Death of the Nascar beat?

[Write-brained]

I've worked at two Southern newspapers now that have traded in their highly acclaimed Nascar beat writer to run wire, which provides much more copy at a cheaper cost.

Not surprisingly, both writers went to work for national Nascar sites. But what about newspapers? Are we doing readers a disservice by not offering local copy as the sport grows? Probably not but I figure you guys would know better than me.

Anyone chagrined that the opportunities to cover Nascar are becoming fewer and fewer?

 

[Chi City 81]

I've worked at two Southern newspapers now that have traded in their highly acclaimed Nascar beat writer to run wire, which provides much more copy at a cheaper cost.

Not surprisingly, both writers went to work for national Nascar sites. But what about newspapers? Are we doing readers a disservice by not offering local copy as the sport grows? Probably not but I figure you guys would know better than me.

Anyone chagrined that the opportunities to cover Nascar are becoming fewer and fewer?

Not really my experience. My current paper will never stop covering it, since the town hosts two races each year.

 

[Fenian_Bastard]

I find this amazing, especially in the South.

 

[Write-brained]

Neither of my papers are in the cities where they have tracks but both are within a couple of hours of three or four tracks. Lots of traveling.

 

[fishwrapper]

Neither of my papers are in the cities where they have racks but both are within a couple of hours of three or four tracks. Lots of traveling.

What's not having "racks" have anything to do with this?
Can't we just stay on the topic?

 

[FreddiePatek]

Neither of my papers are in the cities where they have tracks but both are within a couple of hours of three or four tracks. Lots of traveling.

Same at our paper. I think what happened is NASCAR used to be easy to cover -- just travel the South and East, a lot like an ACC or SEC beat. Over the years, with the new tracks popping up all over the country, it became too much. Think about it ... today's NASCAR requires as much travel (more, really) than the NFL and a lot of the papers that cover NASCAR just aren't "Major League" cities (Richmond on the big side, Florence or Martinsville on the small side).

Just a thought.

 

[chazp]

We use a syndicated weekly NASCAR page.

 

[melock]

Neither of my papers are in the cities where they have tracks but both are within a couple of hours of three or four tracks. Lots of traveling.

Same at our paper. I think what happened is NASCAR used to be easy to cover -- just travel the South and East, a lot like an ACC or SEC beat. Over the years, with the new tracks popping up all over the country, it became too much. Think about it ... today's NASCAR requires as much travel (more, really) than the NFL and a lot of the papers that cover NASCAR just aren't "Major League" cities (Richmond on the big side, Florence or Martinsville on the small side).

Just a thought.

Funny you mention Martinsville b/c for a while they didn't even write a race story. They used the AP one and just wrote sidebars. That stopped for a couple years and may or may not be the policy now. Having a race right in your own town and not writing a main race story makes no sense at all to me.

 

[steveu]

Neither of my papers are in the cities where they have racks but both are within a couple of hours of three or four tracks. Lots of traveling.

What's not having "racks" have anything to do with this?
Can't we just stay on the topic?

Rack him.

 

[Write-brained]

Neither of my papers are in the cities where they have racks but both are within a couple of hours of three or four tracks. Lots of traveling.

What's not having "racks" have anything to do with this?
Can't we just stay on the topic?

Rack him.

It's a ****ing typo. A transparent one. I fixed it. Y'all better keep runring your spellcheckers because while I normally avoid taking cheapshots ... payback's a *****.

 

[Football_Bat]

You oughta keep runring yours, too.

 

[ColbertNation]

I heard the MG cut Mulhern back to about half of the races last year, and Homestead wasn't included in the list of races he was allowed to cover.

 

[fishwrapper]

Neither of my papers are in the cities where they have racks but both are within a couple of hours of three or four tracks. Lots of traveling.

What's not having "racks" have anything to do with this?
Can't we just stay on the topic?

Rack him.

It's a ****ing typo. A transparent one. I fixed it. Y'all better keep runring your spellcheckers because while I normally avoid taking cheapshots ... payback's a *****.

Relax. It was a joke.

FYI, it wasn't a typo. You omitted a letter. In addition, your 'spell check' wouldn't have helped, since 'rack' is an accepted English spelling with with nine definitions.


RE: TYPO...
This is a mistake I see all the time.


FROM MERRIAM-WEBSTER:

typographical error –noun an error in printed or typewritten matter resulting from striking the improper key of a keyboard, from mechanical failure, or the like.

 

[Write-brained]

It was a typo, Mr. Anal.

I rewrote the sentence and obviously hit space before I hit the T ... typo.

And I don't run spellcheck. My spelling is fine 99 percent of the time, a lot better than the majority of the people on here, but I don't feel the need to go around pointing out others' mistakes.

 

[Moderator1]

That said, my now-and-then forays into the NASCAR nation (or the Goober Nation as a friend once called it) don't indicate a death of the beat. All papers are cutting back a little on the travel, including mine. Cutting back on some other beats as well. It remains a very heavily covered sport.

 

[lono]

There are more people in the media centers than ever before.

But they aren't all from Southern daily newspapers, like they used to be.

ESPN.com and some other 'Net sites have ramped up coverage significantly, there are foreign reporters, satellite radio people, etc., etc.

The crowd is getting bigger, but the demographics are changing. Expect that to continue.

 

[fishwrapper]

It was a typo, Mr. Anal.

I rewrote the sentence and obviously hit space before I hit the T ... typo.

And I don't run spellcheck. My spelling is fine 99 percent of the time, a lot better than the majority of the people on here, but I don't feel the need to go around pointing out others' mistakes.

Believe me, I'm not anal. I was just pointing it out.
And, it wasn't a typo.

These examples would have been typos:

t rack
rtack
trrack

 

[Write-brained]

It was a typo, Mr. Anal.

I rewrote the sentence and obviously hit space before I hit the T ... typo.

And I don't run spellcheck. My spelling is fine 99 percent of the time, a lot better than the majority of the people on here, but I don't feel the need to go around pointing out others' mistakes.

Believe me, I'm not anal. I was just pointing it out.
And, it wasn't a typo.

These examples would have been typos:

t rack
rtack
trrack

Move on ... :

 

[fishwrapper]

That said, my now-and-then forays into the NASCAR nation (or the Goober Nation as a friend once called it) don't indicate a death of the beat.   All papers are cutting back a little on the travel, including mine.   Cutting back on some other beats as well.  It remains a very heavily covered sport.

You're absolutely right.

Plus, I think it is important to make a distinction here.
NASCAR is a 'sport' beat. It's not a 'team' beat. One writer, with the added sider or column when needed, can cover the entire sport.
Compare that to, say, a city with an NBA team. They need a team beat reporter -- and more than likely -- a national perspective.
So, when papers look at their coverage, how much more bang are they getting by sending their own reporter to do a gamer? In NASCAR's case, not much.
There are exceptions. Eddie Hinton. Dave Poole, etc. But, for smaller papers, they're going to have a tough time beating AP's team of Jenna Fryer, Mike Harris, and Brian Horton. It's not a slight to the smaller paper, but just simple fact.

EDIT: fixes their/there. Eddy/Eddie. Happy?

 

[Moderator1]

Eddy Hinton?