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Each day I would pick up a copy of the New York Post and the New York Daily News to read through the various columns. Insightful articles by Jerry Bossert, Ed Fountaine and Tom Cavanagh kept me up to date on the latest events. While at Belmont, I had the pleasure of meeting writers Dan Lauletta and Anthony Affrunti. Together, we stood in the press box and cheered Rachel Alexandra to victory in the Preakness. Standing with us was online journalist Teresa Genaro of Brooklyn Backstretch.
More news is good gnus racing fans!
New York racing is blanketed online by a variety of personalities including, though certainly not limited to, Brooklyn Backstretch, PowerCap and Ernie Munick's Facebook Group Thoroughbred Racing in New York aka TRNY. The New York Times hosts a collection of racing stories on their online feature, The Rail. Regular contributors include Joe Drape and Alex Brown. The Times has published a few of these columns to their hard copy edition.It seems that in New York, print media and online content have found a way to exist and stay relevant.
NYRA is doing a solid job promoting their racing product with a very readable Belmont Stakes website featuring blogs by their own Andy Serling and Jenny Kellner - but taking it a step further by bringing in the opinions of Genaro and Lisa Grimm of Superfecta Blog. It appears to be a full-court press to immerse the NYRA product into the online racing community - and it's working.
Even though I'm a guy with a blog, I'm still a part of the mid-school crowd who grew up with ink-stained fingers and I'm not too shy to report I came home from my trip with copies of all the papers as well as the Belmont racing program. Each will be filed away for posterity. There is that certain tangible quality to print that makes the news seem more real. While I love writing a blog and perusing reader comments, it never gives me quite the same thrill as seeing one of my stories in print. It's odd to think future generations will share stories of pod casts stored on iPods or blogs downloaded to their Kindle rather than flipping through yellowed photo albums as I do. No doubt racetracks hoping to succeed will have to embrace this phenomenon even if the devices seem impersonal.
NYRA is doing a solid job promoting their racing product with a very readable Belmont Stakes website featuring blogs by their own Andy Serling and Jenny Kellner - but taking it a step further by bringing in the opinions of Genaro and Lisa Grimm of Superfecta Blog. It appears to be a full-court press to immerse the NYRA product into the online racing community - and it's working.
Even though I'm a guy with a blog, I'm still a part of the mid-school crowd who grew up with ink-stained fingers and I'm not too shy to report I came home from my trip with copies of all the papers as well as the Belmont racing program. Each will be filed away for posterity. There is that certain tangible quality to print that makes the news seem more real. While I love writing a blog and perusing reader comments, it never gives me quite the same thrill as seeing one of my stories in print. It's odd to think future generations will share stories of pod casts stored on iPods or blogs downloaded to their Kindle rather than flipping through yellowed photo albums as I do. No doubt racetracks hoping to succeed will have to embrace this phenomenon even if the devices seem impersonal.
As for the print media, there is no choice but to adapt to survive. The era of the hybrid reporter has arrived and is ever evolving.
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I think it would be fitting that a future post be a trip around the Canadian racing journalism community. I have linked to many of my favourite media in the margins of this blog, if I'm missing anyone please drop me a line or leave a comment.
5 comments:
Triple Dead Heat wrote:It seems that in New York, print media and online content have found a way to exist and stay relevant.
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But still the online content has a glaring void of those actually working in the horse racing industry. Specifically the grooms, mutuel clerks, and the CEO's of racetracks. It would be interesting to hear their side of the stories on the many issues in the game today.
PS: I just had to stop in and get an enlarged view of the Gary Gnu pic. LOL
Hoping more Gnus is good news.
Who Doesn't Love Racing And Who Doesn't Love New York.
My Family started in America in New York--Now We live close to Boston.Somewhat support our product, but my heart and Dollars are in New York
Hey Knight Sky - I agree with you that it would be interesting to hear stories from different perspectives. I've been trying to write more about the grooms and exercise riders on this blog through my Queen's Plate diary on Southdale. Those on the backstretch have a huge commitment to their animals and I think their stories are perfectly suited to blog diary format.
Anon - New York racing is hard to ignore. They promote well to handicappers with their guaranteed P4 and P6 and I like that they step out on the edge to bring in new voices. Hopefully NYRA will find fiscal balance to go with their efforts.
thanks for reading everyone!
Thanks, Keith, for the mention here. I've long felt lucky that I can read racing coverage in two daily papers (and during big racing times, three), when in so many places, racing isn't covered at all in the papers.
I showed your site to Bossert, Fountaine, and Affrunti yesterday.
Great post. Are you going to cross the border and return to Elmont for the big card?
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