{"id":723635,"date":"2026-06-24T18:52:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/723635\/"},"modified":"2026-06-24T18:52:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T18:52:08","slug":"dianna-russini-and-the-athletic-were-discussing-an-extension-to-her-800000-annual-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/723635\/","title":{"rendered":"Dianna Russini and The Athletic were discussing an extension to her $800,000 annual deal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When Dianna Russini left ESPN for The Athletic, Peter King wrote that \u201cshe immediately becomes <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/fmia\/news\/justin-herbert-chargers-seahawks-nfl-training-camp-peter-king-fmia\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">one of the highest-paid writers in the history<\/a> of the August New York Times company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wednesday\u2019s article in the New York Times regarding the circumstances that led to her resignation (and the aftermath) supplies a specific number.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Athletic paid her an annual salary of <a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/24\/nyregion\/dianna-russini-mike-vrabel-athletic-new-york-times.html?unlocked_article_code=1.slA.qnjS.scsQb6QuwmAc&amp;smid=nytcore-ios-share\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">close to $800,000<\/a>, according to a former manager who had knowledge of her salary negotiation,\u201d the Times reported. This would have made her one of the highest-paid journalists at the Times Company.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Times article adds this: \u201cAt the time the story [regarding Russini\u2019s relationship with Patriots coach Mike Vrabel] broke, The Athletic was in discussions with Ms. Russini about renewing her contract, which was set to expire at the end of June.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>King wrote in 2023 that The Athletic hired Russini \u201cto be a subscription magnet.\u201d Ultimately, she became a lightning rod \u2014 both externally and internally.<\/p>\n<p>The internal investigation conducted by The Athletic continues despite her resignation because of lingering tension within the Times Company tracing to the acquisition of The Athletic and the scrapping of the in-house sports-reporting apparatus. As John Ourand of Puck reported in April, reporters with the Times have complained that The Athletic \u201c<a class=\"Link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nbcsports.com\/nfl\/profootballtalk\/rumor-mill\/news\/dianna-russini-situation-highlights-tension-within-the-new-york-times\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">operates under looser standards and rules<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Russini situation creates an opportunity for the Times and The Athletic to show that the same standards apply. Whether the final outcome of the investigation accomplishes that goal remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, the final outcome of the investigation seems to be coming soon. With July 4 only 10 days away, the afternoons of Thursday, July 2, or Friday, July 3, become a perfect slow-day bad-news nook into which the final report can be wedged.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Dianna Russini left ESPN for The Athletic, Peter King wrote that \u201cshe immediately becomes one of the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":713250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[349,99],"class_list":["post-723635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=723635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/723635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/713250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=723635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=723635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=723635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}