As I sat down to write a note about our first year of soccer coverage, The Athletic’s Dallas Stars reporter Sean Shapiro had just published this insane story about the team’s frank and spectacularly profane owner. It turns out the owner is displeased with the recent performance of the Stars’ two biggest players. I saw the reactions swell in the comments section. I saw the follow-up stories about how the two players had acknowledged the need to improve. And then I wondered: If I were to launch a similar tirade at Paul Tenorio, could I possibly squeeze a few more clicks per story out of him?



Sadly, no. The Athletic doesn’t measure the success of stories in clicks, and besides, Michael Caley tells me that Paul’s actual subscriber views are right in line with his expected subscriber views. Unlike a number of the other writers we featured this past year, I had never worked with Paul before he became our lead soccer writer. I knew his work and I...