07-24-2017, 09:44 PM
Very intrigued by the Athletic -- wish it every success. Subscriptions appear to be the most promising economic path for publications these days. (DISCLOSURE: I work for a subscription-oriented publication so of course I think this.)
That being said the ad models are a bit confusing these days. Podcasts seem to be supported by like the same six companies. Video is about tricking people to "watch." So we'll see if it works for The Athletic. Certainly people are willing to pay for recruiting news, and Stanford's Rivals site serves a fair bit of traditional beat reporting along with the recruiting. So I imagine the model is scalable.
That being said the ad models are a bit confusing these days. Podcasts seem to be supported by like the same six companies. Video is about tricking people to "watch." So we'll see if it works for The Athletic. Certainly people are willing to pay for recruiting news, and Stanford's Rivals site serves a fair bit of traditional beat reporting along with the recruiting. So I imagine the model is scalable.