Bob Kravitz unloads on depressing tradition at The Athletic: ‘Soul-sucking’

Veteran sportswriter Bob Kravitz has made his emotions clear on The Athletic.

Kravitz, a longtime Colts reporter, was amongst about 20 writers laid off by the outlet last month in a broader restructuring.

For the debut of his new Substack page, Kravitz excoriated the management of the outlet as inhumane and his editorial pointers as inconsistent.

Essentially the most biting commentary got here when Kravitz says he was placed on “probation” to drive a given quantity of subscriptions in a stretch instantly following coronary heart surgical procedure.

“I wasn’t completely satisfied that they put me on probation just some months after a quadruple bypass in 2020. (And throughout the pandemic, no much less). I suppose my numbers weren’t what they wished, however hell, I used to be recovering from a life-changing medical occasion,” Kravitz wrote.

“You’d assume that may have some influence on their pondering, however no. I needed to produce 395 subscriptions in three months – or else. That’s absurd, unfair and outrageous, particularly given my well being scenario. Effectively, I survived, producing greater than 400 subs by working myself half to dying, an ideal thought after open-heart surgical procedure. However that soured me on the place endlessly. I felt it in my bones:

“They don’t give a f–okay about me as a human being.“

Kravitz, 63, beforehand wrote for the Indianapolis Star and native NBC affiliate WTHR.

The Athletic was acquired by the New York Instances final 12 months and has since launched into a pivot from hyper-local protection to extra deal with nationwide beats, because the Instances turns its whole sports desk over to the outlet.

Kravitz stated that the shifting “goalposts” and relentless deal with “metrics” wore on him.

“I wasn’t completely satisfied that I had 4 editors in 4 years, all of them wanting one thing completely different. Write long-form items. OK, fantastic. No, write sturdy opinion columns. OK, fantastic. No, write about roster building (what?). The goalposts stored transferring, and so they’re nonetheless transferring with the New York Instances’ acquisition of The Athletic,” Kravitz stated,

“And the metrics…all the pieces was metrics. (Add “outdated man yelling at cloud” gif) I perceive that’s the present approach of the world in a media enterprise that’s nearly universally struggling, however the numbers had been in our faces – and on our minds – 24/7.

“The Athletic makes a very huge deal in regards to the significance of psychological well being, and that’s nice, however I believe I’m talking for a majority of present Athletic writers, the primacy of metrics (subs, distinctive views and the remaining) had a deleterious influence on our collective psychological well being as a workers. There was nothing extra dispiriting than working your ass off on a narrative, solely to take a look at the metrics and see one subscription and a couple of,000 distinctive views. It was soul-sucking, actually.”

Kravitz, who has since additionally landed a part-time function with the journal Indianapolis Month-to-month, additional alleged that his editors at The Athletic “chickened out” once they killed a characteristic story about Jay Mariotti, the firebrand who beforehand wrote for the Chicago Solar-Instances and was a fixture on ESPN’s “Across the Horn”.

“My instant editor favored the concept, however as soon as it bought to the subsequent stage of modifying, stuff began taking place,” Kravitz wrote.

“Too many cooks within the kitchen, and all that. Too good. Too vital. Too harmful. Too one thing. They determined, and I quote, ‘The juice wasn’t well worth the squeeze.’”