Frank Stallone
You guessed it...
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Amped. Just subscribed. I love the schedule and standings. Really quick access. Hopefully they expand with stats and such.
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The Athletic
- Thread starter catfish
- Start date
Dear Cleveland, Welcome to The Athletic
by Jason Lloyd, 6 hours ago
I walked into the Starbucks near San Francisco’s Union Square expecting a 15-minute meeting. The Cavs had just concluded a Sunday practice in January, the day before they played the Warriors, and I agreed to meet Adam Hansmann around the corner to talk about this idea he and his partner were bringing to Cleveland. I’ll have a cup of coffee, I reasoned, nod politely, shake his hand and go about my day.
Nearly two hours later, my cup was empty and I was still sitting in Starbucks on Geary Street, fascinated by what I was hearing and seriously contemplating a dramatic career change. Less than two months later, here we are. Welcome to The Athletic.
I enjoyed my seven years at the Akron Beacon Journal and wasn’t looking to make a change. But these are fragile times in the newspaper industry and no one has really unlocked the secret to stability. Giving away the product free for two decades certainly hasn’t been the answer. Now we’re trying something different.
We’re taking the sports section out of the newspaper and in the process eliminating the overhead of the printing presses, delivery trucks, ad departments, a staff of copy editors, circulation managers, a publisher … you get the idea. For the price of that nonfat latte at Starbucks, you’ll get a month’s worth of in-depth stories on the Browns, Indians, Cavs, Ohio State and the Blue Jackets. No pop-up ads, no annoying videos to watch, no surveys to take. Just quality journalism at an affordable price. The more people who subscribe, the more revenue we will reinvest to make The Athletic even better.
I’m proud of the staff we’ve started to assemble — and there are plenty more coming in the weeks ahead. T.J. Zuppe is headed to spring training soon and will cover the Indians. T.J. comes from a radio background, but he has a deep understanding of advanced stats and is passionate about the game. He knows how to work a locker room, too.
We’ll have national voices such as Ken Berger, who lived in Cleveland and covered Cleveland sports for the Associated Press in another lifetime. Now Ken lives in New York and will help me on Cavs coverage as well as issues arising out of the league office.
Indians pitcher Cody Allen and catcher Roberto Perez celebrate after winning the American League pennant. (John E. Sokolowski/USA Today Sports)
Scott Raab is a native Clevelander with a Chief Wahoo tattoo and two books on Cleveland sports. After enjoying a successful career at GQ and Esquire, he’s also one of the finest wordsmiths I’ve ever read. Love him or hate him, Raab constructs vivid sentences that stain your memory.
Ron Ledgard will serve as the site’s managing editor. Ron hired me at the Beacon Journal in 2010 and turned me loose on the Cavs. He’s the type of editor who will work a story with writers, bring out their best and clean up their worst. He left the Beacon last year, and I’m thrilled to be reunited with him here.
There are more names coming soon, I just can’t reveal them all right now. You’ll notice I didn’t mention Browns writers. We are entering a critical time for this franchise and it’s already such an important position in a football-crazed town, it’s not one we’re taking lightly. We’re going slowly to make sure we get it right.
Adam and his co-founder, Alex Mather, raised more than $2 million to help launch Cleveland and are committed to making The Athletic sustainable for decades to come. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t be here. Alex grew up in Philadelphia cheering for Allen Iverson, Randall Cunningham, Charles Barkley and Mikael Renberg. He still wears his extra large Cunningham jersey from his teenage years. Adam is an Ohio native raised in Cincinnati. He empathizes with Browns fans because he lived through the Bengals of the 1990s, but baseball and the Reds are his passion. Both live in San Francisco now. Alex writes the code for The Athletic’s terrific app and website, while Adam and I continue to work tirelessly together assembling this Cleveland staff.
Adam comes from a finance background, previously working in private equity and consulting. Alex served as Head of Product at Strava, entering on the ground floor and building it into a very powerful subscription business in the fitness technology space. Now they’re proving this model works in sports. They’ve already launched in Chicago and Toronto. Cleveland is stepping to the plate now and Detroit is on deck. There are plans to add dozens more sites across the U.S. and Canada in the coming months. One subscription gets you access to all of the sites and potentially hundreds of writers.
Ohio State players sing Carmen Ohio after a home win last year. (Greg Bartram/USA Today Sports)
Some people will see a paywall and immediately turn away. I understand because I used to think that way, too. But a subscription to The Athletic is less than half the price of a subscription to Netflix or Spotify. A paywall is the only way to ensure quality journalism at a fair price. It’s why respected outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times have all adopted them. A handful of subscribers paying a nominal fee are worth far more to a publication than tens of thousands of clicks on a free story dependent on ad rates.
What will your subscription to The Athletic purchase?
We’ll cover the news of the day, just like always, along with deeper, more thought-provoking topics. T.J. is exploring today how the Indians will score runs differently this year. I wrote today about why the salary cap and the Cavs’ tax positioning will make it difficult to keep Derrick Williams beyond this season.
I’ll typically travel to all of the Cavs games, just like always, but I’m staying in Boston this week after the Cavs-Celtics game Wednesday to spend the weekend at the Sloan Analytics Conference writing about advanced stats and their impact on sports. Cavs GM David Griffin is one of the panelists. After this weekend, I’ll return to doing Final Thoughts after Cavs games.
You’ll get podcasts and videos, breaking news and smart analysis, both here on the site but also presented on the company’s beautiful suite of mobile apps (available for iPhone and Android phones). What you won’t get are click-bait articles or 125 words rehashing a game you just watched. We’re moving beyond the “what” in an effort to better bring you the “why.”
If you’re ready to subscribe, here’s a sale price to get things started. For the rest of today, we’ll also give a free The Athletic t-shirt to every new subscriber as a token of our gratitude for your support while we start to earn your trust and build our staff in the coming weeks and months.
Thank you for your support. If you’re skeptical and want to wait and see how we do, I’m confident we’ll win you over. I believe in this. I believe in us.
We’re at the starting line of an exciting journey together and I can’t wait to get started. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.
by Jason Lloyd, 6 hours ago
I walked into the Starbucks near San Francisco’s Union Square expecting a 15-minute meeting. The Cavs had just concluded a Sunday practice in January, the day before they played the Warriors, and I agreed to meet Adam Hansmann around the corner to talk about this idea he and his partner were bringing to Cleveland. I’ll have a cup of coffee, I reasoned, nod politely, shake his hand and go about my day.
Nearly two hours later, my cup was empty and I was still sitting in Starbucks on Geary Street, fascinated by what I was hearing and seriously contemplating a dramatic career change. Less than two months later, here we are. Welcome to The Athletic.
I enjoyed my seven years at the Akron Beacon Journal and wasn’t looking to make a change. But these are fragile times in the newspaper industry and no one has really unlocked the secret to stability. Giving away the product free for two decades certainly hasn’t been the answer. Now we’re trying something different.
We’re taking the sports section out of the newspaper and in the process eliminating the overhead of the printing presses, delivery trucks, ad departments, a staff of copy editors, circulation managers, a publisher … you get the idea. For the price of that nonfat latte at Starbucks, you’ll get a month’s worth of in-depth stories on the Browns, Indians, Cavs, Ohio State and the Blue Jackets. No pop-up ads, no annoying videos to watch, no surveys to take. Just quality journalism at an affordable price. The more people who subscribe, the more revenue we will reinvest to make The Athletic even better.
I’m proud of the staff we’ve started to assemble — and there are plenty more coming in the weeks ahead. T.J. Zuppe is headed to spring training soon and will cover the Indians. T.J. comes from a radio background, but he has a deep understanding of advanced stats and is passionate about the game. He knows how to work a locker room, too.
We’ll have national voices such as Ken Berger, who lived in Cleveland and covered Cleveland sports for the Associated Press in another lifetime. Now Ken lives in New York and will help me on Cavs coverage as well as issues arising out of the league office.
Indians pitcher Cody Allen and catcher Roberto Perez celebrate after winning the American League pennant. (John E. Sokolowski/USA Today Sports)
Scott Raab is a native Clevelander with a Chief Wahoo tattoo and two books on Cleveland sports. After enjoying a successful career at GQ and Esquire, he’s also one of the finest wordsmiths I’ve ever read. Love him or hate him, Raab constructs vivid sentences that stain your memory.
Ron Ledgard will serve as the site’s managing editor. Ron hired me at the Beacon Journal in 2010 and turned me loose on the Cavs. He’s the type of editor who will work a story with writers, bring out their best and clean up their worst. He left the Beacon last year, and I’m thrilled to be reunited with him here.
There are more names coming soon, I just can’t reveal them all right now. You’ll notice I didn’t mention Browns writers. We are entering a critical time for this franchise and it’s already such an important position in a football-crazed town, it’s not one we’re taking lightly. We’re going slowly to make sure we get it right.
Adam and his co-founder, Alex Mather, raised more than $2 million to help launch Cleveland and are committed to making The Athletic sustainable for decades to come. If they weren’t, I wouldn’t be here. Alex grew up in Philadelphia cheering for Allen Iverson, Randall Cunningham, Charles Barkley and Mikael Renberg. He still wears his extra large Cunningham jersey from his teenage years. Adam is an Ohio native raised in Cincinnati. He empathizes with Browns fans because he lived through the Bengals of the 1990s, but baseball and the Reds are his passion. Both live in San Francisco now. Alex writes the code for The Athletic’s terrific app and website, while Adam and I continue to work tirelessly together assembling this Cleveland staff.
Adam comes from a finance background, previously working in private equity and consulting. Alex served as Head of Product at Strava, entering on the ground floor and building it into a very powerful subscription business in the fitness technology space. Now they’re proving this model works in sports. They’ve already launched in Chicago and Toronto. Cleveland is stepping to the plate now and Detroit is on deck. There are plans to add dozens more sites across the U.S. and Canada in the coming months. One subscription gets you access to all of the sites and potentially hundreds of writers.
Ohio State players sing Carmen Ohio after a home win last year. (Greg Bartram/USA Today Sports)
Some people will see a paywall and immediately turn away. I understand because I used to think that way, too. But a subscription to The Athletic is less than half the price of a subscription to Netflix or Spotify. A paywall is the only way to ensure quality journalism at a fair price. It’s why respected outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times have all adopted them. A handful of subscribers paying a nominal fee are worth far more to a publication than tens of thousands of clicks on a free story dependent on ad rates.
What will your subscription to The Athletic purchase?
We’ll cover the news of the day, just like always, along with deeper, more thought-provoking topics. T.J. is exploring today how the Indians will score runs differently this year. I wrote today about why the salary cap and the Cavs’ tax positioning will make it difficult to keep Derrick Williams beyond this season.
I’ll typically travel to all of the Cavs games, just like always, but I’m staying in Boston this week after the Cavs-Celtics game Wednesday to spend the weekend at the Sloan Analytics Conference writing about advanced stats and their impact on sports. Cavs GM David Griffin is one of the panelists. After this weekend, I’ll return to doing Final Thoughts after Cavs games.
You’ll get podcasts and videos, breaking news and smart analysis, both here on the site but also presented on the company’s beautiful suite of mobile apps (available for iPhone and Android phones). What you won’t get are click-bait articles or 125 words rehashing a game you just watched. We’re moving beyond the “what” in an effort to better bring you the “why.”
If you’re ready to subscribe, here’s a sale price to get things started. For the rest of today, we’ll also give a free The Athletic t-shirt to every new subscriber as a token of our gratitude for your support while we start to earn your trust and build our staff in the coming weeks and months.
Thank you for your support. If you’re skeptical and want to wait and see how we do, I’m confident we’ll win you over. I believe in this. I believe in us.
We’re at the starting line of an exciting journey together and I can’t wait to get started. I hope you’ll come along for the ride.
bigfoot5415
Hall-of-Famer
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Any details you can provide that you are seeing right now?
NorthCoastBias
Hall-of-Famer
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2009
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- 15,195
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I had the same problem. Scroll to the very bottom of the page and there should be a link that says "Change City." Once you do that, it'll give you the option to select Cleveland.
Also, don't make the same mistake I made by not buying a subscription at sale price. Didn't realize it until too late. Now I'm on the hook for the full $49.99 instead of the $39.99 reduced rate.
NorthCoastBias
Hall-of-Famer
- Joined
- Feb 14, 2009
- Messages
- 15,195
- Reaction score
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- Points
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You have to pay it all up front. There is a monthly option if you want to test drive the site, but if you continue to do monthly payments, it costs you more at the end of a calendar year.
MirORich
Hall-of-Famer
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- Sep 29, 2007
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I paid monthly. I want the ability to opt out if after three months is not working for me. If it is though, and the content is quality, timely, and ad free, then I'm fine giving a little extra money to mostly local guys who are trying to do something different.
Eager to see who their Browns guy ends up being. Excited that in addition to Lloyd, Ken Berger will be doing some articles, as he was excellent on his time at CBSSports
The schedule and standings is nice, I can spend less time on ESPN, but I do hope that the box scores are eventually up there, not just the final scores and a graphic.
Eager to see who their Browns guy ends up being. Excited that in addition to Lloyd, Ken Berger will be doing some articles, as he was excellent on his time at CBSSports
The schedule and standings is nice, I can spend less time on ESPN, but I do hope that the box scores are eventually up there, not just the final scores and a graphic.
I'mWithDan
"Straight Cash Homie"
- Joined
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If this is an actual media company with developers, a designer, senior level MGT, reporters, etc.....just baseline level, you're talking a million in overhead IMO.
Technology talent is so scare that you aren't attracting people based on an idea alone. You have to pay them competitive salaries or they are just going elsewhere.
The big cost savings can be had if the CEO / Founders have technical skill that they can leverage, where they take well below market salaries, to get the company runnng.
If this endeavor is journalists who need to outsource and maintain a publishing platform at even a basic level, the costs are not cheap.
Unless they have significant investment and an actual business plan, this will fail miserably. And to me, $5 a month is a crazy price point when considering an App like texture let's me read every magazine known to man for $10 a month.
PITCavsFan
Sixth Man
- Joined
- Jul 20, 2012
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- 725
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- 93
Here's a bit on the economics from a similar startup in Pittsburgh. 3 years in and they're doing very well. The price point is a bit lower, especially if you opt for a 3-year or lifetime subscription upfront.
https://www.poynter.org/2015/pittsb...st-gives-it-all-up-to-be-his-own-boss/357759/
https://www.poynter.org/2015/pittsb...st-gives-it-all-up-to-be-his-own-boss/357759/
dark2332
Yeah, I’m thinking I’m back.
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- Points
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I really love the layout on the App; definitely going to be in my list of go-to's.
I'm not the only one who noticed there's no Ohio State sports section yet, despite the inclusion in Lloyd's round-up, right?
Ob1
Roll Tribe
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- May 28, 2014
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Saw that. Not sure they can give me anything I can't get from 11W or Bucknuts, but anything would be a welcomed addition. Maybe they can target Ari Wasserman.
Frank Stallone
You guessed it...
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2009
- Messages
- 9,065
- Reaction score
- 5,489
- Points
- 113
The app is a MUST if you do this. Gives you a game box score, player stats/cards where you rate/comment on their game, highlights and more.
