Derek Jeter-Founded The Players' Tribune Announces Its Official Launch And Strategic Partnerships

NEW YORK, Feb. 17, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The Players' Tribune, a first-of-its-kind digital media company, founded by Derek Jeter, officially launched at www.theplayerstribune.com on Saturday, February 14 with a daytime roundtable discussion, moderated by TV personality Andy Cohen, and an evening launch event that featured a performance by Oscar-nominated multiplatinum recording artist and actor, Common.

The hour-long intimate roundtable kicked off with a discussion between founding publisher Jeter, the platform's editorial director Gary Hoenig, as well as TV and radio personality Ben Lyons who is the chief correspondent and "voice of the fans" who shared the vision for the platform.

Then, Cohen led a panel discussion with Jeter and The Players' Tribune contributors, including Seattle Seahawk quarterback Russell Wilson, New York Mets pitcher Matt Harvey, Pittsburgh Pirates center fielder Andrew McCutchen, former NBA center Jason Collins, LPGA professional golfer Stacy Lewis and Los Angeles Clippers power forward Blake Griffin, who streamed in via the Blue Jeans Network. The intimate event was attended by 150 people including other Players' Tribune athlete contributors Evander Holyfield, Rob Gronkowski, LaDainian Tomlinson, Jerry Stackhouse, Becky Hammond and many others.

Also onsite was legendary photographer Walter Iooss, Jr., of Sports Illustrated fame, who is the platform's photo advisor and photographer-at-large, who captured portraits of the contributors in a pop-up studio. In the next room, partner SiriusXM aired a live Players' Tribune radio show hosted by Ben Lyons, that starting February 18 will run weekly on Mad Dog Sports Radio every Wednesday from 7-8pm ET.

About The Players' Tribune:
The platform, which soft launched in October, is dedicated to empowering athletes with the tools they need to tell their stories. In addition to first-person essays, the platform will also feature an array of video content, podcasts and original photography.

To date, The Players' Tribune has published first-person articles by some of the world's biggest sports stars including Derek Jeter, Kobe Bryant, Russell Wilson and Danica Patrick. In the coming months, The Players' Tribune will expand its rich content offerings across many mediums, including original short and long-form video and podcast series, in addition to the daily narratives by the athletes themselves.

Partnerships:
The Players' Tribune and AOL announced a strategic partnership to co-produce and distribute exclusive content to be housed on both platforms. Creative will include original series, athlete-driven content and on the ground activations around tent-pole events throughout the year.

"Our vision behind The Players' Tribune is to create a platform that transforms how athletes share information and, in turn, bring the fans closer than ever to the game," said Derek Jeter, founding publisher of The Players' Tribune. "The goal is to build an innovative online destination with unique content and I think the AOL partnership will continue to help us grow."

"We are thrilled to be partnering with The Players' Tribune," said Dermot McCormack, President AOL Videos and AOL Studios, "and bringing innovative and engaging content to AOL and The Players' Tribune.  We look forward to creating a one-of-a-kind experience for the world's biggest athletes and sporting events for fans everywhere."

As part of the partnership, AOL will distribute The Players' Tribune content on AOL.com and across AOL's network of 92M monthly unique visitors*; co-produce exclusive content on both platforms; and co-produce events together throughout the year.

"We have taken a very measured approach to our strategic partners that share our vision and are thrilled to align with AOL," said Jaymee Messler, President of The Players' Tribune.  "We look forward to making engaging and authentic athlete-driven content together."

Starting February 18, SiriusXM and The Players' Tribune will launch a national radio show, airing every Wednesday from 7:00-8:00 pm ET. The show will run throughout the year on SiriusXM's Mad Dog Sports Radio, channel 85, and will feature a rotating group of athletes and special guests, who will bring Tribune content to life. 

In addition to AOL and Sirius/XM, the Blue Jeans Network, a global leader in cloud-based video collaboration and interactive event services, will partner with The Players' Tribune on integration of Blue Jeans' Primetime technology. Primetime enhances athlete and fan engagement through real-time Q&As, virtual discussion groups and more.

Images:
To access images from the official launch events, please visit:

Roundtable Images -  http://mm.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/gyipa_public?nav=pr264394273

Launch Party Images - http://mm.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/gyipa_public?nav=pr264395383

Media Contact:
PMK-BNC for The Players’ Tribune
Cliff Carson, 212.373.6105
[email protected]

ABOUT THE PLAYERS' TRIBUNE
The Players' Tribune is an innovative digital media platform created and curated by some of the world's top athletes. The brainchild of baseball legend Derek Jeter and in partnership with Legendary Entertainment, The Players' Tribune brings fans closer to the games they love with fresh content, produced daily, from the unique perspective of the pros. The Players' Tribune pairs athletes with seasoned editors who, together, create narratives of the highest quality across all mediums, from text to audio to video. Visit The Players' Tribune www.theplayerstribune.com. 

ABOUT AOL
AOL (NYSE: AOL) is a media technology company with a mission to simplify the Internet for consumers and creators by unleashing the world's best builders of culture and code. As the 4th largest online property in the U.S., with approximately 200 million monthly consumers of its premium brands, AOL is at the center of disruption of how content is being produced, distributed, consumed and monetized by connecting publishers with advertisers on its global, programmatic content and advertising platforms. AOL's opportunity lies in shaping the future of the digitally connected world for decades to come. Follow us on Twitter @AOL_Inc.

ABOUT SIRIUS
SiriusXM is the world's largest radio broadcaster measured by revenue and has 27.3 million Subscribers.  SiriusXM creates and broadcasts commercial-free music; premier sports talk and live events; comedy; news; exclusive talk and entertainment; and the most comprehensive Latin music, sports and talk programming in radio. SiriusXM is available in vehicles from every major car company in the U.S. and on smartphones and other connected devices as well as online at siriusxm.com.

ABOUT BLUE JEANS NETWORK
Blue Jeans Network aims to bring great minds together to meet, share ideas and reach their audience through the power of video collaboration. By making video communication easy, secure and scalable, our customers can make online conversations, meetings and events personal again.  Blue Jeans' cloud-based platform has taken video into the mainstream, giving business and thought leaders the power to interact face-to-face with anyone, anywhere.

Photo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20150216/175705

SOURCE The Players’ Tribune

Related Links

http://www.theplayerstribune.com