Call to the pen
Fansided

The New York Times buying The Athletic could have massive implications on baseball

By Wilson Truong

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 21: Max Fried #54 of the Atlanta Braves walks back to the mound during an 11-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in game five of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium on October 21, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 21: Max Fried #54 of the Atlanta Braves walks back to the mound during an 11-2 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in game five of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium on October 21, 2021 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Harry How/Getty Images) /
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The Athletic has reportedly been sold to The New York Times Co. at a value of around $550 million.

As many familiar with the situation will know, The Athletic being sold is not surprising. For months now, there have been multiple reports of The Athletic being sold off. Companies like Axios were also reportedly interested.

The New York Times and The Athletic had been flirting with each other in the past. The two were talking about a deal previously in mid-2021 before talks broke up in June according to the Sahil Patel of the Information.

One of the major sticking reasons about why the talks broke down in June was that neither side could figure out a price tag and how employees of The Athletic who have equity would be compensated.

Well clearly talks didn’t completely break down as Dylan Byers of Puck reported that The New York Times entered exclusive talks to buy The Athletic in mid-December.

Both sides were able to figure out the price tag relatively quickly. Details are still unknown at the moment, but Jayson Stark did post a tweet saying that The Athletic will continue to operate independently. How independently, however, is unclear.

The New York Times reported acquisition of The Athletic could potentially affect the sport of baseball in many ways

But there’s another question from the acquisition that could have a massive effect on the sport, and that will whether The Athletic writers would still be able to vote for the Baseball Hall of Fame, MVP Awards, Cy Young Awards, and all of the other major awards.

As people do know, The New York Times has a strict policy about its journalists voting for awards as they don’t permit them to vote for various sports and entertainment awards. They cite that journalists should report the news, not help make it. The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times are other news organizations that have this policy as well.

The Athletic currently employs many respected journalists in the sport like Jayson Stark, Ken Rosenthal, Marc Carig, Peter Gammons, and others who vote for the major awards, including who should be elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

The Athletic also employs some very respected journalists in other sports as well, such as Shams Charania, Pierre Lebrun, and David Ornstein.

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If I were to make a guess, I would be surprised if The New York Times would still allow The Athletic writers to continue to vote for the awards and submit ballots for the Baseball Hall of Fame in the future. Details are still relatively scarce at the moment, so we don’t know the full details of the sale, but it could have massive implications for the sport.

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