Your local paper (spoiler)

Did your local paper mention Nicky?

Not a mention in either the SF Chronicle or SJ Mercury. Idiots!

 

Nothing in the Seattle PI, either - but they DID devote 6 pages to the
Seahawks' loss to whoever (or 'whomever' [WGAS!]) they played.

 

And the tabloids.

 

Well, it made the front page in Owensboro!!!

http://www.messenger-inquirer.com/frontpage.htm

 

Not a word in the Seattle PI.


http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/sports/

--
Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple
71 Kawi H1
05 Infant

 

That's cool!

--
Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple
71 Kawi H1
05 Infant

 

I just got off the line with the PI sports editor
Ron Matthews. He had never heard of MotoGP. I had to spell out Nicky
Hayden for him. He checked the wires and saw nothing under racing.

I told him this was the first time in 6 year that an American won the
championship. He wasn't so impressed.

--
Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple
71 Kawi H1
05 Infant

 

Doohan used to claim (and still may) that he liked coming to the Ft
Lauderdale boat show because the anonymity meant he didn't get hounded by
fans and could relax.

As far as mainstream media coverage in the US, they are gutless, penny
pinching, anti-journalists. Real journalism means covering what is
newsworthy and informing the public, not what an editor/coward believes will
sell the most ad space.

 

I don't think it's quite that bad. More than likely, it's a sports editor or
writer who doesn't know anything about the sport and has no desire to learn.
It doesn't take much effort to copy verbatim the AP copy for Hayden's win,
but why bother. It's easier to copy verbatim the AP copy for football,
basketball, etc. and have it take up more space. The more space a single
story takes, the fewer stories it takes to fill the pages. The Seattle PI
couldn't even find space to put the item in their 'also-ran' section on the
inside back page. It's pretty pathetic, but it's been the norm here for over
20 years. If NASCRAP hadn't become so popular there wouldn't be any motor
racing copy in the 'paper. When Kasey Kahne was cutting a trail in sprint
cars and Greg Biffle was having good luck on the local scene, neither could
get arrested with a story in the 'paper. It sucks.

 

How does that fall under quality journalism? Are they doing their duty to
inform readers/viewers?

I agree, the story was there to grab from the wire services. Given the
magnitude of the event and sport worldwide, there should have been plenty of
material. But then the sports editor needs to know something about the sport
in order to edit it for space. That would require a sports editor who's base
of knowledge is greater than that of sports requiring a ball. As I said
before, an editorial decision, rationalizing their ignorance/stupidity by
claiming that the readership isn't interested anyway.

Not even a mention in that sound bite of a "newspaper", USA Today. Hey Tom,
Al Neuharth lives in your neck of the woods, maybe you can give him a good
talking to. Or something. I'm sure he still knows a few people over there.

Ultimately, for mainstream "journalism" it's more about printing what sells
ads rather than informing the reader.

 

Of course it is. And, unfortunately, nobody over here gives a shit.
Most of the local sportbikers don't watch racing, and even half the
guys I've done track days with don't follow it. They don't know what
they're missing.

 

I don't know about that. There are hardly any ads in Seattle's sports
section due to all of their sports coverage - let's see, there's football
and football and more football and - wait a minute - how'd THAT get in
there, THAT'S basketball - and NASCRAP and -there it is again - football!

 

Yet even 40 hours later http://news.google.com has the names of both Nicky
and Vale in their popular top 10 "In the news" list.

 

Not as long as people are interested in things like "reality TV" and the
ilk.

 

Yup, I picked up a paper yesterday morning in Valencia, front page was
dominated by Lorenzo, followed by no less than 14 full pages covering
everything from the racing, to the traffic, to the partying in town.

I'd say about 8 of the 10 or so papers on sale had front page coverage.

 

Yeah the PI has articles on that too.


--
Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple
71 Kawi H1
05 Infant

 

Yea, I understand all that. The young guys run off, the old guys return
so the series is either a rider development series or the older guys who
are done with GP. I don't watch WSS or 125/250 at all, for the basic
reasons that I don't know who any of the riders are. Last time I watched
WSS was when Xaus was riding in it.

However, I did stick with WSB, even though the Americans are gone, as I
know most of the field -- and if I can watch a race with Mladin, I may
as well watch the Troys as well .

And it's a shame about the tire rule as well. The only folks who run
Pirellis in the AMA probably can't get a WC spot in WSB anyway.

But, were it to show, I'd go.

I was thinking about that. I mean, they certainly have the facility and
the room for the bikes to run, but do they have the demographic you
think to draw folks in to watch? Utah is kind of smack in the middle of,
well, Utah. I just don't know if that facility can get the draw of a
facility closer to a more dense population center, that's all.

Regards,

Will Hartung

 

What figure did you want to know?
I can pull the numbers from Dealernews (a US trade publication) for you.
The current copy is at the office, so I can't do it tonight. But if you can
tell me what you want to see, I'll ferret the numbers out for you.
These are the public numbers, so it might not be as detailed as you want.
But the one thing you have to remember is that the American market in
general is a large one. 4-5 million is a very small number in the media
world. A successful TV show might draw 20+ million viewers in a night

Versus has Cycling Sundays during the summer months
And covers the Tour de France same day in July.
Again it's not ESPN, but it's there...

 

OK those I can do fairly easily

But the street numbers are only a portion of the US market. ATV and offroad
are a big piece of the pie.
Of the major players here, only HD and the Euro guys
(BMW, Triumph, Ducati and Aprilla) aren't involved

Just don't you let your European experience color your interpretation of the
US market. What sells here is not the same as you top sellers.
For example. Hayabusa sells very well here, while naked
bikes (Bandits, staying on the Suzuki theme) are slow movers

 

Ya know I've been down there 2X in recent years for WSB and MotoGp.
I still have yet to set foot inside the Monterey Aquarium. Both times
down there I wanted to go to the aquarium, but both times I ended up
hanging outside down Cannery Row and chatting it up with my pals in
front of Bubba Gumps.

I figure next year I will go down there with the wife and kiddo and let
them do all the sightseeing stuff while I am at the races.

--
Andrew
00 Daytona
00 Speed Triple
71 Kawi H1
05 Infant