On Wednesday, Bay Area sports writer Tim Kawakami surprised his more than 100,000 Twitter followers by posting that he was leaving The Athletic, his employer since 2017, when he was tapped to be the Editor in Chief of the then new Bay Area vertical.
Personal note: This is my last column for The Athletic. I'm not changing up what I do, just changing companies--will announce that in a few days--but I want to say that starting @theathleticsf was the best job I ever had, working with most of the best people I will ever know. https://t.co/kdl7Bm2Lni
— Tim Kawakami (@timkawakami) September 11, 2024
He left his loyal followers in limbo before sharing on Friday that he was joining the new-ish local news organization, The San Francisco Standard. The current version of the online publication received investing from billionaire venture capitalist Michael Moritz in late 2021.
Kawakami has been vocal on his podcast about The Athletic's pivot away from hyper-local coverage and more toward being a national sports app, which netted founders Alex Mather and Adam Hansmann $550 million in 2022 in a sale to The New York Times.
The San Francisco Standard is launching a new sports division and joining Kawakami at The San Francisco Standard is another writer from The Athletic, David Lombardi.
Big news to share from @sfstandard. We're launching sports coverage!
— Griff (@grifftgaff) September 13, 2024
And we're doing it with two of the best in the business: @timkawakami and @LombardiHimself. They'll start publishing smart, in-depth analysis you’ve been asking for next week. https://t.co/jTudGbQzCd
Readers and listeners of Kawakami, who also has his own podcast network under The TK Show banner, wondered about the Warriors podcast Warriors Plus Minus, which also features current writers for The Athletic, Marcus Thompson and Anthony Slater. It's one of the top podcasts for The Athletic.
In a Friday tweet, Tim wrote, "The 3 of us at "Warriors Plus-Minus" fully intend to keep doing the show, though everything hasn't quite been finalized."
