The New York Times Will Disband Sports Desk, Shift To More Coverage From The Athletic; LA Times Also Sets Major Sports Section Revamp

Ted Johnson
·3 min read
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The New York Times is disbanding its sports desk and will rely on greater use of The Athletic for daily coverage.

Publisher A.G. Sulzberger and CEO Meredith Kopit Levien wrote in a memo that there are no plans for layoffs, with current sports staff switching to other roles around the newsroom.

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The Times acquired The Athletic in 2022 for $550 million in cash.

“We intend to utilize The Athletic — which has among the largest sports newsrooms in the world — to provide Times readers with a greater abundance of sports coverage than ever before,” they wrote. “Under our plan, the digital homepage, newsletters, social feeds, the sports landing page and the print section will draw from even more of the approximately 150 stories The Athletic produces each day chronicling leagues, teams and players across the United States and around the globe.”

Sulzberger and Levien wrote that the Times’ digital homepage, sports landing page, newsletters and social feeds “will draw from even more of the approximately 150 stories The Athletic produces each day chronicling leagues, teams and players across the United States and around the globe.”

But the move was also greeted as further sign of disruption in traditional print media, even at the Times, which has been among the most successful in making the transition to digital. The Los Angeles Times on Sunday also announced a major revamp of its print sports offering. The magazine-style section will no longer feature box scores, standings or game stories, a change reportedly stemming from a shift to earlier print deadlines (as early as 3 p.m. PT). Statistics and up-to-date game information still will be available online.

LA Times Sports Editor Iliana Limón Romero explained what she called “a new era for the sports section” in a letter to readers. “We are making this change to adapt to how readers follow news and sporting events each day while managing rising production costs,” she wrote. Last month, the news outlet revealed that it would lay off 74 journalists, about 13% of its staff.

The New York Times sports desk has more than 35 editors and writers, according to the publication. The Athletic laid off about 20 journalists, or about 4% of its newsroom, in a reorganization last month. Since the acquisition, the publication has operated separately from The Times but is offered in subscription bundles with the Gray Lady.

In a statement, The New York Times Guild accused the Times of union busting, given that The Athletic staff is not represented in the bargaining unit.

“Times leadership is attempting to outsource union jobs on our sports desk to a non-union Times subsidiary under the preposterous argument that The Times can ‘subcontract’ its sports coverage to itself,” the guild said in a statement. “Management gave the Guild virtually no notice of this change. Many members learned of the company’s decision in a Times news alert that popped up on our phones minutes into a meeting called to inform sports staff of our department’s dissolution.”

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