A.H. Belo-owned The Dallas Morning News has been selling all-access to its sports coverage SportsDay, starting at $1.49 a week, which works out to $78 a year. These markets have franchise teams, which also has drawn startup The Athletic, armed with $30 million in funding, to set up shop with $48-a-year local market sports news offerings. Sports is low-hanging fruit for newspapers looking for ways to reap revenue from readers because it tends to attract fervent fans. Twenty-three percent are people who subscribe because they're highly interested in a specific topic, and sports was the third most-followed subject, behind politics and national politics, and college or high school sports. "Everything we do at The Athletic is focused on providing the best value to our subscribers," said Alex Mather, co-founder of the company "The Athletic's comprehensive bundle - deep local coverage, national stories from some of the biggest names in sports, soccer coverage from all over the world, and depth on verticals like fantasy, WNBA, and more - is different from any other publisher. Further, we've put the reader experience first, removed ads, and provide a community where subscribers can interact with each other, our writers, and even players and coaches. Our subscribers realize they can't get this offering anywhere else." Sherlock wouldn't break out the Morning News' sports subscription numbers but said they've continued to grow even after The Athletic entered the market. The sheer numbers for sports subscribers may not be huge, but one advantage of sports as a paid vertical is that the interest often goes beyond the local area. Read more