LeBron James, together with Derek Jeter, created Players' Tribune to create a channel for them and the rest of the prominent athletes to post video testimonials to a website and tell their strories directly to their fans.
This tribune is named UNINTERRUPTED. Cleveland reported that Warner Bros. and Turner Sports invested around $15.8 to help LeBron James' venture to expand greatly. Perhaps, they saw a great potential to this initiative by the two athletes.
Derek Jeter actually started this initiative for the athletes for them to have a way of self-publishing their essays and stories about themselves online through posting them on a website. With his partnership with Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant, he was able to raise $18 million.
UNINTERRUPTED is able to raise funds from the help of the other most popular, recognizable, influential athletes around the globe through speaking to their respective audience without the need of a middle man or any media.
Dylan Byers, a media critic -- technical title, senior reporter for media and politics -- for CNN said, "Athletes have everything to gain and nothing to lose by circumventing traditional media." Byer works under Turner Broadcasting, a major investor for UNINTERRUPTED and "The Bleacher Report," the site that carries James' testimonials.
Byers added, "They get to tell their stories on their terms, without any editorializing from journalists. In politics, refusing to talk to the press makes you highly suspect. Not so in sports. No one harbors doubts from Gregg Popovich or Marshawn Lynch because they spurn reporters. They're judged by what they do in the arena, or on the field, and that is visible to all. You don't need a reporter for that."
Cleveland clarified that UNINTERRUPTED is not a reason to prevent other sports writers to cover any news from any of these athletes' games. It is just one way for them to express and say everything directly to their fans without the need of a journalist.
For years, they were able to communicate to their fans through social media. But this time, it would be in a different form. They saw a big problem for the athletes in maintaining their active communication to their diehard fans due to their hectic schedules.
"They have neither the time nor the desire to comment daily on, or publish a site that covers injuries, free agency, coaching searches, losing streak, shooting percentages, assist-to-turnover rations, players-only meetings, and all the other news reporters dig for each night," Cleveland stated.
UNINTERRUPTED is LeBron James' initiative to help his co-athletes to make way for themselves and tell people their own story. This is a creation under his production company, SpringHill Entertainment, that highlights the quirky lives of the personal lives of the athletes their fans would love knowing about.
