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The Athletic company history timeline

2016

In October 2016, The Athletic expanded to a second city, Toronto, to focus on Maple Leafs, Raptors, and Blue Jays coverage.

Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann, who started The Athletic in 2016, will stay on after the acquisition.

In 2016, the Times Company bought The Wirecutter and its sibling site, The Sweethome, for more than $30 million.

2017

A third city, Cleveland, launched in March 2017, with Jason Lloyd as editor-in-chief.

The Athletic continued city expansion to Detroit in June 2017.

The Athletic expanded into Philadelphia, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, St Louis, and the rest of Canada in September 2017 bringing local coverage to 15 US and Canadian pro sports markets.

2018

Memphis was added as the 47th local market covered by The Athletic in October 2018, expanding coverage to all NBA teams.

2019

In May 2019, The Athletic announced an expansion into motorsports coverage featuring veteran journalist Jeff Gluck.

In August 2019, The Athletic expanded to the UK, predominantly covering domestic and international football.

2020

Levien has consistently emphasized the importance of adding digital subscribers since taking charge of the business in 2020.

In 2020, The Times bought Serial Productions, the company behind the “Serial” podcast, for more than $25 million.

2021

On November 2, 2021, reports emerged that sports betting companies DraftKings and Flutter Entertainment, among other companies, were among some of the bidders for the company.

At the end of the third quarter of 2021, the Times Company had reached 8.4 million total subscriptions.

The company began exploring a sale to a larger media company in 2021, following continued unprofitability, driven by high expenses and reliance on venture capital funding instead of operational revenue.

2022

Ultimately, in January 2022, The New York Times Company announced that it would acquire The Athletic for $550 million, in a transaction expected to close in the first quarter of 2022.

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Founded
2016
Company founded
Headquarters
San Francisco, CA
Company headquarter
Founders
Adam Hansmann,Alex Mather
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The Athletic history FAQs

Zippia gives an in-depth look into the details of The Athletic, including salaries, political affiliations, employee data, and more, in order to inform job seekers about The Athletic. The employee data is based on information from people who have self-reported their past or current employments at The Athletic. The data on this page is also based on data sources collected from public and open data sources on the Internet and other locations, as well as proprietary data we licensed from other companies. Sources of data may include, but are not limited to, the BLS, company filings, estimates based on those filings, H1B filings, and other public and private datasets. While we have made attempts to ensure that the information displayed are correct, Zippia is not responsible for any errors or omissions or for the results obtained from the use of this information. None of the information on this page has been provided or approved by The Athletic. The data presented on this page does not represent the view of The Athletic and its employees or that of Zippia.

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