Inside The Athletic with Harry the Talented Intern

The Athletic’s launch was the sports media story of the last few weeks. so we took Harry the Talented Intern to their London office to meet Alex Kay-Jelski, the editor in chief. We talked about what it was like to be at the centre of the Twitter storm on that Monday morning, how the initial perception matched with reality and whether he sensed, as I did, a bit of hope among the cynicism of Media Twitter that The Athletic proves a payment model for sports journalism is viable.

The feeling I got from Alex was one of relief that it’s finally out there in the wild, and excitement/fear of how it grows from here. I like that some of the staples of sports coverage have been done away with, such as match reports and press conference coverage, in favour of more detailed, longer pieces by writers who have a deep relationship with the clubs and their fans. This is great, but I like gossip and funny stuff too. Which doesn’t reflect well on me, but I worry that some of the content is aiming for that New Yorker type depth, which can quickly morph in to being a bit worthy. As a New Yorker subscriber, I can say that many of said features go unread after an initial period of enthusiasm. Again, don’t judge me.

It was a theme touched on by Daniel Ayres, who wrote his first piece for Unofficial Partner, on the 6 Things To Say When Asked About The Athletic, on the challenges that await and the bits they have done well so far. Given Dan’s experience at Seven League, expect some forensic stuff on the efficiency of the back office digital process and liberal use of the term, ‘onboarding’, which like esports and bellend, appears to have become one word, without a hyphen.

Elsewhere on the site, Jackie Fast has written a really good piece for us on the apparent intractability of pay gaps, gathered from her visit to a Tortoise Thinkin, another high profile media startup with an agenda to challenge how news is delivered. Jackie’s piece contains a graph that is the best articulation of the problem I’ve seen.

See said graph:

And if you’re reading this and thinking, I’ve got a really good idea for a non-pluggy analysis or opinion piece that would work for Unofficial Partner, then there’s a simple solution awaiting you. Email us. Either by tapping reply to this letter, or going via the site.

Do it now, I dare you.