The Athletic

The Athletic is a subscription-based sports journalism department of The New York Times. It provides national and local coverage in 47 North American cities as well as the United Kingdom. The Athletic also covers national stories from top professional and college sports.

The Athletic's coverage focuses on a mix of long-form journalism, original reporting, and in-depth analysis. Its business model is predicated on dis-aggregating the sports section of local newspapers, and reaching non-local fans not reached by a local newspaper.

The Athletic was launched by Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann in January 2016 as an independent subscription-based online sports magazine. It gradually expanded its stable of writers over the next few years to provide better coverage of more teams in more markets, including in the United Kingdom. However, the magazine remained unable to earn enough revenue without advertising to make a profit, and the owners began to seek an outside buyer. The New York Times Company acquired The Athletic for $550 million in 2022, initially as a semi-independent entity under the continued direction of Mather and Hansmann. In July 2023, the company dissolved the New York Times' existing sports department, laid off or reassigned its sports staff, and began operating The Athletic as a replacement sports department under new management.