NASCAR Writers Also Take Cuts in Declining Economy

When I was younger, before I was even allowed near a computer, before I had ever really heard of NASCAR, I have wanted to be a writer.

I can remember sitting in class in fifth grade and writing pages of a made-up story, just allowing my imagination to run wild on the paper

When I was in high school, I wrote for the newspaper and I was a co-editor of the news section and I hated it. I loved sports; I love the competition; I love the excitement.

I also loved NASCAR, and at this point (2001), this sport was dealing with the tragic loss of Dale Earnhardt Sr., the nation was grappling with 9/11, and I clung to this sport for hope.

I read the newspaper every day. I read it religiously, both at school and at home, front to back. I didn't rely on the Internet for my news, because only hard news came from newspapers.

This was the mentality I was taught. That the newspapers represented a different era. And now this era is slowly disappearing and my dream is quickly needing to be altered.

I always dreamed that someday I'd be writing for the Washington Post or  Chicago Tribune. That my name would appear in the byline and I could open that paper crisp and fresh and see my sports stories right above the fold.

But with the tumbling economy and ink, and paper cost sky rocketing, and limited advertisers. This leaves the newspaper business quickly becoming too expensive to produce. The Internet gives today's readers news instantly and there is no cost.

This the perfect storm for print journalism. While digital media is a great outlet and will allow more news, faster. This means that what jobs were there in the newspaper business three or four years ago have all but been cut.

For NASCAR and auto sports writers, this is quickly becoming a reality. Newspapers across the country have cut this section from print. This mass budget cut across the board leaves, many writers scrambling to fill limited positions on other staffs on the newspaper.

The cost for writers to travel to races that criss-cross the country and hotel stays for the staff. Plus any other additional cost can cost a newspapers thousands each year.

These writers travel as much as the crews and drivers, especially if they sit on smaller staffs. This makes the racing section for most newspapers the first and easiest to cut.

Less coverage of this sport means our exposure will  begin to decline. While the popularity of this sport won't change and while we might not feel the effect of these cuts this year, but we will in the future.

While crews and guys in the garages across NASCAR are dealing with budget cuts and layoffs, they are not the only one.

The newspaper business is quickly going from the No. 1 source for news to the third or fourth choice, behind the 24-hour news cycle, the Internet, and radio.

Recently, in NASCAR a number of seasoned writers have seen their positions completely cut. While drivers and owners are cutting jobs, so is the newspaper business.

My college counselor actually warned me that the print media was quickly becoming  ineffective, that at some point I might need to change my major or concentration to where the jobs are.

NASCAR writers are a rare breed, they travel to almost all the races, especially for smaller staffs. The writers they cover the sport effectively. But this rare breed is unique, they bleed passion for this sport. They were mostly fans before they were writers.

They attended races as a child or even as an adult. They sat in the stands and cheered and jeered the drivers. They were fans first, writers second.

But now they are providers for families, they are no longer a fan first. This is their livelihood and slowly it is being eliminated.

As someone who writes consistently about this sport and someday hopes to do this down in North Carolina, I can only hope that this business will see an upswing in the future. But with our world quickly becoming digital, this seems unlikely.

We talk about the crews and garage men and women, and the drivers who are laid off and with good reason but we forget about the writers who depend on this sport just as much as those who  work on the cars.

For me my passion hasn't changed. I still have that same dream of seeing my work on the front page, but now it's the front page of sports section on the Internet and not on the cold newspaper I have read religiously for so long.