Latest News by Industry
• NYT expects to reach 10 million subscribers by 2025
• The Athletic expects it's 2021 revenue to be around $77 million and cash burn of $35 million
The New York Times Co has agreed to buy a subscription-based sports news website, The Athletic, for around $550 million. The Information reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter.
The deal will help expand the 170-year-old news publisher’s digital offerings, which moved to a subscription-first business model that allowed it to weather steep declines in advertising and print readership.
As of September 30, NYT has 8.3 million digital and print subscribers and expects to reach 10 million subscribers by 2025.
Shares of the news publisher jumped over 5.5% to $48.27 in New York trading session.
Athletic financials
The Athletic has a subscriber base who pays $72 a year for following sports news.
The online news publisher is currently looking for ways to grow advertising revenue and recently launched a free daily newsletter. Last year, the company told investors it expected its ad sales to reach $31 million in 2023.
The Athletic generated a revenue of $47 million in 2020 while burning $41 million, The Information reported and forced to lay off staff during the early months of the pandemic when most live sporting events were suspended. In September 2020, it hit 1 million subscribers.
Earlier, the company forecasted its 2021 revenue to jump to $77 million and cash burn to drop to $35 million.
The Athletic raised $145 million in 2020 at a valuation of $530 million, according to PitchBook.
Digital media space consolidation
The acquisition news comes at a time when the digital media space is going through a consolidation.
BuzzFeed went public via a SPAC merger in early December and bought Complex Media for $300 million. Vox Media--New York Magazine and The Verge's parent company--agreed to buy Group Nine Media.
German publishing giant Axel Springer in August acquired the U.S. political news organization Politico for around $1 billion.
Picture credit: Poynter