The Athletic , worth a go ?

Currently available for £36 for a yearly sub , anybody got any views on it , is it worth subscribing to ?

https://theathletic.com/checkout/?plan_id=45&pc=all20teams&source=promo

Very good in-depth articles, well researched and much better reads that you'll get in any newspaper/website.
Saints have one guy in particular - Carl Anka(?) - who follows and writes articles about us. (At least I assume it's one guy, could be a team using one pen name). Not only seems well informed but actually replies to readers in the end of article comments section. It's very much an "own content" website, not an accumulator of stories from other sites.

For me the trial price  workinbg out at £3 a month is well worth it. Not sure if I'm interested in the non-Saints articles enough to renew at full price after 12 months but I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.

If you want stories and articles specific to Southampton, The Athletic for sure is the best place to go. The Southampton correspondent Carl Anka does a great job at keeping fans informed and the articles are always in-depth and well-written.

1 minute ago, Wurzel said:

Very good in-depth articles, well researched and much better reads that you'll get in any newspaper/website.
Saints have one guy in particular - Carl Anka(?) - who follows and writes articles about us. (At least I assume it's one guy, could be a team using one pen name). Not only seems well informed but actually replies to readers in the end of article comments section. It's very much an "own content" website, not an accumulator of stories from other sites.

For me the trial price  workinbg out at £3 a month is well worth it. Not sure if I'm interested in the non-Saints articles enough to renew at full price after 12 months but I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.

That is his name. Nice Guy. Came for a beer or two before a home game last autumn (not Leicester).

Thanks for the responses , I’ll give it a go !

I'd recommend it too.  Got a 1/2 price deal so only cost me £19.99 for a year.  Given I read at least an article a day it is good value and the quality is usually there as well

I've just signed up - £2.99 a month for first year - cancel anytime- really looking forward to their articles.

4 minutes ago, It's There said:

I've just signed up - £2.99 a month for first year - cancel anytime- really looking forward to their articles.

Where is this deal? 

At that price i'm happy to have it.

22 minutes ago, Colinjb said:

Where is this deal? 

At that price i'm happy to have it.

Click the link in my first post or if that doesn’t work , if you Twitter @carlanka has link to it !

1 minute ago, johnnyboy said:

Click the link in my first post or if that doesn’t work , if you Twitter @carlanka has link to it !

Tried it, but that takes it to an annual, rather then monthly, payment.

£36 for a one off payment for a year isn't bad. But broken down to £2.99 a month I'll hardly notice it.

Met Carl a few times and a real nice chap. From London but has embedded himself in So'ton and is the Athletic's dedicated reporter exclusive to Southampton. Carl is very hot on the tactical side of the game (often leaves me confused) and has also conducted interviews with ex-players like Moran, Tessem, Beattie etc. He goes to all the away games, travels and chats with the fans and really has tried to get into the soul of the club. Attends all pressers and fully credited. I have been trying to persuade him to do an article on the punch up years and have even tracked Andy Oldknow (living in Saudi) for him but think Carl got cold feet. You get some proper grown up football articles in the Athletic so even the non-Saints stuff is worthwhile.

3 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Met Carl a few times and a real nice chap. From London but has embedded himself in So'ton and is the Athletic's dedicated reporter exclusive to Southampton. Carl is very hot on the tactical side of the game (often leaves me confused) and has also conducted interviews with ex-players like Moran, Tessem, Beattie etc. He goes to all the away games, travels and chats with the fans and really has tried to get into the soul of the club. Attends all pressers and fully credited. I have been trying to persuade him to do an article on the punch up years and have even tracked Andy Oldknow (living in Saudi) for him but think Carl got cold feet. You get some proper grown up football articles in the Athletic so even the non-Saints stuff is worthwhile.

Enjoyed a few articles on there today , plenty to read whilst on furlough , just finished the benali on tour one ! Anybody from here ?

I have 5 30day passes if anyone would like to try before signing up? DM me, first come first serve 

14 minutes ago, Fitzhugh Fella said:

Met Carl a few times and a real nice chap. From London but has embedded himself in So'ton and is the Athletic's dedicated reporter exclusive to Southampton. Carl is very hot on the tactical side of the game (often leaves me confused) and has also conducted interviews with ex-players like Moran, Tessem, Beattie etc. He goes to all the away games, travels and chats with the fans and really has tried to get into the soul of the club. Attends all pressers and fully credited. I have been trying to persuade him to do an article on the punch up years and have even tracked Andy Oldknow (living in Saudi) for him but think Carl got cold feet. You get some proper grown up football articles in the Athletic so even the non-Saints stuff is worthwhile.

The Athletic is in trouble.  In the States they've cut staff pay by 10% and have announced redundancies.  Soon to follow here.

33 minutes ago, Verbal said:

The Athletic is in trouble.  In the States they've cut staff pay by 10% and have announced redundancies.  Soon to follow here.

Interesting.  They suddenly snapped up 60+ real good journo’s all at once - must’ve cost them a fortune. 

12 minutes ago, SuperSAINT said:

Interesting.  They suddenly snapped up 60+ real good journo’s all at once - must’ve cost them a fortune. 

I've never quite understood their business model, being that their target was only to achieve 100,000 subscribers in the UK in year one. At £3 a month or whatever that's not much revenue for an the journalists they've hoovered  up and are paying to provide content on an ad-free platform.

I thought they had some big picture masterplan I was missing but their financial troubles in the US suggest maybe not.

For now, they've got good journalists and I like the "Football Cliches" podcast too.

1 hour ago, Verbal said:

The Athletic is in trouble.  In the States they've cut staff pay by 10% and have announced redundancies.  Soon to follow here.

Really? I hadn't heard that. Tough times I guess - hope Carl survives the inevitable cull

They've tried to keep the US and UK setups separate in terms of funding, as far as I'm aware. The UK project was well funded (and needed to be in order to persuade that amount of big-name and probably big-salary journalists to make the leap) and I'm sure will be given time to show whether it can/will work over here.

Yes some really good articles both on Saints and football in general on a lot of topics as well, from how transfers are done, things outside the game, tactics, etc.

Really interesting and the Saints reporter Carl Anka is very good on analysing Ralph's tactics. 

16 hours ago, stevegrant said:

They've tried to keep the US and UK setups separate in terms of funding, as far as I'm aware. The UK project was well funded (and needed to be in order to persuade that amount of big-name and probably big-salary journalists to make the leap) and I'm sure will be given time to show whether it can/will work over here.

If your entire business model is predicated on subscriber-funded sports journalism, it's no surprise that they're in trouble.  There's been no sports to report on, anywhere, since March.

While their budgets may be distinct their funding is not. It's from venture-capitalist sources largely, and they would have had an expected 'burn rate' (that is, the period in which you run at a large loss while you try to drive your competitors out of business), and that burn rate has presumably been exceeded.  Hence the cutbacks in the US.  They've also run into trouble in the US because their competitors' content is often available for free.  Something that's equally true, more or less, here. 

Hello all, me again - Carl Anka from The Athletic. 

Enjoyed the discussion and thank you for the kind words.

I do have five 30 day guest passes if anyone is interested in giving The Athletic a look and seeing if it's for them. (Best way to contact me is via Twitter DM).

We also have a sale on offering 40% off subscriptions at the moment to celebrate football is back. 

Currently working on a few stories, one on Ralph, another on a youth player, along with the match pieces. If there's anything else you want to know or talk about, don't hesitate to get in touch. 

I've just subscribed and pleased that I have - some really interesting articles. Totally different level of writing compared to the tabloid comics.

Superb magazine. Light years ahead os syndicated MSM media and Forum nonsense.

36 minutes ago, manji said:

Superb magazine. Light years ahead os syndicated MSM media and Forum nonsense.

Led, staffed and written almost entirely by people who have recently been at The Times/Daily Mail/BBC/Guardian/etc.