Sports news site startup The Athletic believes so strongly in the subscription model that it launched as a subscription-only site and mobile app with a hard paywall in two markets – Chicago and Toronto. Investors seem to think it is a hot ticket too. They’ve given $2.1 million to The Athletic in its seed funding round, including a $500,000 investment from venture capital firm Courtside Ventures, reports Forbes.

What exactly is The Athletic? It is a premium sports news website and mobile app focused on Chicago and Toronto sports teams. For $4.99 a month or $39.99 a year, Chicago and Toronto sports fans can enjoy an ad-free sports news experience while accessing exclusive content (articles, podcasts, photos), interviews, expert opinion, post-game report cards, Q&A sessions with writers, and more.

Chicago sports fans can read about the Chicago Blackhawks, the Bears, the Bulls, the White Sox, and of course, the world champion Chicago Cubs. (full disclosure: I’m a lifelong Cubs fan) Toronto sports fans can access exclusive access to content around their favorite teams – Toronto Maple Leafs, the Raptors, Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto FC.

According to Forbes, The Athletic business model is solely based on subscriptions. It is not an ad-supported model. Founder and CEO Alex Mather told Forbes they need just under 2,000 subscribers per team per market to break even. Since launching in January 2016, The Athletic has thousands of subscribers in both the Toronto and Chicago markets. Mather also told Forbes the company is focused on profitability and expects to be profitable in Chicago in 2017. Toronto may also hit that point in 2017. With those kinds of numbers, it looks like The Athletic has positioned itself to persevere in the age of free content.

For now, The Athletic has a staff of four in San Francisco and full-time sports writers in Chicago and Toronto who provide the content. The company’s Chicago Twitter profile explains their work this way:

“Great writers, original reporting, smart analysis, and world-class technology. The new way to follow Chicago sports.”

Insider Take:

As many news organizations are struggling with monetization in the digital era, it is interesting to hear of a company that believes “if you build it, they will come.” It is also interesting that they are going to do so with a subscription-only model. Despite the inherent challenge, The Athletic has a lot of pluses:

• Venture capital to support the company as it grows and expands into new markets
• A clearly defined market with multiple sports teams
• An eager audience, particularly among Cubs fans
• Unique, high quality content
• Knowing where their breakeven point is and a plan to exceed that in 2017

Once again, the subscription model shows how you can take a well thought out idea to market and create a business plan that will turn that product into a revenue-generating vehicle that readers are eager for. We hope The Athletic will be successful, and not just because we’re Cubs (and Red Sox) fans.