The Athletic has "reached the 1 million subscriber milestone," a feat "few news companies" achieve, according to Alex Sherman of CNBC.com. While other media companies have seen ad revenue "dip 20% to 40% this year," The Athletic co-Founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann "credit their subscription-only business model with keeping the company afloat." The outlet makes more than $60M in "pure subscription revenue and has ad sales from podcasts." Mather said this makes "our newsroom profitable." Sherman notes while the company as a whole "isn't profitable," it "makes enough money to pay for all of its journalists and editors, including travel expenses and benefits." Mather and Hansmann have "tried not to overextend the company by growing too aggressively." Mather said that there are "no plans to prioritize video," which is "expensive to produce but typically offers higher ad rates per viewer." Success notwithstanding, it is "still unclear" how Bedrock Founder & Managing Partner Eric Stromberg is "going to monetize" the VC firm’s investment. Bedrock "typically has a five-to-10 year investment horizon before it pushes to exit." Stromberg said that the time frame "'may get closer to 10 years' before he starts discussing endgame plans with Mather and Hansmann." The pair said that The Athletic has raised $139.5M to date and has "no plans to raise more" (CNBC.com, 9/9).
