Thoughts on The Athletic’s $550 Million Price Tag

Is $550 million a fair price for The New York Times to pay for The Athletic? I don’t know. But just eight years ago, Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post for just $250 million. Something seems off here. Either Bezos got The Post for a song or the Times bought The Athletic at high tide.

I suspect it’s the latter. Does it make any sense that The Athletic raised $140 million in venture capital? Not to me. They have over one million paying subscribers (including me — I pay $60/year through iTunes) but somehow lost $100 million in 2019 and 2020? I don’t understand that.

★ Friday, 7 January 2022