Yahoo Sports and The Athletic partnering to cover women’s sports

In the midst of the WBNA Finals with interest in women's sports continuing to pick up steam, The Athletic and Yahoo Sports are partnering to launch a new hub for women's sports coverage, the publications announced this week.

A subscription sports news site that's owned by The New York Times and replaced the legendary paper's dedicated sports desk, The Athletic will not put its contributions to the new venture behind a paywall and all of the content, which will include audio and video in addition to written work, produced by both publications is now free on Yahoo Sports' website and will be made available on its app in the coming months.

For Yahoo Sports, the partnership addresses a clear supply/demand issue as views of women’s sports articles on Yahoo Sports are up 253% over the last 12 months and seven of the top 10 most-viewed articles on the site in August were about female athletes.

By bringing in The Athletic, Yahoo is able to add "world-class reporting" as part of the platform's "ongoing commitment to serving women’s sports fans," per Yahoo Sports president Ryan Spoon.

For The Athletic, the partnership will bring previously paid content outside of the payall in the hopes that readers will be motivated to fork over some cash to get behind it moving forward.

"The Athletic is the leader for journalism covering women’s sports and Yahoo Sports stands as one of the largest and most influential sports media and fantasy platforms,” said Athletic chief commercial and development officer Sebastian Tomich. “By bringing these two powerhouse brands together, we're poised to significantly expand the reach of women's sports coverage and engage a broader audience. This partnership also offers an unparalleled opportunity for sponsors to connect with women’s sports at an industry-leading scale, aligning with the growing momentum and passion for women's sports."

As Axios points out , this is the first time The Athletic has reached an external partnership with another media outlet to scale its journalism.

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This article was originally published on thebiglead.com as Yahoo Sports and The Athletic partnering to cover women’s sports .