Totally Unreadable

[Canadouche]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

[Eli]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

Yeah, the value relative to other subscription services isn't very good.

And I do totally get the idea of supporting independent journalism. But I'm not sure they're looking to be viewed as a charitable cause.

[Bort]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

Yeah, the value relative to other subscription services isn't very good.

And I do totally get the idea of supporting independent journalism. But I'm not sure they're looking to be viewed as a charitable cause.

The worst value listed is 15 bucks for the NYT. You don't even get anything to wrap fish in anymore.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

Yeah, the value relative to other subscription services isn't very good.

And I do totally get the idea of supporting independent journalism. But I'm not sure they're looking to be viewed as a charitable cause.

Yeah if I was still single and childless I probably wouldn't think twice about throwing a ten-spot their way.  I know that's not a lot of money but raising kids is goddamn expensive and I have difficulty justifying throwing down $120 a year when I'm trying to save for my kids' college.

[Bort]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

Yeah, the value relative to other subscription services isn't very good.

And I do totally get the idea of supporting independent journalism. But I'm not sure they're looking to be viewed as a charitable cause.

Yeah if I was still single and childless I probably wouldn't think twice about throwing a ten-spot their way.  I know that's not a lot of money but raising kids is goddamn expensive and I have difficulty justifying throwing down $120 a year when I'm trying to save for my kids' college.

Please, you spend a ten times that on potatoes every fortnight.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

Yeah, the value relative to other subscription services isn't very good.

And I do totally get the idea of supporting independent journalism. But I'm not sure they're looking to be viewed as a charitable cause.

Yeah if I was still single and childless I probably wouldn't think twice about throwing a ten-spot their way.  I know that's not a lot of money but raising kids is goddamn expensive and I have difficulty justifying throwing down $120 a year when I'm trying to save for my kids' college.

Please, you spend a ten times that on potatoes every fortnight.

Please, potatoes are like $0.70 a pound.

[World's #1 Astros Fan]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

Yeah, the value relative to other subscription services isn't very good.

And I do totally get the idea of supporting independent journalism. But I'm not sure they're looking to be viewed as a charitable cause.

Yeah if I was still single and childless I probably wouldn't think twice about throwing a ten-spot their way.  I know that's not a lot of money but raising kids is goddamn expensive and I have difficulty justifying throwing down $120 a year when I'm trying to save for my kids' college.

Please, you spend a ten times that on potatoes every fortnight.

Also, why are you talking like an Italian immigrant?

[Oleg]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

Yeah, the value relative to other subscription services isn't very good.

And I do totally get the idea of supporting independent journalism. But I'm not sure they're looking to be viewed as a charitable cause.

Yeah if I was still single and childless I probably wouldn't think twice about throwing a ten-spot their way.  I know that's not a lot of money but raising kids is goddamn expensive and I have difficulty justifying throwing down $120 a year when I'm trying to save for my kids' college.

I can't even find $100 a year for Baseball America.  Baseball Prospectus is around 100/yr.  Netflix and SiriusXM use up some more of my cash.

$10 a month, though?  That does seem steep.  To be honest, they do seem to be throwing some money at the writers, getting some good ones.  Sahadev seems truly excited about the opportunity (I imagine BP was pretty much his dream job).

[Bort]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

Yeah, the value relative to other subscription services isn't very good.

And I do totally get the idea of supporting independent journalism. But I'm not sure they're looking to be viewed as a charitable cause.

Yeah if I was still single and childless I probably wouldn't think twice about throwing a ten-spot their way.  I know that's not a lot of money but raising kids is goddamn expensive and I have difficulty justifying throwing down $120 a year when I'm trying to save for my kids' college.

Please, you spend a ten times that on potatoes every fortnight.

Please, potatoes are like $0.70 a pound.

I know...that's the joke.

And I was going for more of a Mr. Burns archaism.

[Brownie]

The Daily Herald tried erecting a Pay Wall at $19.99/month. They got rid of that in favor of doing the stupid survey before you read an article.

The Chicago Tribune is $7.99/month. That's your bargain. That gets you unlimited views of Tribune, LA Times, Baltimore Sun and whatever other papers Tribune still owns.

The Athletic would be worth considering at about $5/month.

But if you're going to talk about a business model for online publications, a syndicate model in which you pay $10/month and get access to the Athletic AND Crain's AND Rich Miller's Capitol Fax or something like that.

[Oleg]

The Daily Herald tried erecting a Pay Wall at $19.99/month. They got rid of that in favor of doing the stupid survey before you read an article.

The Chicago Tribune is $7.99/month. That's your bargain. That gets you unlimited views of Tribune, LA Times, Baltimore Sun and whatever other papers Tribune still owns.

The Athletic would be worth considering at about $5/month.

But if you're going to talk about a business model for online publications, a syndicate model in which you pay $10/month and get access to the Athletic AND Crain's AND Rich Miller's Capitol Fax or something like that.

A syndicate model is interesting.  For example, if I could get BA and BP and FG+ and something else for like 15/month, I would probably do that.  The sites could just divide up the money based on article clicks or something that is already being kept track of.  i wonder if something like that would fly or if there's too much uncertainty of revenue.

[Canadouche]

The Daily Herald tried erecting a Pay Wall at $19.99/month. They got rid of that in favor of doing the stupid survey before you read an article.

The Chicago Tribune is $7.99/month. That's your bargain. That gets you unlimited views of Tribune, LA Times, Baltimore Sun and whatever other papers Tribune still owns.

The Athletic would be worth considering at about $5/month.

But if you're going to talk about a business model for online publications, a syndicate model in which you pay $10/month and get access to the Athletic AND Crain's AND Rich Miller's Capitol Fax or something like that.

Gonna be honest. On my Apple Devices, you can read Tribune articles behind a paywall using Reader View.

[Tony]

How do you guys have time to read all this stuff when all of your time is taken up by podcasts?

[Brownie]

The Daily Herald tried erecting a Pay Wall at $19.99/month. They got rid of that in favor of doing the stupid survey before you read an article.

The Chicago Tribune is $7.99/month. That's your bargain. That gets you unlimited views of Tribune, LA Times, Baltimore Sun and whatever other papers Tribune still owns.

The Athletic would be worth considering at about $5/month.

But if you're going to talk about a business model for online publications, a syndicate model in which you pay $10/month and get access to the Athletic AND Crain's AND Rich Miller's Capitol Fax or something like that.

A syndicate model is interesting.  For example, if I could get BA and BP and FG+ and something else for like 15/month, I would probably do that.  The sites could just divide up the money based on article clicks or something that is already being kept track of.  i wonder if something like that would fly or if there's too much uncertainty of revenue.

You probably do a hybrid model. Local papers should try this. Every once in awhile, I want to read something in the Bloomington, Indiana newspaper, but they have a stupid paywall, and I can't justify paying to read news I have no interest in. But if I could buy a syndicate of newspapers, maybe a local paper here and a ton of local papers across the country.

So maybe you pay each paper some type of flat fee, then a commission based on views.

[Oleg]

This isn't totally unreadable, but thoughts on The Athletic? You know, if anyone has any thoughts about it at all.

They have some good writers and I hope the site succeeds, but for $10/month, I'm skeptical. The NY Times is $15/month. Netflix is $7.99/month. Adobe has software plans for $10/month that require thousands of hours of development and maintenance to produce. It seems like a pretty steep cost for local sportswriting given all of the completely free (or, rather, ad-supported) alternatives that are out there.

I think that if you support the concept of independent journalism, it might be worth the $10 just to do your small part in helping them succeed.

I'd also argue that $10/month for good journalism isn't expensive, but $8/month for Netflix is a ridiculously good bargain, as is $10/month for Adobe. Hell, I pay $5 a month for a good VPN.

Full disclosure: I have no intention to subscribe to the Athletic.

Yeah, the value relative to other subscription services isn't very good.

And I do totally get the idea of supporting independent journalism. But I'm not sure they're looking to be viewed as a charitable cause.

Yeah if I was still single and childless I probably wouldn't think twice about throwing a ten-spot their way.  I know that's not a lot of money but raising kids is goddamn expensive and I have difficulty justifying throwing down $120 a year when I'm trying to save for my kids' college.

I can't even find $100 a year for Baseball America.  Baseball Prospectus is around 100/yr.  Netflix and SiriusXM use up some more of my cash.

$10 a month, though?  That does seem steep.  To be honest, they do seem to be throwing some money at the writers, getting some good ones.  Sahadev seems truly excited about the opportunity (I imagine BP was pretty much his dream job).

SQD...

I was way off.  BP annual subscription is like 35 bucks.