Media Thread

[Kin]

Do I agree with the programming choice? No, but as a businesses, I certainly understand why they might do it.

Without wanting to overstate the importance of how I feel about giving him this show(which is a profound meh) I think it's fair to say that, much like with what's going on right now at ESPN, there is a wide range of opinions of to what extent places like TSN have journalistic responsibility vs. should be thought of strictly as businesses.

 

[Arn]

An interesting story about the Leafs Euro scout and also an insight into how the Leafs have done the deals with Zaitsev, Borgman, Rosen etc

http://www.torontosun.com/2017/10/17/the-paliafito-file-how-little-known-scout-has-become-big-player-with-maple-leafs

 

[Kin]

Interesting NYT article about The Athletic and its business model:

Why The Athletic Wants to Pillage Newspapers

 

[CarltonTheBear]

Interesting NYT article about The Athletic and its business model:

Why The Athletic Wants to Pillage Newspapers

?We will wait every local paper out and let them continuously bleed until we are the last ones standing,? Alex Mather, a co-founder of The Athletic, said in an interview in San Francisco. ?We will suck them dry of their best talent at every moment. We will make business extremely difficult for them.?

 

[herman]

Hyper aggro quote.

 

[Kin]

Yeah, that bit seems to be getting a lot of play. The idea that they're really hoping to kill off local sports sections and profit accordingly you'd hope is just typical start-up bluster as opposed to anything they're really depending on.

 

[herman]

Yeah, that bit seems to be getting a lot of play. The idea that they're really hoping to kill off local sports sections and profit accordingly you'd hope is just typical start-up bluster as opposed to anything they're really depending on.

Definitely Silicon Valley startup bluster, but the quote is really tempered by the assessment of the field that follows that lead in.

 

[Peter D.]

Can The Athletic get too big for its own good? 

 

[herman]

Come follow-up on that quote, and this is where I knew they were coming from, but the framing of it made it sound like The Athletic is out to kill newspapers in general. It's more like... Noah's Ark for sports sections.

https://twitter.com/dcsportsbog/status/922474311054712833

 

[Kin]

Definitely Silicon Valley startup bluster, but the quote is really tempered by the assessment of the field that follows that lead in.

I thought the notion that the company saw the recent spate of high profile layoffs as a unique business opportunity to be an interesting one as there's probably something to the idea that there was a lot of legitimate talent being jettisoned there.

I think, though, that the divide between the founders and the VC quoted on the future of integrating advertising into the site is probably going to be something to keep an eye on.

 

[Kin]

Come follow-up on that quote, and this is where I knew they were coming from, but the framing of it made it sound like The Athletic is out to kill newspapers in general. It's more like... Noah's Ark for sports sections.

I'm not sure the follow-ups improve things tremendously. Again, I get the typical tech-bro bluster but I think not saying something to the effect of "I want local sports sections to succeed in addition to our success" will leave a bad taste for media folk. Even if they don't believe it saying that they want their success to inspire others to raise their game rather than, you know, die would probably be better PR at this point.

 

[Coco-puffs]

Come follow-up on that quote, and this is where I knew they were coming from, but the framing of it made it sound like The Athletic is out to kill newspapers in general. It's more like... Noah's Ark for sports sections.

I'm not sure the follow-ups improve things tremendously. Again, I get the typical tech-bro bluster but I think not saying something to the effect of "I want local sports sections to succeed in addition to our success" will leave a bad taste for media folk. Even if they don't believe it saying that they want their success to inspire others to raise their game rather than, you know, die would probably be better PR at this point.

NYT may not have a quote saying that... but he already addressed it almost exactly as you said would be better PR:

https://twitter.com/alex3780/status/922476945530503170

Full Thread:

https://twitter.com/alex3780/status/922475861902626816

 

[Kin]

NYT may not have a quote saying that... but he already addressed it almost exactly as you said would be better PR:

Yeah, on the third pass he seems to have got it. To some extent that's closing the barn doors after the horse got out but that's the internet for you.

 

[herman]

I think I would've positioned it as more of a sports reporting consultant group. Like a hyper focused Associated Press or Reuters for sports. Papers could mirror The Athletic content for their particular city of coverage for a nominal fee.

"Hey local newspaper. Costs are rising and your sports section is the first group to get the axe. We can help augment your readership's experience if you partner with us."

 

[Coco-puffs]

NYT may not have a quote saying that... but he already addressed it almost exactly as you said would be better PR:

Yeah, on the third pass he seems to have got it. To some extent that's closing the barn doors after the horse got out but that's the internet for you.

For sure.  He gave the NYT a doozy of a quote that he can only try damage control on and it won't be enough anyways because barely anyone is going to check his tweets for more context. 

 

[Kin]

Sort of in general though this is actual a pretty good microcosm of one of the challenges of a startup. The article makes note of the fact that after so much focus on expansion and securing funding it's only now that The Athletic is hiring non revenue-generating staff or people who tend to get overlooked or, worse, outright deemed unnecessary by VC types. But ideally a good media relations staff would work to make sure this sort of thing didn't happen.

 

[ZBBM]

Hyper aggro quote.

Hyper assholes is more like it.  I can't stand those types.  Another good reason not to subscribe.

 

[Bender]

Hyper aggro quote.

Hyper assholes is more like it.  I can't stand those types.  Another good reason not to subscribe.

How is that a reason not to subscribe? Its bad PR but I think you're naive if you think newspaper owners don't want to crush their competition. Anyway the content is good and writers deserve to be paid for their content. I'm tired of the sob story of newspapers basically backing a bad revenue model and now we should all feel bad for them that they cut whole departments.

 

[Kin]

Its bad PR but I think you're naive if you think newspaper owners don't want to crush their competition.

I think the issue there is that I don't really think that the New York Times views the Washington Post or the Toronto Star as their competitors. This is where the editorial/publishing overlap becomes a concern. I think generally speaking most people who are in the news business think a profitable industry is better than a monopoly which does sort of seem at odds with your modern Silicon Valley ethos.

 

[ZBBM]

Hyper aggro quote.

Hyper assholes is more like it.  I can't stand those types.  Another good reason not to subscribe.

How is that a reason not to subscribe? Its bad PR but I think you're naive if you think newspaper owners don't want to crush their competition. Anyway the content is good and writers deserve to be paid for their content. I'm tired of the sob story of newspapers basically backing a bad revenue model and now we should all feel bad for them that they cut whole departments.

I'm naive? Where do you expect to get your news in say, 20 years?  Or do you think quality reporting will just magically happen for free, just like it does now on the Internet?

Oh wait.  It doesn't.  What we get instead is torrents of horsecrap.

I hope these assholes go bankrupt, and the sooner the better.