What it does
The Athletic is a subscription-based sports media app that offers in-depth, ad-free coverage of numerous sports teams and leagues. It provides users with expert analysis, long-form articles, breaking news, live game coverage, and a wide array of podcasts. The experience is heavily personalized based on the user's favorite teams, leagues, and authors.
Where it shines
The Athletic excels at creating a deeply personalized and content-rich experience. The onboarding flow is a prime example, guiding users through selecting favorite teams (00:15), leagues (00:27), and podcasts (00:43) to build a custom feed from the very beginning. The app's strength in post-game engagement is clear with its community-driven player grading feature (09:31), which allows fans to rate performances and see how their opinions stack up against the crowd. This transforms a static results page into an interactive discussion forum.
UX highlights
- Granular Personalization: Users can follow not just teams and leagues, but also individual authors (05:31), giving them fine-grained control over their content.
- Accessible Curation: A prominent 'Edit' button (04:58) on the main feed leads to a central hub for managing all followed topics, complete with drag-and-drop reordering.
- Interactive Scoreboards: Game detail screens are multi-faceted, with tabs for stats, live blogs, and player grades (03:00), creating a comprehensive hub for each match.
- Dark Mode Support: The app includes a clear theme switcher in its settings (13:48), catering to user preferences for different reading environments.
- Comment Sorting: Within discussion threads, users can sort comments by 'Trending', 'Newest', or 'Oldest' (06:01), helping them navigate conversations effectively.
- Clear Navigation: The app uses a standard bottom tab bar for primary navigation and a scrolling top bar for secondary navigation within sections, making it easy to explore.
Monetization & growth
The Athletic's primary monetization strategy is its subscription, which it introduces during onboarding with a free trial offer (00:51). The app gates nearly all of its content, making the subscription essential for use. If a user tries to access premium content like an article or podcast, they are presented with a paywall offering annual and monthly plans (02:15). The app also uses warm-up screens for notification (00:03) and tracking permissions (01:41) to improve opt-in rates, which are key levers for engagement and targeted marketing.
Who it’s for
The app is designed for dedicated sports fans who crave more than just surface-level scores and headlines. Its audience values deep analysis, quality writing, and specialized content on their favorite teams. It caters to users who want to follow multiple sports and leagues in one place and are willing to pay for a premium, ad-free experience. The podcast and discussion features also appeal to fans looking for community and expert commentary.
Notes & opportunities
While the app is polished, the initial onboarding has several points of friction. The user is faced with two permission prompts, a paywall, and a sign-up screen before they can even see the main feed. Spacing these out or allowing a preview of the main app first could reduce drop-off. For example, showing the tailored feed and then hitting the user with a paywall upon their first article click might prove more effective. Additionally, the subscription process itself showed an error (01:03), indicating a potential technical snag that could frustrate new users.