DISTRUST OF MEDIA AND THE CHANCE TO CONTROL THE STORY IS FUELING THE PLAYERS’ TRIBUNE’S SUCCESS

Derek Jeter’s “The Players’ Tribune” has become a remarkable success on several levels, attracting millions in investment from both outside venture capital firms and athletes, drawing site-crashing traffic, and even looking to start a restaurant chain. Sports Business Journal‘s Liz Mullen has an excellent feature on the site, where it’s come from, and where it’s going (including a plan to potentially take it public in a few years), but what really stands out are the comments from editorial director Gary Hoenig (a veteran of ESPN The Magazine,  The New York Times, Newsweek, and The Washington Star) on why so many athletes are opening up to TPT:

“What I thought would be really hard was to get athletes to trust us and really get them to tell their stories, and that turned out to be a lot easier than I thought,” he said.

That trust, he says — echoed by others at The Players’ Tribune — has a lot to do with the state of the traditional sports media environment.

“It’s toxic right now,” Hoenig said. “The level of trust is very low.

Attribution: Andrew Bucholtz, awfulannouncing.com
Full story: Players' Tribune