Our NASCAR preview tab...

[FuturaBold]

... which had been 30+ pages before I got here and was 16-20 pages in my first few years here is now ... not happening at all...

we sold two ads, so now I've got a NASCAR page ... how do you preview the NASCAR season with about half a page of space (the ads fill up the rest)? Ideas?

our basketball tab didn't happen this year either ... if we can't sell a football tab in an area with a couple of state championship contenders, i'm hanging it up...

 

[luckyducky]

Lots of charticles and info boxes. Limited information, no predictions, just the highlights.

Short and sweet and tight, but not squished ... (that's what she said)

 

[steveu]

Can you preview the season with a series of articles running over a few days? Don't know what your space is like, but it's a thought.

You're right, by the way. If we can't sell football tabs, we're all ****ed.

 

[imjustagirl]

ducky's right. There have been a lot of driver team/number changes, so make sure you run info boxes on the drivers. Even if it's just a mugshot (available on nascarmedia.com) and their car number and crew chief with one nugget of information.

Run the schedule down one rail, with TV info if you have it (that's what people like).

 

[expendable]

Run last week's winner under a caption titled "Who Beat?"

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

ducky's right. There have been a lot of driver team/number changes, so make sure you run info boxes on the drivers. Even if it's just a mugshot (available on nascarmedia.com) and their car number and crew chief with one nugget of information.

Run the schedule down one rail, with TV info if you have it (that's what people like).

And somewhere you need a flowchart explaining which teams merged with who and how last year's top-35 owner's point spots were swapped around.

 

[2muchcoffeeman]

Can't add anything else -- not like you have the space for it anyway -- so listen to ducky, IJAG and 2mcm. There's your answer.

That flowchart I suggested would need its own tab. :D

 

[buckweaver]

 

[imjustagirl]

Yeah, 2mcm, I was going to say there's no way that's working. I suggest throwing that stuff in the nugget.

39 Ryan Newman
Crew Chief: Tony Gibson
Nugget: This car was the No. 66 last year, and Scott Riggs' points were enough to guarantee Newman a spot in the first five races.

 

[Pendleton]

NASCAR makes up more rules on the fly than Bud Selig, which is hard to do.

(Whoops, I'm going to get taken off the air for a few days now)

 

[steveu]

Outing alert: Pendleton is Scott Van Pelt! Police! Police!! :)

 

[Mark2010]

Seems like tabs are getting harder and harder to sell these days, whether its preps, colleges or anything else. In the publisher's mind, if advertising can't sell it, no use printing it.

I always thought a weekly syndicated NASCAR page (from gannett, IIRC) was a giant waste of space. Could have cut that info to two columns and used the rest on more important stuff in this corner of the world.

 

[fishwrapper]

Just throwing it out there...
What if, in the half page, you did the schedule in a tri-oval?

 

[expendable]

How about driver's HELMETS!

 

[shotglass]

Thank you. :)

BTW, past few years, we've had maybe 6-8 ads for a two-section, 64-page football tab. 364 days a year, that makes me worried and unhappy. For that one thing, though, I like that it's an editorial-driven product.