WORKWEEK

The Athletic Meets the NYT

TLDR: Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann led the sale of The Athletic to the New York Times for $550M cash. The Athletic was set to do $65M in revenue with $55M in operating loss. They are the 2nd largest sports newsroom in the country, only behind Disney owned, ESPN.

Perpetual’s Perspective: Alex, take a deep breath and smile – you did it. The Athletic was built from Day 1 to be nestled into a large subscription business. They probably had the NYT as a potential acquirer in their very first pitch deck. The team took incredibly bold chances – and statements – which included saying they “would bleed out local newspapers and be the last one standing”. IMO, they did just that. The LA Times, which started in 1881 sold for $500M in 2018 vs the $550M in cash that the 2016-founded The Athletic received. Will this be a good deal for the NYT? $50M losses at ain’t easy to swallow. I see a lot of “fringe” sports coverage being cut soon. Who’s the next sports media co I’m watching? Overtime. 

Lit Capital Closes 7 Figure Pod Deal

TLDR: Litquidity Capital, the anonymous finance mememaster who has memerisized the business world with his content announced he closed a 7-figure sponsorship for his podcast. This comes on the back of hiring Mark “Gas Man” Moran from F*ck Boy Island. 

Perpetual’s Perspective: Lit is a world-class talent of content creator who has shown that being the king of memes enables you to build an empire. It’s no surprise he found a $1M+ sponsorship with his audience of 5M+ across platforms. Jim Cramer is 66 years old and his audience ain’t much younger. Lit is taking advantage of that age discrepancy by bringing a new style of infotainment to the finance world. In 5 years, I see him having his own TV show, having a great portfolio of private investments, and a team that dominates the attention of the Wall Street bros.

Baby Shark Becomes First YouTube Vid to Hit 10b Views

TLDR: Bye bye itsy bitsy spider and hello baby shark… doo doo doo doo doo doo. Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo. Baby shark, doo doo doo doo doo doo. Baby shark!

Perpetual’s Perspective: It takes 30 seconds of viewing to be counted as a view on YouTube. So if the average view was 30 seconds, based on my baby brain math that’s more than 9,512 years of attention captured on YouTube for this one song. This trend continues with Netflix with the top show on the platform in 2021 being Cocomelon, it was on the top 10 list for 321 days in the calendar year. With a pandemic causing havac for parents with childcare, the winner of these circumstances have been found: made-for-kids content. Who is building the streaming platform that is only children’s content?