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Dianna Russini was Reportedly Making $800,000 with The Athletic
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Katherine Rosman and Ken Belson have a dual byline on a New York Times story titled “Dianna Russini Was an N.F.L. ‘Insider.’ Was She Also Out of Bounds?“
The Times owns The Athletic, which is the outlet Russini recently resigned from because of the Mike Vrabel scandal, so the intersection here is somewhat curious, but the big takeaway I think is this:
The tabloid drama stunned the Times Company. Ms. Russini was not just any reporter. The Athletic paid her an annual salary of close to $800,000, according to a former manager who had knowledge of her salary negotiation. This would have made her one of the highest-paid journalists at the Times Company. She had been promoted as a face of the sports publication, which the company bought in 2022 for $550 million as part of an effort to expand the Times’s reach to sports fans around the world. At the time the story broke, The Athletic was in discussions with Ms. Russini about renewing her contract, which was set to expire at the end of June.
$800,000? How do you fumble that? That’s life-changing money! That’s Avalon shore house and private school money. Germantown Academy money. Early retirement money. She could have called it quits at age 48 to become a “consultant” and travel the world. All she had to do was text a lot of people and work sources and report some stuff that may or may not even be true. How would we know anyway? All you gotta do is attribute it to “people with knowledge of the situation” and let NFL fans decide for themselves.
I can’t believe they were paying her that much money. They could hire eight beat reporters with that money. Is there more value in eight beat reporters or one insider? That’s an interesting question. What is the insider-to-scribe value ratio? How much money do they have over there anyway? We’re only paying something like $7.99 for our subscription. Does half the country subscribe to The Athletic?
Still, I can’t believe she fumbled that bag. Her husband is some big wig at Shake Shack, so presumably he makes a lot of money as well, but how do you do that? HOW DO YOU DO THAT? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com