Death of the Nascar beat?

The night events question is a non-issue. Out of 38 events on the Nextel Cup schedule, only 11 are at night, leaving plenty of Sunday afternoon races that papers can staff without deadline worries. And besides, the best stuff from the race weekend rarely comes from the race, but from top 12 driver availability the day before, which beat writers use to build feature and issue stories. You're going to get that kind of stuff regardess of what time the race starts. And NASCAR cares very much about newspapers, as long as you're the right one -- that is, with a readership base in a large metro market they're trying to gain a foothold in. Which ironically, tend to be the ones cutting back on coverage.

 

Sure, they all pay the same, but some races mean more. A thrifty sports editor could cover NASCAR by staffing six races -- the Daytona 500, the Brickyard 400, the Coca-Cola 600, the Chase cutoff race at Richmond, the Chase opener at New Hampshire and the Chase finale at Homestead -- and relying on AP for the rest. That would be comparable to the way many papers cover golf, staffing the three US majors, the Players, and a collection of other top-tier or local events.

 

yeah, it was anal.

 

Whoa! Time out! This needs more explaining.

 

AJC is making huge cuts, requiring staffers to apply for their own jobs. There's a whole thread on it around here somewhere ...

 

It should be noted that this post comes from a guy who has assembled a team of reporters to cover the sport because his network has just spent millions of dollars on NASCAR rights. Otherwise, ESPN wouldn't pee on NASCAR if it were on fire.

 

preach on David, I love it

 

If you would have hit the space bar instead of the letter t, there would have een a double space in that sentence. The quoted version indicates this was not the case. Therefore, not a typo.

 

And ESPN jerked around about 90 percent of the reporters on the beat before making those hires from what I understand. 99 percent half to be happy they didn't get the gig and have to be part of the horrific "NASCAR Now" show, hosted by that king of motorsports knowledge Erik Kuselias.

 

It should also be noted I was specifically referring to newspapers outside NASCAR's home turf, not places like Charlotte or national coverage papers like USA Today or the Web sites. And BMuddMan, unlike Poole, you're an ill-informed idiot.

 

OK KLee, I'll ask the 4 or 5 people who were told they were close to being hired or they "were the guy" during the process to populate ESPN's coverage about that. All I'm sure are relieved to not have to deal with Kuselias and that train wreck of a show at least.

 

Sent you a PM, BMuddMan. I can't wait to hear about those four or five people.

But I'll be keeping it to a PM. No names need to be dragged onto here.