New York Times calls shutting down sports department 'evolution in our coverage strategy'

The New York Times announced Monday that it plans to shutter its sports desk, relying instead on the Athletic, the subscription sports website it purchased last year, for most sports coverage. The Times will offer jobs elsewhere in the newsroom to current sports staffers, the company said, and plans to form a new team on its business desk focused on the business of sports.

"This evolution in our coverage strategy and newsroom is intended to give our readers an even more comprehensive array of sports coverage — which will also include greater use of daily news and features from The Athletic's extensive sports journalism on our homescreen, newsletters and other channels, such as print," read the note from Times executive editor Joe Kahn and managing editor Monica Drake.

The Times bought the Athletic last year for $550 million in an effort to boost its subscription business and add to its non-core news offerings like cooking and games. The Athletic brought with it around 1 million paid subscribers, thanks to around $140 million in venture-capital funding.

Since the acquisition, however, there has been friction in how the Athletic should operate in conjunction with the Times' own sports desk, which as of last year had around 40-50 people. There was notable overlap in coverage between the two newsrooms, which prompted Kahn to tell sports staffers earlier this year that there needed to be more integration between the two staffs.

Times sports staffers wrote a letter to company executives over the weekend demanding input into the section's future, amid fears that their section could be disbanded. According to Monday's note, Times sports staffers will be offered jobs, which could be focused on sports, on other desks in the newsroom. No layoffs are planned, the company said.

After the Times's announcement, the Athletic's publisher, David Perpich, wrote to Athletic staffers that he was "pleased" with the change, calling it a "big step" for the publication. The change, he said, will expose "many more readers to our stories and our brand, which will allow us to further expand the audience for the excellent work we do."

The note from Perpich said the Athletic will continue to operate as an independent newsroom and that there are no plans for restructuring or other significant changes in response to the Times's announcement.

The Athletic announced last month that it was laying off around 20 staffers and shifting its coverage strategy, reducing the number of teams that will be covered by dedicated beat reporters. It has around 3 million subscribers now, according to the Times, but lost nearly $8 million in the first quarter this year, according to the Times's most recent public filings.

One point not addressed in the Times announcement is how the labor agreement that governs its Guild employees will affect the new arrangement. The Athletic is not unionized, and the Guild's contract has provisions that address work that non-Guild members can produce for the Times.

Regardless of the specifics of the arrangement, the end of the Times sports desk marks a significant departure from how the newspaper has covered sports for decades. Columnists Red Smith and Dave Anderson won Pulitzer Prizes, and its sports coverage was a leader in concussions in the NFL and steroid use in baseball.

"Our deep admiration for that legacy makes this decision bittersweet for all of us," read the note from Kahn and Drake. "But our newsroom is always evolving, and we believe this new structure positions us to continue uncovering stories that surprise, delight and inform our readers about the world of sports and beyond."