[News] THE ATHLETIC Thread—Articles & Discussion

[Pellanor]

Originally Posted by HonkyTonkMan

I just subscribed through the 50% discount on Facebook today. With the expanded coverage I’m willing to give it a try. Here’s hoping that something can be worked out with Darren Haynes to make it even better.

Was that a one day only thing? I checked their facebook page but couldn't find it.

[HonkyTonkMan]

Originally Posted by Pellanor

Was that a one day only thing? I checked their facebook page but couldn't find it.

It was a one day deal that came up in my newsfeed. I checked their website and the offer was for 30% off. If I see it come up again, I'll post it.

[longsuffering]

Originally Posted by James Mirtle

Hi everyone. I hope this is okay with the mods.

I run the Canadian operations of The Athletic, the new sports site which at this point includes coverage of the seven NHL teams in this country and 25 of the 31 teams overall. We're hiring more writers in Calgary and Edmonton for coverage of the Flames and Oilers for the 2018-19 season.

Here's the job post.

I know CP is the home for diehard Flames fans. This is a great community, one I used to lurk on ages ago before I joined the media. So I wanted to post here quickly and ask what folks think we could do to provide next level coverage of the team and win you over enough that you would subscribe? (Subscriptions typically cost about $48 for the year.) How do we become the best sports media outlet in the city?

I know a lot of you feel you may never pay for a site like ours, and that's totally fine. I get it. But, theoretically, what would it take to give you a product good enough that made it worthwhile, for around $4 a month?

(For those unaware, we currently have Eric Duhatschek, Kent Wilson and Scott Cruickshank writing out of Calgary, as well as our group of national writers led by Pierre LeBrun who weigh in on the Flames once in a while.)

Thanks for the feedback

"The Athletic" grinds my gears but I'm bumping this thread because its Flames related.

The Athletic's coverage of the Flames and Stamps is pathetic compared even to Edmonton - a city of similar sized fan bases, etc.

If you can look at The Athletic's front page for the Flames, you see 17 articles, going as far back as July 17th. 12 are Flames specific - 8 by Kent Wilson, 2 Duha articles about Iginla and a Pittsburgh based article on Iggy as well. The other 5 are general NHL stuff.

In contrast, the 17 articles on the Oilers front page only go back to August 12th, so obviously there are much more regular Oilers content. 14 articles are Oilers specific and 3 general NHL related articles.

Basically twice as much Oilers content is posted to The Athletic.

Calgary Stampeder content is virtually non-existent with ONE Stampeder specific article on the Stamps front page since June 20th.

Mirtle came in here a month ago with some song and dance about hiring more Calgary based writers, received a ton of suggestions and has done (apparently) nothing about addressing the situation.

#### The Athletic. I won't be renewing my subscription.

[Tyler]

Yeah I cancelled my subscription. Not worth it

[Vox]

^^
You mean they started looking for a writer a month ago and still haven't identified candidates, interviewed them, made an offer, had it accepted, had the candidate give a few weeks notice to their current employer, on-boarded the new writer and started generating content? Perhaps someone should be fired after summer vacations are over and everyone is back at work.

[Arsenal14]

I don't mind the Stampeders coverage - it's a 9 team league so even the non-Stamps specific articles almost always cover the team. Kirk Penton's weekly article does a lot of around the league material.

If you look at the Oilers content, they get a lot more but a lot of it isn't exactly the in-depth articles that I signed up to The Athletic for (they are going one article at a time through the top 20+ prospects discussing what they did last year and why they are going to be stars in the future). Your mileage will vary, but I'm going to renew my subscription. Between the Flames, Stamps, Arsenal, Blue Jays and more general sports coverage I always find things to read.

[SportsJunky]

I like the Athletic. Then again, I don’t subscribe just for Flames related stuff. For a sports fan there is tons of content there but yeah, if you want stuff for just one city’s sports teams you might be left wanting.

[sureLoss]

Darren Haynes and Scott Cruickshank are now beat writers for the Flames with the Athletic

News Update

https://twitter.com/user/status/1037339569794867201

[Bend it like Bourgeois]

^^ happy to see Haynes first spot in the Athletic.

https://theathletic.com/504661/2018/...rom-the-coach/

[Split98]

Yes!

Congrats Darren!

[Arsenal14]

Down Goes Brown has also found a home at The Athletic. Three huge additions today. Can't wait to read all of their work.

[burn_this_city]

I get that we all crave instant gratification, but I don't like ####ting on a new media outlet because they took a bit of time in the offseason to get the content rolling. My subscription is an investment in future content now that the newspapers have all but been annihilated. Mirtle delivered on Haynes and Cruickshank, give them a season or two to get the ball rolling.

[Tyler]

Ha - okay so now I just resubscribed. Damn you Darren! LOL

[Vinny01]

If there is a discount code deal or anything coming up soon I will subscribe

[red sky]

Money where my mouth is. I said if Haynes joins then so would I, so I did!

[fastpuck]

$60 is a bit pricey for the renewal. Glad to see new writers. Hope they come up with a discount code to lure me back in the next 5 days.

[Toonage]

Fantastic news, and a great site got even better.

[bob-loblaw]

I saw a Tweet from the Athletic a couple days ago there was a 40% discount code available. Not sure if it still works.

[Slava]

Originally Posted by fastpuck

$60 is a bit pricey for the renewal. Glad to see new writers. Hope they come up with a discount code to lure me back in the next 5 days.

I'm not denying that (although its only $5/month). The Athletic in general is bringing on a lot of top tier talent though, and while they raised something like $28m in VC funding, they need to show some revenues at some point.

I subscribe because the content is really good and I love some of the "deep dive" articles. I also love that I can read a little bit of a lot of things on topics or teams that I don't follow, but have sort of a passing interest. Of course there are some of their writers that I could do without out, but other people probably love them. That's just part of the package I think.

[red sky]

First time subscriber and found the 50% through Facebook. So $36 for the year. Already read the first Haynes article and Luszczyszyn season preview which has the Oilers 24th overall.