Aviously

Would you pay for your news? What about insights from the top reporters? Would it change if it was business news or sports?

The Athletic is taking that approach, starting a subscription service, writing about the NHL/NFL/NBA/MLB and NCAA, with the intent to make you “Fall in love with the sports page again”.

Their focuses have been also been on regional markets (although not yet NYC), including the Bay Area, Chicago, and Toronto.

While other sites are going towards videos and less written content, such as MTV and Fox Sports, The Athletic is all about the written word.

Personally, I love the idea. I don’t want to worry about having headphones at all time, and while not having an Unlimited Data plan I don’t want to have to always be waiting for videos to load.

And they haven’t wasted any money while trying to get the top writers and voices in the world to talk about their fortes.

TSN’s Pierre LeBrun talking hockey, Fox Sports’ Ken Rosenthal on baseball, and Stewart Mandel and Seth Davis covering college sports.

Pricing isn’t overly expensive if they can keep the writing levels up, at $8/month or as low as $48/year.

I would definitely be interested if they come to the New York area, covering the teams I follow and would be even more interested if their app would allow downloaded articles, for quick recall on my phone.