The Athletic Launches F1 Coverage, Rounding Out Its Sporting Calendar

The sports media publisher The Athletic, which The New York Times acquired last January for $550 million, is expanding coverage into the world of Formula 1 (F1) racing, spurred by growing audience appetite in a relatively under-reported area of the sporting world. The new vertical will be helmed at launch by a team of three reporters, one editor and a dedicated cadre of design resources, with plans for additional hires in the near future, said Seb Tomich, the chief commercial officer of The Athletic. The coverage will also include a podcast produced by an independent publisher, called The Race, whose rights The Athletic has acquired, as well as a forthcoming newsletter in March. “This is a really big commercial, reader and global opportunity,” Tomich said. “F1 is a global sport, and this is something we want to build on in the long term.” Inside The New York Times’ Plan to Bring Ads to The Athletic The expansion is the latest step from the publisher to achieve its goal of profitability by 2025, as the new vertical advances The Athletic into the lucrative yet relatively unsaturated media landscape surrounding F1. The additional inventory unlocks more scale for potential advertisers, as well as bolsters its claim as an always-on venue for reaching sports fans. Capitalizing on the popularity and undersaturation of F1 The Athletic decided to expand into F1 for a number of reasons, though rising consumer interest in the sport served as the primary catalyst, according to Tomich. The high-octane races gained popular appeal in the U.S. following the release in 2019 of the Netflix F1 docuseries Drive to Survive, which spurred interest in the sport by supplying the narrative structure of its extended universe. Last year, viewership of F1 races grew 28%, from 949,000 viewers per race to 1.21 million, according to ESPN, making it the most popular season of F1 in history. The F1 circuit in the U.S. now includes premiere races in Austin and Miami, as well as an upcoming contest in Las Vegas that will take place at night. Marketers love when relevance meets scale.Seb Tomich, the chief commercial officer of The Athletic This grassroots interest has taken hold among subscribers to The Athletic. In the U.S., 36% of subscribers to The Athletic expressed interest in F1, while it has become the second-most followed sport among U.K. subscribers, according to Tomich. Despite its burgeoning popularity, the media ecosystem surrounding F1 remains relatively unsaturated—a handful of niche sites devote coverage to its every development, but few mainstream publishers report on it routinely. As a result, The Athletic sees in F1 an opportunity to own the coverage of a sport whose domestic fanbase remains nascent. Similar to its recent commitment to women’s sports, the publisher aims to reap the commercial and editorial benefits of investing in sporting sectors poised for growth with a dearth of competition. A full calendar for sports marketers For advertisers, the additional beat helps bulk up the editorial calendar of The Athletic, providing fans further reason to engage with the publisher between seasons of marquee sports like basketball and football, said Frank Puma, the managing director of investment at Mindshare. As such, it strengthens its case as an always-on venue for reaching sports enthusiasts. “This helps give The Athletic a steady flow of traffic that allows them to narrow out the ebbs and flows of sports seasonality,” Puma said. “There are fewer gaps.” The international nature of F1, combined with its emphasis on individual performance, has also attracted interest from an advertising clientele that leans luxury. The official brand partners of F1 include major tech companies, such as Salesforce and Workday, as well as labels like Rolex and Moët Hennessy. Overtime Launches Boxing Vertical, Its Third Franchise, Citing Youth Demand Since launching its advertising business, The Athletic has sought to carve out its niche in the sports marketing universe as a source of premium, scaled inventory, signing Chanel as its initial launch sponsor and recently partnering with Google. F1, whose drivers double as lifestyle influencers, dovetails neatly with that mission, which helped the publisher secure Michelob Ultra as its launch sponsor. “F1 is having a moment, from Drive to Survive to its three U.S. races,” Tomich said. “You bring that together, and marketers love when relevance meets scale.”