Consumer Subsidized Media: NASCAR Edition
This intrigues me: NASCAR has decided to give media credentials to 28 blogs. They’re doing it because there are less newspapers and newspaper writers around to cover the sport. “The attrition of both space and writers at newspapers around the country has meant a growing number of empty seats at Nascar media centers and press boxes, and less mainstream media coverage for the sport,” the article explains.
While they’re not paying for it (yet), this seems like a sort of subsidy, which is a very interesting possible future for the media business. There are entirely too many industries and brands that are completely reliant on coverage to drum up awareness and interest. It would cost them entirely too much to do it on their own and this must be a cheaper way. Very interesting.
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Nothing to do with your post, but I find it grating that AdAge, a source of information about branding, cannot spell NASCAR correctly. The article does not spell MLB as Mlb, nor NFL as Nfl, nor NBA as Nba, nor NBC Universal as Nbc Universal.
Sorry, for the rant.
Back on topic(ish). It would be interesting if newspapers got rid of their sports desks and just printed blog coverage. Sports reporting is rarely investigative, baring scandals, trades or team moves, it falls mostly into two categories: recapping the game and opinion.
The same could be said for the Arts section.
I’m not tracking why in this case credentialing blogs is any different than credentialing newspapers. Why do you see it as a subsidy?
I just see it as NASCAR recognizing a shifting landscape (albeit oddly late) and doing something about it.
And to Harris’ point – it irks me to. Not too tough to sort out that NASCAR is an acronym. I chalk it up to mainstream media’s continued reluctance to give the sport the same respect as they do baseball, football and basketball. This, despite NASCAR’s continued success in wooing audiences beyond its southern roots.
BTW, too bad for Juan Pablo yesterday … tough to lose on a pit road speeding violation. Especially to golden boy Jimmy Johnson.
@Harris: Yeah, that’s super interesting, though it’s very hard to find intelligent sports commentary on the web (I like to think Da Bears Blog is one of the few places). I don’t think we’re too far away from seeing what you’re talking about, though.
@Ian: You’re right, I think the subsidized point is a bit of projecting on my part. With that said, let me try and explain: Since NASCAR was explicit that they were doing this with bloggers because there are fewer newspaper reporters, it is clear that they are trying to encourage bloggers (who they are still not calling journalists or beat writers, mind you) to pay more attention by offering the same perks given to the reporters. Yeah? Maybe? (Not the strongest argument ever, but I do think there’s a distinction.)
With all that said, I think we might be starting up a NASCAR blog, stay tuned ;)
NASCAR should follow the Tour De France approach — get drivers to use Twitter in real time — it would capture the excitement of the races, make the drivers seem more accessible, etc.