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The New York Times Confirms Purchase of The Athletic For $550 Million

Source: Gary Hershorn / Getty

The New York Times backed up the Brink’s Truck for digital sports media outlet The Atheltic

Spotted on Deadline New York Times Co. confirmed it had purchased The Athletic for $550 million. The digital sports media brand, founded in 2016, has 1.2 million subscribers already, and with the acquisition, The New York Times hopes to reach a goal of 10 million subscribers by 2025, Deadline reports.

“Acquiring The Athletic puts us in a position to be a global leader in sports journalism and offer English speakers around the world another reason to turn to the Times Company to meet their daily news and life needs,” CEO Meredith Kopit Levien announced. Levien said The Athletic will be a “stand-alone product” that would be “a great compliment” to the “distinctive sports coverage” that the New York Times will continue to do.

Negotiations between both entities were on again and off again before both sides came to the $550 million agreement. Sources revealed to Deadline that The New York Times was not scared off by The Athletic suffering losses and burning through $41 of the $47 million in 2020 revenue.

The New York Times was not the only company interested in The Athletic. Axios was also intrigued, but talks between Axios and The Athletic eventually fizzled out allow The New York Times to seal the deal.

Despite the deal, The Athletic does not expect to become profitable until 2023. As of right now, there are 600 full-time employees, with most of them occupying editorial positions. We are intrigued to see how this acquisition helps The Athletic and The New York Times.

Photo: Gary Hershorn / Getty