The Citius Mag / GST Relationship Is a Bad Look

Citius isn't independent or journalistic, it's just a fanboy magazine. Don't take it too seriously.

Coach Timo

Yucky

Who hurt you? Really Whois it that hurt you?

The problem is, this is what is currently holds the highest value in this sector. We live in an era of "popularism" and this is unfortunately what brands want to be associated with.

Citius is owed over a quarter of a million dollars from GST for exactly what again? IG posts? A few badly written stories on their website?

Meanwhile Chavez is probably just getting home from his 10 day, fully comped "work trip" to Hawaii covering the Honolulu Marathon and that road mile. God knows how much he charged for that too.

Not independent? Not journalistic? No worries. That guy found the sweet spot and is smart. He is like the ultimate corporate climber except is he isn't working in a corporate. Not a bad gig, and at some point you just have to give it up to him and say well played.

Genuinely baffling GST spent $270K for a couple of posts from a niche running social media account/website. They probably could have offered 1/10th of that and still gotten Citius to do it. Ends up looking like Kyle Merber is just shoveling money to his buddies.

Citius is a joke. Seem like a bunch of immature guys with nothing better to do. I don’t think anyone over the age of 17 takes Chavez or Citius seriously.

Cit is Public Relations for Phil Knight. Not Media. Not Journalism.

How many of you remember the magazine “Tiger Beat” that hyped up teen pop idols and where they were performing concerts, doing meet and greets, traveling, etc?

CitiusMag is exactly that—the Tiger Beat of track and field. It’s a puff piece PR driven site made to make the athletes, meet promoters, and shoe companies look good.

+1

Like letsrun with BTC/Nike.

This is a thoughtful discussion. I categorize myself as a fervent and knowledgeable track fan. It was my impression that Citius was covering GST as a news outlet. It's somewhat familiar for news outlets to sponsor a sporting event (think free ad space), but it's never acceptable for them not to cover the story fairly and accurately. Now, if Citius had come out and said they were simply a PR or Media company from the onset, well, that would be different. However, every athlete, meet organizer, and knowledgeable fan understood that Citius started as and is a news company with at least basic editorial, accountability, and ethical standards. Turns out we were all duped.

No wonder GST was allowed to go completely off the rails and defraud the athletes. There was literally no one with access to tell the story truthfully. It was all just one big circle jerk, turns out.

I haven’t listened to any Citius pods or read any of their newsletters in probably a year or more. I don’t have a dog in this fight or know anyone associated with Citius. I absolutely don’t understand anyone who follows running/t&f thinking Citius is a journalistic outfit. Whether that is here or on the various social media platforms.

When Merber was still with Citius they had a podcast episode in which they- Mac, Merber, and Chavez said explicitly that Citius was not a journalistic outfit. And that they were a media platform with the intent to cover/amplify running/t&f AND make Citius into a financial viable company.

They had large crews at the last several world championships and it was ‘brought to you by apparel company X’. Who do you think was covering those bills for Citius to be there?

This is not me passing judgement on whatever the Citius/GST arrangement is/was, I’ll let others do that, but if you are going to pass judgment at least do it from the correct perspective. Citius and Chavez are content creators in our current age of social media. They are looking to get paid.

Hi Kyle

If anyone is interested Citius has their latest podcast out (12/17/25) explaining their situation with GST. Also references a June 2023 podcast explaining their business model.

the fact that MJ thought Citius Mag's instagram posts, post-race interviews, and pre-shows were worth $270,000 is the real story. Not that Citius was paid, it's the fact that MJ thought the value of Citius was $270k. If you think Citius is worth $270k for instagram posts you are probably the dumbest person on earth.

MJ tried the same play years ago when he was an agent. He sold athletes on the promise that he’d make them stars both on the track and beyond it. That never happened. The results didn’t match the hype, and the careers didn’t match the promises. It failed then for a reason. Nothing about what he’s saying now suggests he’s suddenly become honest or effective.