Though fans have always been fascinated by the people who made up their chosen team, few outlets have put personality on a pedestal like The Player’s Tribune.
Launched in 2014 by baseball legend Derek Jeter and his business partner Jaymee Messler, The Player’s Tribune was an early herald of a key, long-term shift within sports media — as sports fans focused on individuals over teams. Its first-person essays, penned by otherwise unapproachable sports stars such as Arsenal soccer star Raheem Sterling or the NBA’s Kobe Bryant, reached an audience of both hardcore fans and casual observers.
“People follow people, they do not follow brands,” said Sebastian Arriagada, co-founder of sports-focused social agency CCG Social.
Minute Media, which acquired the title in 2019, is now planning out its next 10 years, with expansions into print publishing and licensing deals on the table.
The title reaches the decade mark in a difficult period for digital publishing, even for titles in lucrative areas like sport, as search and social referrals to news and lifestyle publishers have fallen.
And with an editorial model reliant on access to star power, reader traffic estimates shared by Comscore indicate that The Player’s Tribune has seen large swings in its audience over the years. In 2021, during the Super Bowl month of January, Comscore estimated the title drew 629,000 unique visitors, versus 122,000 this year. A spokesperson for Minute Media claimed it recorded 875,000 page views during January, and said it averaged 500,000-600,000 page views per month, citing internal figures. They noted that the site’s CMS changed in 2021, a transition that could skew external reporting.
Andres Cardenas, Minute Media CMO and general manager of The Player’s Tribune, declined to share figures for the company’s financial performance, citing the publisher’s status as a private firm. He told Digiday that the title had a “healthy financial model” based on principally branded content and sponsorships.
Branded content revenue in 2024 had increased 54% year-over-year, driven in part by rising advertiser interest in its formats that highlight women’s sports, he said. Current advertising partners include Audi, State Farm and Gatorade.
This month, The Player’s Tribune released a print book containing 80 of “the most special, impactful stories that we have written,” he said. Cardenas did not provide the book’s sales figures. Though the print book, “I’ve Got A Story To Tell,” is its first foray away from digital, print is an area Cardenas said The Player’s Tribune will continue exploring as it works to diversify its revenue streams and audiences.
He wants to license out more of its stories to TV, cinema and publishing, too. “We sit on tons of very valuable stories and IP,” said Cardenas, who pointed to the examples of the late Kobe Bryant, who released a short film in 2017, and A’ja Wilson, who published a book this year, both based on work originally published by The Player’s Tribune. Cardenas didn’t share commercial details of those deals, or the terms used when publishing articles from athletes.
Cardenas was careful to say that the title won’t be shifting from its “core” business model, for fear that a saturated ad environment would compromise reader experience — and potentially damage its credibility among the athletes whose stories provide its lifeblood, a credibility which has made it the go-to means for top sportspeople to broadcast their perspectives.
Were that reputation to be damaged, sportspeople might look to other media pulpits. After all, athletes across football, soccer and basketball are busy exploring new roles as content creators and media owners in their own right.
“We’re living in an era of player empowerment,” said Cardenas. “Athletes have their production companies, have their podcasts, have their social outlets, and they tried to, you know, have a direct communication with their fans and their fan bases,” he conceded. “However, [because of] the credibility that we have built… we will see athletes still come to The Player’s Tribune to tell their stories.”
Minute Media’s other titles each occupy different niches in the sports and fandom space. The portfolio includes include the Fansided network of sports websites, sports and entertainment title Mental Floss and, since March, Sports Illustrated.
The company has been attempting to make the latter a more attractive digital advertising proposition. According to Rich Routman, president of Minute Media, it has opted to implement The Trade Desk’s single sign-on (SSO) “OpenPass” solution.
Users can log-in to Sports Illustrated’s site using their email address, which OpenPass converts into targetable IDs. The SSO is intended to give publishers such as Minute Media the authenticated reach it needs to monetize audiences.
“This will further enhance our first-party data collection strategy which in turn, will provide advertisers richer targeting opportunities… we anticipate a large uplift in highly addressable audiences for advertisers,” Routman said in an email. He declined to say what commercial benefit the firm expected to gain from the solution, but added that, once its use with Sports Illustrated is cemented, the company will roll out OpenPass “when and where it makes sense” across its entire portfolio.
Though advertisers might prioritize TV or paid social when activating around sports content, Kerry Doyle, evp of content at media agency Carat said there’s a strong argument to include premium sports titles such as The Player’s Tribune and Sports Illustrated in a client’s media mix.
“Sports are a huge passion point we that lean into, through talent, relevant cultural moments and our partners,” Doyle said in an email.
She added: “We find talent-lead storytelling that leverages existing IP with premium trusted publishers sees a higher brand lift and drives consumer intention and interest. Weaving our client’s message into custom content and meaningful moments builds incremental fandom for the brand.”
Sports Illustrated, a beloved — and latterly, troubled — publication, would require “steady growth and continuous investment into established and emerging areas,” to achieve the “tall order” of a sustainable business model, Routman said.
To recap — the 70-year-old magazine was found last November to be running AI-generated articles under fake writer bylines. The chief exec of then-operator Arena was fired, before it laid off around 100 staffers. It’s not clear how many subscribers the publication has.
Since it took over the publishing rights from Arena in March (Authentic Brands Group is the outright owner of the brand, while Minute Media operates it via license), Minute Media rehired “the vast majority” of those staffers, per Axios, while returning its print edition to its monthly schedule.
In a follow-up email, Routman claimed Sports Illustrated boasts a current readership of 60 million users each month, across its website, social and print channels. Though subscribers make up “a solid portion of revenue” for the title, “we still see the majority of our revenue come through marketing and advertising partnerships.”
Both “content consumption” and digital revenues had increased since Minute Media’s March takeover, he said, without providing further detail. Routman said he was encouraged by how the title has been received under its new operator. Its August/September NFL preview edition was so in-demand it had to go to a second print run, which in turn “nearly sold out,” for example.
“Our focus and main question for 2025 is how can we continue to propel this storied platform forward,” he added.
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