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Taylor leaves Guardian after 19 years to join The Athletic

Athletic

Chief Football Writer Daniel Taylor has left the Guardian and Observer after 19 years to join subscription sports website The Athletic.

The Manchester-based journalist has been has been in his current position with the newspaper for seven of those 19 years.

Today he tweeted: “Today is – gulp – my last day at the Guardian/Observer. It’s been lovely – bloody hell, 19 years, seven as chief football writer, five World Cups … I will always be grateful they took a chance on me.

“I will be back soon, possibly with a new Twitter pic. Thank you for reading!”

US-based The Athletic launched in the UK in August, with bold claims of having “the biggest team of football journalists ever assembled.”

The site launched in the US three years ago and has been raiding national and regional titles in the UK for sports journalism talent.


Yorkshire Post chief football writer Phil Hay and BBC Sport correspondent David Ornstein are among the other journalists to have joined.

Former Independent sports editor Ed Malyon, 29, is UK Managing Director of The Athletic, while former Daily Mail and Times sports editor Alex Kay-Jelski is editor in chief.

In the US and Canada, The Athletic covers about 270 NFL, NHL, NBA and college sports teams. In August, it announced it had passed the 500,000 subscriber mark at an average annual fee of $64. It has raised over $90m from financiers such as Comcast Ventures, the media conglomerate’s investing arm, and hired about 450 journalists.

The UK venture is backed by £10m and is aiming to attract more than 100,000 subscribers in the UK.

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