2022.
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What will happen to New York Times employees?
The sports section of the newspaper employs more than 35 journalists and editors. The newspaper stated that it does not expect to make any layoffs when the closure is completed in the fall and that the sports section staff will be reassigned to other departments.
At the time of its acquisition, The Athletic had 1.2 million subscribers and The New York Times stated that its goal was to reach 10 million subscribers by 2025. Currently, the website has over 3 million subscribers.
In the first quarter of 2023, The Athletic recorded losses of 7.8 million dollars.
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What is The Athletic?
The website, which operates independently from the newspaper, has 400 journalists covering over 200 professional teams and producing about 150 articles per day.
In a statement distributed to its employees, the New York newspaper stated that although it wants to focus more on news where sports intersect with "money, power, culture, politics, and society", it wants to "reduce coverage of matches, players, teams, and leagues".
After the disappearance of the sports section, The New York Times will assign a group of journalists from the Economy section to cover the economic aspects of sports.
Without its own sports information, The Athletic's articles will start appearing in the newspaper, which is considered one of the most influential in the United States.