eBay Inks Sports Collectible Content Deal With NYT's The Athletic, Raising Media Ethics & Integrity Concerns

UPDATE 8-21-24

It looks like The Athletic readers were right to be skeptical as articles in this new memorabilia vertical are stuffed full of eBay affiliate links.

While there is a general disclaimer at the bottom that The Athletic may earn commissions from links in their articles, the initial press release makes it very clear this partnership with eBay includes much more than just affiliate commissions - a fact that is not disclosed anywhere directly on article pages.

I'd be curious what the FTC would think of that - but the fact that Lina Khan and others high up at the Commission have extensive ties to eBay founder Pierre Omidyar doesn't instill much confidence regulators would remain objective and unbiased when reviewing consumer complaints about these practices.

eBay signs multi-year deal with New York Times-owned The Athletic to provide exclusive sports trading card and memorabilia content, prompting reader skepticism and questions about journalistic integrity and ethics.

This new vertical was launched today on The Athletic as the publication's "first editorial vertical focused on supporting purchasing decisions."

The Athletic Launches In-Depth Coverage of Sports Collectibles | The New York Times Company

The New York Times Company

The exclusive partnership will provide content and data-based insights with the aim to make relevant eBay collectibles and memorabilia discoverable through The Athletic content and various product platforms, allowing readers to search and purchase items from their favorite players, teams, leagues and sports, powered by The Athletic and eBay.

Senior editor, sports memorabilia and collectibles Brooks Peck, will be leading these efforts after previously serving as managing editor of U.S. soccer coverage for The Athletic and co-founding Yahoo Sports blog “Dirty Tackle.”

Readers are told to expect explainers on the most sought-after collectibles, data-backed insight stories, and news and analysis of the latest trends, with the Athletic promising to provide trustworthy recommendations and guidance from knowledgeable collectors and industry experts.

But some are a bit skeptical that The Athletic can maintain their editorial independence and journalistic integrity while engaging in a clearly financially beneficial tie up with eBay - artfully summed up in this comment posted by Athletic reader Andy R. on Peck's announcement post about the deal:

"Happy for you as a writer, but pitching an eBay partnership as a sweet little perk for readers and not as an advertisement feels disingenuous at best and like TA thinks readers are stupid at worst."

It certainly wouldn't be the first time eBay media partnerships prompted questions about the potential for blurring ethical and regulatory lines on paid promotions and advertising.

eBay's partnerships with Vogue and others in the fashion space have also raised similar concerns over the last year as required ad disclosures have at times been completely missing or strayed into gray areas with questionable compliance.

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A new job posting on the eBay careers page last month revealed the company is also looking to hire for a new communications role explicitly designed to "leverage media connections" to promote Chief Technology Officer Mazen Rawashdeh in the press and "position eBay as a top-tier technology company", calling into question just how much trust we should put in recent media coverage about eBay's supposedly "magical" AI innovations.

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eBay doesn't even try to hide their desire to influence public conversation about the company. Last year they had an open job position for a Corporate Communications Specialist specifically to handle "business critical communications" and "protect eBay's reputation" by "leveraging media relationships to elevate eBay’s brand and reputation...fostering relationships with key media... [and] placing executive profiles, bylines & speaking ops that further the company narrative."

This tie up with The Athletic comes on the heels of eBay recently acquiring Goldin Auctions as part of the continued consolidation of their dominant position in the sports and collectible trading card market that has faced increasing regulatory scrutiny and calls for the FTC to investigate eBay for deceptive and anti-competitive conduct related to their acquisition of collectible card game marketplace, TCGPlayer.

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eBay's involvement could also be seen as an effort to shape narratives around important events in the hobby or even drown out smaller, independent niche sports collectible journalism that may not always present eBay in a positive light - like the revelation from newcomer collectibles news site Cllct that mega-seller Burbank Sportscards will be taking millions of cards off of eBay after signing an exclusive deal with Fanatics.

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And of course any conversation about eBay media relations (or retaliations) would not be complete without mentioning the 2019 cyberstalking scandal that targeted journalists Ina and David Steiner of EcommerceBytes in an attempt to silence their reporting and out an anonymous source known as Fidomaster unsuckEBAY on Twitter.

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Court documents in the ongoing cases revealed details of eBay's troubled past with independent media publishers, including ex-CEO Devin Wenig and ex-Communications Chief Steve Wymer hiring a consulting firm that recommended creating and promoting company-friendly content in an effort to push coverage they didn't like down in search results.

Wenig and Wymer also discussed how they could "eff with" reporter Ina Steiner by promoting a list of seller blogs and websites that did not include EcommerceBytes.

Notably, many sites on that list just happened to provide more favorable coverage of eBay in general and Wenig's leadership as CEO in particular.

Wenig (Executive 1) was also not a fan of the Wall Street Journal, telling Wymer (Executive 2) "Fuck them. The journal is next on the list."

Surprisingly, Wenig was no stranger to the media business - prior to joining eBay, he was CEO of Thomson Reuters Markets, the financial and media businesses of Thomson Reuters Corporation.

At Code Conference 2016 hosted by Recode, Wenig was asked for his thoughts on the controversy then brewing between Gawker Media and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel.

Is it right for a billionaire to put large amounts of money secretly behind lawsuits seemingly to settle a political a personal score and to try to put a publication out of business?

Wenig's answer took a very staunch position defending a free press.

I'm gonna answer the broader question which is, I side with a free media and a free press.

I think we've got to be very careful. It is a nuanced argument there's always a pull and tug but something feels like it's different. All First Amendment rights aren't created equal.

There's a strong public interest in a free press and rich and powerful people have First Amendment rights too but if you allow that to be unfettered and what that causes is a real stifling of voices and a real concentration of media.

...We're not going to like the result of that and that really goes back all the way to the Constitution. So I don't want to get into all of that but we've got to be really careful that powerful voices don't knock down what I call divergent points of view.

You know this immediate kerfuffle, I don't like the media actor [Gawker]. I don't read what they do. I don't find it particularly valuable but that's irrelevant.

What's more relevant is that you shouldn't be allowed to drive media companies from expressing divergent points of view and I think we've got to be really careful about that.

Those words are particularly interesting when you consider the person sitting next to Wenig on that stage was Recode reporter, Jason Del Rey.

Del Rey interviewed Wenig shortly after news of the scandal broke in June 2020, but curiously, did not ask how Wenig's messages to "take down" a journalist or shut down a Twitter account that didn't violate platform policies or laws (by eBay legal's own assessment) could be squared with his previous comments about not allowing rich and powerful people to "knock down divergent points of view."

EBay’s former CEO denies any link to the cyberstalking of a blogger. But he did want to create a competitor to challenge her.

Devin Wenig says he had “no knowledge, no private understanding, no tacit approval” of the harassment campaign.

VoxJason Del Rey

Del Rey is currently a technology correspondent at Fortune focusing primarily on Amazon and Walmart with eBay strangely almost completely missing from the picture.

Beyond the shocking headlines about the bizarre nature of the harassment and stalking campaign the Steiners endured at the hands of eBay security personnel egged on by the c-suite, the cyberstalking scandal is ultimately a story of a corporate crusade attempting to silence journalists and out an anonymous source - activities which one judge involved in the case deemed "abhorrent to First Amendment values."

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This attack was particularly ironic, given eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's very public pro-free speech position, not to mention extensive funding of independent journalism, through Omidyar Network, First Look Media, Luminate Group and other philanthropic endeavors.

In fact, Omidyar bankrolled the founding of The Intercept, most famous for publishing the leaked documents from Edward Snowden exposing secret NSA surveillance programs.

Omidyar Network was also heavily involved in funding Philippine news site Rappler Inc. and supporting Nobel laureate Maria Ressa's fight for press freedom in the region in 2015, including backing a documentary on the subject called "A Thousand Cuts" in partnership with Concordia Studio.

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Concordia is funded by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, who has previously collaborated with Omidyar on various philanthropic and media projects, including Spotlight, an Oscar-winning movie about the Boston Globe's groundbreaking investigation into the Catholic church sex abuse scandal.

That connection would seem to make Concordia an odd choice to produce "Whatever It Takes", a documentary about the eBay cyberstalking scandal - especially considering executive producers Jonathan Silberberg and Nicole Stott both worked on "A Thousand Cuts" as well.

Engaging with a production team that has ties to Omidyar-backed organizations raises questions about conflicts of interest, given the traumatic experiences of the victims and ongoing litigation involved, and one has to wonder if that apparent conflict was a factor in the Steiners' firing previous counsel Rosemary Scapicchio shortly after the documentary debuted at the SXSW Film Festival in March and hiring a new law firm to continue their lawsuit.

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Strangely, Omidyar Network has now deleted every page on their site which mentioned Rappler or Maria Ressa as they undertake a conveniently timed "strategy evolution", continuing a years long shift away from some of the press freedom & free speech causes they previously championed.

While Omidyar stepped down from actively serving on eBay's Board of Directors in the wake of the cyberstalking scandal, he retains the title of Director Emeritus and is still one of eBay's largest individual shareholders.

That honorary title may not come with voting rights, but that doesn't necessarily mean Omidyar couldn't still exercise some degree of influence at the company.

Notably, Shripriya Mahesh was appointed to eBay's BOD in 2023 after previously rising to VP Product Management and Product Strategy in 2006, then joining First Look Media as Head Of Product in 2013 and later becoming Partner Emerging Tech at Omidyar Network.

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While serving on the eBay Board of Directors, Mahesh has also actively maintained her position as Founding Partner of Spero Ventures - a for-profit venture fund spunout from Omidyar Network in 2018 with Pierre Omidyar as its sole limited partner at the time.

The degree to which Omidyar might still be involved with eBay behind the scenes and his past connections to Lina Khan and others occupying top spots at the FTC could also come under increased scrutiny as the deferred prosecution agreement eBay signed with the Department Of Justice in this case places the company under 3 years of enhanced compliance monitoring.

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eBay is also currently undergoing an investor recommended "values assessment" to determine whether the company is living up to their publicly published Human Rights and Ethics Policies.

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And it was recently uncovered that eBay promoted previous VP Litigation, IP Assets, Site Trust Aaron Johnson to the role of Chief Ethics Officer in September 2023 - an interesting choice considering he participated in some very concerning and questionable emails revealed in the cyberstalking case.

It appears neither Johnson nor then Chief Legal Officer Marie Oh Huber acted to ensure Senior Director Security Jim Baugh stayed with in legal bounds or report these questionable emails internally through proper channels.

If this was the best person they could find to promote to this important leadership role, what does that say about the current state of ethics at eBay?

In light of Omidyar's vast media and philanthropic empire that wields significant political and regulatory influence and eBay's clear financial motivation and desire to shape media narratives about the company, readers must critically assess how The Athletic partnership could potentially skew future coverage across all New York Times-owned properties.