One of the most prominent sports media outlets has decided to stop covering Penn State sports.
Late Monday morning, Audrey Snyder, who had been covering PSU for the Athleticโ which is owned by the New York Timesโ for almost seven years, announced that her time with the company is over.
Soโฆ After nearly 7 years at The Athletic, my time with the company has come to an end. They no longer want to cover Penn State with a full-time beat writer.
Proud of the work I did and the stories I told. Thank you to so many who subscribed.
Time to figure out whatโs next!
— Audrey Snyder (@audsnyder4) April 7, 2025
โThey no longer want to cover Penn State with a full-time beat writer,โ Snyder posted the X, formerly Twitter. โProud of the work I did and the stories I told. Thank you to so many who subscribed.
Time to figure out whatโs next!โ
Judging by social media, the reaction to this news is negative toward The Athletic and positive toward Snyder.
โThey lost at least one subscriber as a result,โ one tweet read.
โAn unfathomably stupid decision,โ Jon Sauber of the Centre Daily Times wrote. โAudrey is the best of us.โ
An unfathomably stupid decision. Audrey is the best of us. https://t.co/EmToES0fRi
— Jon Sauber (@JonSauber) April 7, 2025
โNow I have to schedule 90 mins to go through hoops to cancel my subscription- youโll be back on the beat in no time,โ another post read.
โTheir terrible decision (and wow, is it bad) will be someone elseโs gain,โ Mike Golic Jr. of ESPN wrote. โI have no doubt ๐๐ป
their terrible decision (and wow, is it bad) will be someone elseโs gain, I have no doubt ๐๐ป
— Mike Golic Jr (@mikegolicjr) April 7, 2025
The Athletic cutting coverage of major college and professional programs is, unfortunately, nothing new.
In June 2023, the organization laid off 20 writers and assigned another 20 to different beats.
โAn internal memo obtained by the Washington Post said that there will be some adjustments away from local beat reporting to focus more on โleaguewideโ stories, although there will still be more than 100 team-specific beat writers,โ the New York Post reported.
It appears that still holds true almost two years later.
Snyder had been on the Penn State beat for more than 14 years, starting in 2010.
