New York Times Eliminates Its Sports Department

New York Times Eliminates Its Sports Department

The New York Times sports department — once home to some of the nation’s best sportswriters, including George Vescey and Red Smith — will be no more.

The Times announced it is eliminating its entire sports department- poof it is gone.

The Times Company purchased the digital sports website The Athletic for a reported $550 million in January of 2020.

GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST

 

Then, last month the Times cut 4% of The Athletic's staff.

 

The leadership of the paper defended the announcement of the elimination of the sports department.

“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. 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,” according to a statement issued by publisher A.G. Sulzberger and editor Meredith Kopit Levien.