When a trend takes over sports media, and you look at who was there at the beginning, you’ll often find The Athletic. The incorporation of tactics boards in football content was always a thing, but Tifo and The Athletic sure did popularise it. The use of advanced data from databases like FBRef (RIP), and Opta when evaluating players and teams is also something that The Athletic brought into the mainstream. But while anyone can get lucky in setting a new trend, you’re probably not just getting lucky if you’re at the forefront almost every single time.
So, in my conversation with Jon Mackenzie (executive producer at Tifo) last month, we spoke a little about this, and he essentially gave me the blueprint. And it isn’t the kind that anyone can understand, it’s one that only speaks to those that have a particular mental makeup and self belief.
As a massive football fan and content creator myself, Tifo Football, has always been a source of inspiration for me and many others, I’m sure. Even before they were acquired by The Athletic in 2020, their content was of a quality that most others in the space simply couldn’t get close to. Their video essays on obscure football facts had intricate detail, polished graphics, and engaging editing. Their game breakdowns were of particular interest to nerds like myself who like to see the nuances of the game expanded on and discussed. In many ways, Tifo becoming a part of The Athletic has done nothing drastic to the content itself, and just broadcast that content to a wider audience.
Now at the very heart of the creative ideology held at The Athletic, is an unwavering belief that no matter what the social media or content landscape is like at any particular moment in time, they, as a group, believe that their content is of a high enough quality to capture a large and loyal audience. The most interesting thing about Jon letting me in on this is that before I met with him, I wrote down a few things to help me through the interview just in case I needed some direction. And one of the things I wrote was,
‘the way The Athletic operates indicates that they have such an unwavering belief in the quality of their product and identity, that even if people are generally moving away from the things they do best, they will still stick around for them. And that seems to be holding true.’
And when I pitched that observation over to Jon, he said that that is exactly the way that they think of their content. They believe that even if it looks like things may be slowing down, or people may be shifting in a different direction, that they are so confident in the quality of their content that they have no doubt that they will be able to be at the forefront of the sports media space.
And one thing that this unwavering self-belief allows them to do is innovate. Jon said that Joe Devine, the creative director at Tifo, ‘has full confidence in the team and their ability to set trends in the space’. Now when the creative director gives their team that level of confidence and trust, it is no surprise that some of the best shifts in the space have come from the work done at The Athletic. Put it this way, when Devine gives them that green light, there is a pure fearlessness instilled in the team that allows them all to innovate and perform at a level that is conducive of great work.
In an industry like sports media, there can be a tendency to do what works until it doesn’t work. And Jon spoke on the fact that many other companies, both new and old, have been operating under that exact principle. The repetitive and, in many ways, successful shows and content streams at The Guardian and The Independent were ones that he pointed out as being the best evidence of that tendency in sports media. At The Athletic however, there is a desire to be ahead of the curve, as opposed to riding it on the backside.
Jon said that, ‘we’d rather jump off a train that is still running well a few stops early and build a new one that will take us much further, even if it takes some time to establish’. And essentially, that is why The Athletic are always ahead of the curve in sports media. They aren’t afraid to move off of something good because they have an almost delusional belief that whatever they move on to will be just as, if not more, impactful down the line. And as I said at the beginning, they have been right so many times that they aren’t just getting lucky – that self-belief is what fuels their creative excellence.
And on top of that willingness and desire to evolve, those working at The Athletic have a very good gauge on how the content space is changing. Jon added, ‘we understand that we’re not just competing with other sports media, we’re competing with all types of random media that are all vying for your attention’. So, although there is, especially from Jon himself, a desire to get into the Xs and Os of the sports that they love dearly, there is an element of ‘meeting the audience where they’re at’ that underpins the way that content is produced at The Athletic.
And although he admitted that a lot of the time he is holding himself back, as it pertains to the level of depth in the football content that has made him so prominent in the space, there is groundwork to be done to entice an audience to be interested in the first place. He stated that ‘you have to be as broad as possible to encompass as big an audience as possible… you have to dumb it down a little’. But ultimately, that is in service of the wider goal which is ‘to create an audience that want more, and want to go deeper since it is education at the end of the day’.
Jon’s personal ‘did you notice’ series, in which he points out a specific element of a recent game or team, often begins with a very broad idea that any football fan can understand but also be interested in. Over the course of the video, he does add the nuance that makes him so respected, and by the end, that casual fan has a deeper understanding of the game they love. But that nuance was only accessible because Jon, and the editors at The Athletic know that the hook, albeit vague and lacking nuance, is the key to developing an audience that is actually interested in that aforementioned nuance.
And that series is one that was a piece of innovative genius from those at Tifo in particular, that has had such an impact on the space that many others are now doing similar things for their own platforms. And I’m sure it won’t be long before they come up with something else that has a similar impact.
That understanding of what it takes to really captivate and curate the kind of audience that they want their content to resonate with is undoubtably what sets them apart from many other talented creators. After all, those at The Athletic are not the only people in the industry with unique, groundbreaking ideas, but they are the best at placing those ideas at the center of a package that is of value to even the most casual sports fans. In a period of time wherein people really need to be convinced to stick around and consume content, regardless of its value, The Athletic have found a way to hook people. But they’ve hooked them on excellent, informative content, and that gives them a unique position in the industry where they’ve developed a level of respect within the space that will follow them in whichever direction they decide to go.
So, when Jon confirmed that, ‘The Athletic operates under an unwavering belief in the quality of their product and identity, so much so that even if people are generally moving away from the things they do best, they will still stick around for them’, he wasn’t just talking his group up – he was simply telling the truth.
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