The Athletic
AcquiredYC S16YC Top CompanySan Francisco, US Β· Founded 2016 Β· 600 employees Β· 13 known investors
The Athletic is a sports media platform that provides news, analysis, and commentary covering professional and college sports.
Also known as The Athletic Media Company Β· Theathletic.com
Founders & leadershipΒ· Y Combinator alumni (S16)
The Athletic was founded in 2016 by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann.
Investors Β· 13
Also in the syndicate Β· 1
Company profile
researched Aug 2026The Athletic is a subscription-based digital sports journalism publisher that produces national and local sports coverage across North America and the United Kingdom. Its editorial approach centers on long-form journalism, original reporting and in-depth analysis rather than commodity news, and its stated business model is to dis-aggregate the sports section of local newspapers while also serving non-local fans of a team. As of 2022 it provided local coverage across 47 North American cities and regions, including all 32 NFL teams, all 30 MLB teams, all 30 NBA teams and 23 of 32 NHL teams, in addition to college sports and domestic and international soccer.
The product spans a website, mobile apps for phones, tablets and Chromebooks, podcasts, premium video and a daily word game, Connections: Sports Edition. App-store material describes a newsroom of more than 400 sports journalists covering football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, golf, tennis and motorsport, with live scores, stats, breaking news, notifications, fantasy football tools and reader commenting. The company was founded in 2016 and headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Los Angeles, London and Melbourne and a remote-friendly workforce; by the time of its acquisition it reported more than 600 full-time employees and coverage of over 250 professional and collegiate teams.
The New York Times Company acquired The Athletic for $550 million in cash in a deal announced in January 2022. It initially operated as a semi-independent entity under co-founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann; in July 2023 the Times dissolved its own sports department and began running The Athletic as its replacement sports department under new management.
Founding story
Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, former coworkers at the subscription fitness company Strava, launched The Athletic in January 2016 with a stated mission of "smarter coverage for die-hard fans." They believed sports fans would pay for quality reporting delivered in a clean, ad-free app at a time when the prevailing industry view was that internet news had to be free. The company took part in Y Combinator's Summer 2016 batch and started with a single Chicago site led by founding editor Jon Greenberg.
Business model
The Athletic sells consumer subscriptions to its sports journalism, historically positioning itself as ad-free with essentially all articles behind a paywall. Early pricing was $8 per month or $48 per year for access to the entire network of sites. The company built its editorial base by hiring established local columnists and beat writers away from newspapers and national outlets, on the premise that their followings would convert into paying subscribers in each market. Following the acquisition it is offered as part of The New York Times Company's subscription portfolio, including all-access and group subscription options, and distributed through its own website and mobile apps with in-app purchases.
Recurring consumer subscription revenue, sold monthly and annually, rather than advertising revenue; app distribution includes in-app purchases. Later app material references advertising placements within the app.
Traction
By September 2017, roughly 20 months after launch, The Athletic operated sites in 15 US and Canadian markets with about 60 employees and said it was on pace to beat a goal of 100,000 paying subscribers by early 2018, with better than 15% monthly subscriber growth in Chicago, its most mature market. By 2022 it reported more than 600 full-time employees, coverage of more than 250 teams and more than 120 podcasts. Its Android app lists more than one million downloads and a 4.9-star average across roughly 52,700 reviews as of August 2026.
Latest developments
The Athletic operates as the sports department of The New York Times Company, with subscriptions sold through nytimes.com and its own site. Its app was last updated in August 2026 and current output includes NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, college football, international soccer, golf and tennis coverage, live blogs, fantasy football draft tools and the daily Connections: Sports Edition puzzle.
βΈFull profile β market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
The Athletic positioned itself as an alternative to struggling ad-supported sports sites and to the sports sections of local newspapers, differentiating from networked fan-driven properties such as Bleacher Report and SB Nation through paid professional journalism. Founder Alex Mather framed the ambition as replacing the sports page in every city on the continent. It is now the sports department of The New York Times.
A hard paywall with no banner, pop-up or autoplay video advertising at launch; professional, salaried journalists rather than volunteer fan contributors; a single national subscription bundling local coverage of many markets; and a bundle organized around sports alone rather than around a general local newspaper package.
Technology
A web and mobile publishing platform with team- and league-following, push notifications for scores and news, live blogs, live scores and statistics, podcast playback, reader comments, and fantasy tools including a top-300 rankings product, a customizable cheat-sheet generator and a Fantasy Football Draft Assistant. The apps also host a daily puzzle game, Connections: Sports Edition.
Go-to-market
Direct-to-consumer digital subscriptions marketed city by city and league by league. Market entries were anchored by high-profile hires β the leading columnist or beat writer in a given market or national figures such as Ken Rosenthal, Seth Davis, Stewart Mandel, Shams Charania and Jay Glazer β whose audiences were used to seed local subscriber bases. Distribution runs through theathletic.com, iOS/Android apps, newsletters, podcasts and, post-acquisition, New York Times subscription bundles.
Committed sports fans in North America and the United Kingdom who follow specific professional or college teams, including fans located outside their team's local market, plus fantasy sports players.
Geography
Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices listed in San Francisco, Los Angeles, London and Melbourne. Coverage spans 47 cities and regions in the United States and Canada plus the United Kingdom, with international soccer and global motorsport coverage.
History
After launching in Chicago in January 2016, The Athletic added Toronto (October 2016), Cleveland (March 2017), Detroit (June 2017) and the San Francisco Bay Area (August 2017), alongside national verticals for baseball, college football and college basketball. September 2017 expansion into Philadelphia, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, St. Louis and the rest of Canada brought it to 15 markets. Through 2018 it added New York, Dallas, Cincinnati, Denver, Boston, Buffalo, Atlanta, Baltimore, Wisconsin, Washington D.C., Carolina, Nashville, Indiana, Miami, New Orleans and others, launched soccer and fantasy coverage, completed NHL and NFL team coverage by September 2018, and reached 47 markets with Memphis in October 2018. Unable to reach profitability on subscription revenue alone without advertising, the founders sought a buyer; The New York Times Company acquired the business for $550 million in 2022, and in July 2023 The Athletic replaced the Times' own sports department.
Risks & controversies
The company was reported to have been unable to generate enough revenue without advertising to reach profitability as an independent business, which prompted the founders to seek a buyer. Following the 2022 acquisition, The New York Times dissolved its own sports department in July 2023, laying off or reassigning that staff. User reviews of the Android app cite complaints about in-app advertising, notifications that reveal game results, and difficulty navigating from comment-reply notifications back to the underlying article.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources β announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed β not independently audited.
Competitors Β· 4
by search overlap
Companies competing with The Athletic for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
Timeline Β· 18
launches, deals, and filingsThe New York Times dissolved its existing sports department, laying off or reassigning its sports staff, and began operating The Athletic as its replacement sports department under new management.
The New York Times Company agreed to buy The Athletic for $550 million in cash; the business initially operated as a semi-independent entity under founders Mather and Hansmann.
$550M source β
Three veteran television journalists, including 60 Minutes correspondent Armen Keteyian, joined the publication.
Memphis became the 47th local market, extending coverage to all NBA teams.
Added writers in Jacksonville, Houston, Oklahoma, Oregon and Las Vegas to complete NHL and NFL team coverage.
Launched fantasy sports coverage and expanded to Washington, D.C., Carolina, Nashville, Indiana, Miami and New Orleans; added Shams Charania for NBA and Jay Glazer for NFL.
Added markets with former Atlanta Journal-Constitution writers David O'Brien and Jeff Schultz, plus 19 college football writers.
Expanded into Buffalo, New York by hiring reporters bought out from The Buffalo News, and increased coverage in Los Angeles.
The site announced coverage of both domestic and international soccer.
Full local coverage launched in Denver and Boston, staffed largely with reporters from The Denver Post, The Boston Globe, Boston Herald and MassLive.
Added three new cities and baseball-only coverage in Houston, Los Angeles, San Diego, Arizona and Kansas City; national MLB coverage expanded with Jayson Stark, Jim Bowden, Eno Sarris and editor Emma Span.
Brought local coverage to 15 US and Canadian professional sports markets, with much of the expansion aimed at hockey fans.
Bay Area site launched with Tim Kawakami as editor-in-chief and Marcus Thompson as columnist, both from the San Jose Mercury News; national writers including Ken Rosenthal, Seth Davis and Stewart Mandel were also added.
Second city launch covering the Maple Leafs, Raptors and Blue Jays, with James Mirtle hired as editor-in-chief.
The Athletic was part of Y Combinator's Summer 2016 accelerator batch.
The subscription sports site launched its first local market in Chicago with Jon Greenberg as founding editor, alongside writers Sahadev Sharma (Cubs) and Scott Powers (Blackhawks).
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
The BookKeeper β Exploring FIFAβs finances: Where the money comes from and where it goes - The Athleticnytimes.com Β· Jul 2026βΈResearch sources Β· 8
primary sources listed
- The Athletictheathletic.com Β· web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does The Athletic do?
- Subscription-based digital sports media company, acquired by The New York Times Company in 2022 for $550 million.
- Who founded The Athletic?
- The Athletic was founded by Alex Mather, Adam Hansmann in 2016.
- Who are The Athletic's investors?
- The Athletic's investors include Advancit Capital, Comcast Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Founders Fund, Jackson Square Ventures, Luminari Capital, More Better industries, Powerhouse Capital and 4 more.
- Where is The Athletic headquartered?
- The Athletic is headquartered in San Francisco, US.