The Athletic Reports Quarterly Profit For First Time

The Athletic made a profit in the third quarter of 2024 for the first time since its launch, according to the latest financial results from parent publisher The New York Times Company.

NYT Co bought the loss-making sports news brand, which launched in 2016, for $550m in January 2022 and it has taken two-and-a-half years since then to get it into quarterly profit of $2.6m.

This is an improvement from a loss of $2.4m in Q2, of $8.7m in Q1, $4.4m in Q4 2023 and $7.9m in Q3 last year, according to The Press-Gazette.

The publisher said the improvement was down to higher revenue in both subscriptions and advertising.

Revenue was up 30% year-on-year to $44.7m for the quarter, with subscriptions making up 70% of that total for The Athletic, advertising (which was up 7% to $9m due to growth in direct-sold display) comprising 10% and other revenue such as Apple licensing making up the rest.

On an investor call, New York Times president and chief executive Meredith Kopit Levien said The Athletic made progress on its “journey to become a household name among sports fans, with strong coverage of the Olympics and great momentum at the start of the NFL and English Premier League season.

“The Athletic is already an important component of our bundle offering and more deeply engaging subscribers,” she added, saying it has begun being tested as “more directly as a driver of bundle subscription starts”.

In Q3 the New York Times Company surpassed 11 million total subscribers for the first time, reaching 11.09 million with 260,000 net new digital subscribers, the company said.

The total subscribers include digital and print, and subscribers to single products as well as the bundle which includes The New York Times online, The Athletic, Cooking, Games and product review brand Wirecutter.