I'm Surprised at This

[TedN]

David Malsher, autosport.com's Champ Car correspondent has his 2007 season review on the site today. One telling comment he made which really surprised me ....


Yours truly was the only journalist to cover every round. Again.
Link (http://www.autosport.com/journal/article.php/id/1371)

Should I be?

Ted

[Don Quixote]

These days nothing surprises me. However, let me point out that he didn't cover Korea or China. :gomer:

[TravelGal]

Autosport: one I don't subscribe to. Guess I should.

I've spoken to David on a number of occasions. Long before I knew he was a journalist. He is always around, very pleasant, goes about his business, very knowledgeable. I'm sure most of you know that already.

He is also a loyal friend, which I found out the year I was planning Champ Car trips. He was polite but carefully inquired whether I would be in competition with the current paddock tours. I assured him that, no I would not be. He looked askance. I said I would be using them as part of my tour. Only when I explained my plan in detail did he let go. A good journalist. Calming, inquiring, getting the facts. And standing up for a friend. I admired that.

I'm getting to the answer to the question, by the way. I offered to go to ALL the races on my own dime and scope them out so that I could offer decent tours. I was pretty much told to forget it. SOOOO, with a corporate attitude like that, I can see why not a lot of journalists make the Australia or European trips.

I should add, because I liked him so much, that the last of the good guys--Dick Eidswick--told me to go for it and plan the tours. But he retired within a few months due to his wife's health issues. Then the schedule starting changing faster and faster, etc. etc. so I dropped the idea. I had to agree with the major F1 tour companies. They don't do Champ Car because it's just not stable enough at the moment. Maybe someday. Sorry for the ramble. Guess it's time to go watch football and eat some turkey.

[oddlycalm]

They don't do Champ Car because it's just not stable enough at the moment. Maybe someday. Sorry for the ramble. Good ramble actually. That instability also discourages businesses from investing in hosting B to B functions at races, let alone sponsoring events. Until CCWS cares enough to mind their own store I'm not sure how they can expect others to get excited about partnering with them.

Killing off the journalists is the kiss of death to anything you want to attract the public to. Without someone actively spreading the word you are exactly nowhere. One is left wondering how they could ever turn that around.

oc

ps - David Malsher is one of the reasons I originally went to Autosport. Excellant reporting and commentary.

[Insomniac]

CC gets very little coverage nationally. With Speed, they used a tag team between David Phillips and Robin Miller (I think Phillips was in Europe). He also does double duty for Racer. I don't think Oreo covered every race for ESPN.com. I wouldn't be surprised by it. It's disappointing, but not surprising.