NASCAR writer Ed Hinton leaves Orlando Sentinel

Then it's even a stupider decision than it was when Chicago was being blamed.

 

Simon,
The blame was misdirected. That was my point.

 

no big deal.

nascar fans don't read.

 

I agree with many of the earlier posters. This isn't about freeing up money and space for more local coverage. This is about cutting a line item on the budget. Orlando is only the latest major newspaper to drop regular staffing of NASCAR, and they only staffed about half of the races. Same thing has happened in Dallas, Fort Worth, Atlanta, many others.

Maybe it's time for NASCAR to look at underwriting some of the costs of newspapers staffing the races, like travel or lodging. Because this is a bell that can't be un-rung. Fewer and fewer national writers covering the sport can't be a good thing for NASCAR, no matter how much money ESPN pumps into it. You know as soon as there is a dip in viewership, ESPN will start bailing. (See Listings, NHL).

 

The Raleigh News and Observer eliminated NASCAR as a staff beat years ago, but I'm sure it now takes David Poole's stuff since the N&O now is in the same chain (McClatchy) as the Charlotte Observer.

Related to another story out there this week: A lot of Landmark papers use Dustin Long's stories and practically present him as one of their staff writers even though he works out of Greensboro. Obviously that is unlikely to stay the same given the Landmark news.

 

NASCAR could give a crap about print media, and truth be told, they'd prefer guys like Hinton, Dutton, Poole and a few others go away because they actually call The Lords of Daytona out on stuff rather than being yes men like the guys on TV.

 

Not true.

One of NASCAR's big initiatives over the past couple of years is to get more print media coverage, which is why the NASCAR wire service was started. NASCAR's PR department has been trying hard to get more print coverage.

And as much as they might dislike Hinton and some of the other writers, NASCAR's PR folks are really worried about all the papers pulling their coverage.

 

Is the wire service still alive?

NASCAR wants the coverage on their terms -- that's what motivated the founding of the wire service. They also put the clamps down on Daytona credentialing a couple years ago, something that was discussed here at the time.

 

Not sure about the wire service, wicked.

FWIW, I think there are different factions within the NASCAR camp - some guys who want to really control every word that gets written or spoken by anyone in the media, and some who think some controversy is good for the sport.

 

I had the pleasure of working with Ed awhile back. Ed was NASCAR when NASCAR wasn't cool.

Here's hoping he lands at the WWL and shows those folks what they're missing.

 

Interesting idea, but doesn't that cross more than a few ethical lines from our side of the fence?

 

I think there was a dip in viewership this past year, no?

But the reason for that is the season's too long now.

Shorter season = Leave 'em wanting more. (See NFL and Idol, American.)