Some The Athletic MLS writers were told they’re no longer needed; the site says “a big announcement” is on the way

Significant change appears underway for soccer coverage at The Athletic. A few writers who had been covering specific MLS teams for the site have tweeted about being told they’re no longer needed, and added some comments that the site may be moving to regional MLS beat writers rather than team-specific ones:

Sorry Timbers and Thorns fans. My writing will be at The Guardian, Yahoo Sports, The New York Times, Goal and hopefully more – always looking for new writing opportunities. I’ll be in France for The Guardian covering the #USWNT. And my book is out now: https://t.co/doCdQeaqg3

— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) April 11, 2019

For those asking, I was told they're moving to regional writers hence local beat writers announcing that they aren't writing for The Athletic anymore. Portland, Seattle and Vancouver will be in one coverage area together. I already have plans to cover Portland for another outlet.

— Caitlin Murray (@caitlinmurr) April 11, 2019

But this comes in the same week where The Athletic announced the hire of Megan Linehan as a women’s soccer staff writer, and promised to cover women’s soccer “from every angle, and on the merits of the game itself” both around the World Cup this summer and beyond that. And that announcement saw other tweets noting that further soccer hires were likely coming:

https://twitter.com/cboehm/status/1115636245596655616

Asked for comment on the soccer changes, an Athletic spokesperson told Awful Announcing “We have heard the concerns that subscribers have about changes to our coverage. We have a big announcement on the way, one that the whole company is very excited about. We’ll be sharing that update very soon.” Athletic Soccer editor George Quraishi also used similar language on Twitter:

https://twitter.com/quraishi/status/1116423801603014656

We’ll see what comes of that announcement.