By Michelle Chapman
The New York Times is disbanding its sports department and will rely on coverage from The Athletic, a website it acquired last year for $550 million.
The decision impacts more than 35 people in the sports department, according to The New York Times. Journalists on the sports desk will move to other roles within the newsroom and no layoffs are planned.
“Though we know this decision will be disappointing to some, we believe it is the right one for readers and will allow us to maximize the respective strengths of The Times’s and The Athletic’s newsrooms,” New York Times Co. Chairman A.G. Sulzberger and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien wrote Monday in a letter to staff.
They say sports coverage will be expanded under the shift.
“Under our plan, the digital homepage, newsletters, social feeds, the sports landing page and the print section will draw from even more of the approximately 150 stories The Athletic produces each day chronicling leagues, teams and players across the United States and around the globe,” they wrote.
Sports writers for The New York Times have won several Pulitzer Prizes over the years, including Arthur Daley in 1956 in the column, “Sports of the Times;” Walter Wellesley (Red) Smith in 1976 for commentary and Dave Anderson in 1981 for commentary.
The New York Times Co. announced early last year that it was buying The Athletic as part of a strategy to expand its audience of paying subscribers at a time when the newspaper print ads business continues to fade.
Unlike many local news outlets, the Times gained millions of subscribers during the presidency of Donald Trump and the COVID-19 pandemic. But it has been actively diversifying its coverage with lifestyle advice, games and recipes, to help counter a pullback from the politics-driven news traffic boom of 2020.
In May the Times reached a deal for a new contract with its newsroom union following more than two years of talks that included a 24-hour strike. The deal included salary increases, an agreement on hybrid work and other benefits.
Wine manufacturer Yellow Tail can’t buy a national ad during the Super Bowl ー but that won't stop the company from getting its “Tastes like Happy” campaign out to the public in spectacular fashion. To skirt the category exclusivity hold that Anheuser-Busch InBev ($BUD) has on the Big Game, Yellow Tail bought 81 local ads ー which cover about 90 percent of the nation.
Millions of people around the world are getting ready for the Super Bowl on Sunday. And while the day is all fun and games, there's still a serious discussion happening about player safety. Now, two leading sports brands have teamed up to design new, state-of-the-art equipment using 3D printing. Joe DeSimone, co-founder and CEO of Carbon, stopped by Cheddar with more on how technology is making football more safe, head to toe.
Luke Wilson is taking a short break from Hollywood. A commercial break. The "Rushmore" and "Old School" actor is starring in his first Super Bowl commercial, and he says the 30-second Colgate spot will probably get more views than any of his movies. "I think more people will see this than any movie I've ever been in for sure," Wilson told Cheddar on Friday.
Draftkings CEO Jason Robins told Cheddar that New Jersey residents alone could wager as much as $100 million on the Super Bowl, the first time sports betting will be legal there for the big game.
Although it has 3 million customers, home security company SimpliSafe isn’t a household name yet. It’s hoping that will change on Sunday after its first Super Bowl ad airs.“In a market where people are trying to lock you in a contract or harvest your data, we’re trying to keep you safe,” brand creative director Wade Devers told Cheddar. “There aren’t really a lot of places you can reach the number of people you can reach like the Super Bowl.”
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Feb. 1, 2019.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the Hallmark Channel will be home to the sixth annual Kitten Bowl, the annual matchup of cat-letes held to benefit the North Shore Animal League. Beth Stern, host of the Kitten Bowl and spokesperson for North Shore (and wife to Howard), brought a pair of 12-week Siamese kittens to Cheddar Thursday to help promote a new event this year: the first-ever Cat Bowl.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2019.
Super Bowl Sunday is the ー well ー Super Bowl of building brand awareness, particularly for food and beverage companies. This year, Pepsi and Frito-Lay, both units of PepsiCO ($PEP), are once again among the snack giants planning to use the 100 million-plus members of the expected television audience to launch new products and elevate brands in their respective portfolios. Frito-Lay CMO Jen Saenz spoke to Cheddar Tuesday alongside Greg Lyons, the CMO for Pepsi, which is known for its Super Bowl ads and social media engagement tied to the Big Game.
Apple is planning a subscription service that would function like Netflix for games, according to people familiar with the matter. The iPhone maker has also discussed partnering with developers as a publisher, which could signal ambitions to assume distribution and marketing costs for games.
