Layoffs at The Athletic: Fired journalists take to social media to bid goodbye to New York Times-run website

The Athletic, the New York Times‘s subscription sports website, stated on Monday that it was laying off almost 20 correspondents or about 4% of its journalistic team. Twenty others will be given new roles as part of the restructuring. Publisher David Perpich and editor-in-chief Steven Ginsberg of The Athletic sent the information to staff members through email.

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Perpich and Ginsberg stated in the memo that “Even with the changes being announced today, the size of our newsroom will grow this year compared to last, as will our overall investments in our editorial group in the years ahead,” according to The New York Times. “At the end of this process, we will have more than 100 beat reporters on teams.”

As per dailyhive.com, even though The Athletic had previously indicated that it wanted to cover as many areas as possible, writers and editors covering the NBA, NHL, and MLB were all impacted, including Sean Fitz-Gerald and Marc-Antoine Godin, two renowned Canadian journalists based in Toronto and Montreal, respectively.

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The New York Times paid $550 million for the subscription-based outlet in 2022, but it has been losing money ever since. According to the Times’ official disclosures, the most recent quarter had a loss of $7.8 million.

A laid-over journalist by the name of Bob Kravitz posted on Twitter saying, “Welp, some personal news: The Athletic has let me go as part of a small wave of layoffs. But hell, it’s been a good run, 41 years-plus of sports journalism, some of it damned good. I’m sad I don’t get to walk away on my own terms, but that doesn’t often happen. So… -30-“

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Another one named Kelsey Russo said, “So, I was also a part of the layoffs today at The Athletic. Still trying to process it, but I am grateful for the past 4 years covering the Cavs. I worked with some incredibly talented people, and am so grateful I had the chance to work and learn from them. So thank you all.”