Almost every day I worked at a newspaper from around 2007-08 on, I thought about financial models.

I didn’t cover business, nor the market crash that came to define that time period. I wasn’t trying to come up with Gold Star Lock Of The Week stock picks. But that’s right around the time I started covering the Ottawa Senators as a combination online editor/beat writer and, later, as the Ottawa Citizen’s sports editor.

I thought about financial models a lot because, like everyone else who has worked in the mainstream media over that time period, I wanted someone — anyone — to come up with a way to save newspapers and, by extension, an immeasurable quantity of great journalism.

I’ve seen a lot of bright ideas come and go in the media industry, from digital-first strategies, to ad-only publications, to tablet crazes, to pay-per-click stories. I even toyed with a couple myself after I left the newspaper, finding very modest success but nothing approaching sustainability.

And then, along came The Athletic – a tech startup that, with some venture capital and increasingly impressive subscriber revenue, has been busying itself snapping up many of the best names in sports writing.

To be honest, I wasn’t a subscriber until fairly recently. While I was impressed that The Athletic was able to add journalists like James Mirtle and Sean Fitz-Gerald, I was only so interested in the Toronto sports scene. When James told me the site was expanding across Canada and asked if I’d be interested in writing on the Senators, I finally took the leap, downloaded the app, and signed up for a subscription.

As a sports fan who appreciates great writing and insightful analysis, I couldn’t have been happier with what I found. I already assumed, for example, that the pieces by former Edmonton Oilers analytics guru Tyler Dellow would be worth the price of admission alone. That former Toronto Marlies video coach Justin Bourne — my favourite hockey writer prior to his being snapped up by a hockey team — joined up as a national columnist just cemented it.

The Athletic has suddenly become my second-most used app. (Sorry guys, Twitter has yet to be toppled!)

I’ve since added many team feeds, enjoying the work of recent additions like Craig Custance on the Red Wings and Katie Strang on the Tigers in Detroit, NBA insider Jason Lloyd on the Cleveland Cavaliers, Tim Kawakami on the San Francisco 49ers, and all kinds of hidden gem writers publishing analytical pieces you just don’t find at most mainstream sites. (Bonus: No obnoxious auto-play ads getting in the way of what you’re trying to read.)

Sports journalism stars like Pierre LeBrun and Ken Rosenthal have joined the team, new cities are coming online all the time, and all that work is available to subscribers at no extra charge.

I’m honoured to be contributing to The Athletic. I can promise you this: I’ll bring all of the energy, enthusiasm, critical thinking and objectivity that (I think!) people came to expect from me at the newspaper to this new adventure.

This will be a fascinating season for the Senators. Dismissed by most observers prior to the start of last season, they bought into a new coach’s message and system, came together as a family and persevered through an emotional personal crisis with their star goalie and his wife, and came within a goal of their second appearance in the Stanley Cup final.

Now, they find themselves in the same boat, doubted despite all that success and facing a resurgent, hated rival down the 401.

This should be a very interesting campaign indeed.

Even if you aren’t a Senators super fan, I’m extremely confident that if you take my advice and sign up for The Athletic, you’ll find something worth more than the modest price of admission, over the coming hockey season and beyond.

So, what do you say, Ottawa?

Click here to start your subscription today.

(Image credit: Marc DesRosiers-USA TODAY Sports)