Ah! I do agree there. I mistook the op I replied to. I was assuming they were referring to the website itself being the source of content and discussion, not simply a referral to AP/Threads/X/whatever.
Like you said, The Athletic already has a place of discussion which pales in comparison with the Fediverse. Imagine if they transformed their forums into a Lemmy-compatible system, and each of their journalists had their own @theathletic handle. They would be at the same time:
- keeping control of their social media presence
- stop contributing to someone else's platform
- creating opportunities for extra revenue based on their extended audience.