The Players' Tribune President Jaymee Messler said the player-driven sports media platform is actively looking at developing a subscription-based revenue stream as it continues to grow. Messler, appearing this morning at the TechCrunch Disrupt NYC '17 event in Manhattan with site co-Founder Derek Jeter, said selling premium content would supplement existing efforts in revenue generation through branded content and display advertising. “We’re definitely looking in the future at other revenue streams, and subscription is a piece of that,” Messler said. Initial sponsors of The Players' Tribune have included American Family Insurance, Budweiser, Chase, Samsung, and Tyson Foods. Messler said the company is “doubling down” on video content, and is encouraged by early returns from its nascent podcast efforts. Meanwhile, she and Jeter continue to insist they do not seek an adversarial relationship with traditional media. “We’re not replacing media. People aren’t coming to The Players' Tribune for stats and scores,” she said. “They’re coming to hear directly from an athlete about what’s going on and some of our most compelling stories aren’t even from the biggest names.” Jeter said the core concept behind The Players' Tribune could work in other content verticals. “We’ve had people reach out because they’ve seen what we’ve been able to do and they’d like to do it in other verticals," he said. "But we have to get the sports side of it right first.”
