• by Sara Guaglione , June 8, 2020

Live sports were effectively cancelled once the global pandemic hit, affecting The Athletic’s new subscriber growth and podcast advertising revenue, according to an internal memo from cofounder-CEO Alex Mather.

In the memo, obtained by Axios, Mather said new subscriber growth was 20% to 30% down.

Subscriptions to The Athletic cost $60 a year. The company says it has nearly 1 million subscribers.

The Athletic’s Arizona and South Florida hubs were particularly hit by the layoffs, according to The New York Times.

Those getting let go will receive four weeks of salary, paid for unused time off and health insurance until the end of the year.

The Athletic’s pay cuts across the company will be in place for the remainder of 2020. Executives and founders will also take pay reductions.

In January, The Athletic raised $50 million. In total, the company has raised $139.5 million since its launch in 2016.

Mather was expecting the company to be profitable this year.

Other digital publishers, such as Group Nine Media, BuzzFeed News and Maven Media, which owns Sports Illustrated, have announced layoffs and furloughs in the past few months, due to the pandemic.

While live sports are slowly starting to return, most will have shortened seasons and no fans in the stadiums.