The other day someone wrote a comment asking if it was true that Brabham was making a comeback in Formula 1. It sounded decidedly unlikely, although just as Damon Hill is currently pushing to help his son Josh raise money for a serious racing career, there is always a young Brabham out there somewhere. I guessed (wrongly) that this was a story about Matthew Brabham making his way up the ladder in US racing.
In fact, when I went from a trawl to see from whence the idea had sprung. I found that someone had reloaded their website, and a three year old story about Brabham being revived had been printed as though it were new. The headline was enough to do the damage. An untrue old rumour was reborn.
It seems that there is one reborn every minute. One really has to watch out for misleading headlines in this day and age. I did a double take myself today when I saw the headline “Ecclestone set for Prisoner remake”, before I realised that there are more people in the world called Ecclestone than just those linked to Formula 1!
It is a sad fact that in this day and age that people can declare themselves to be experts, without any real qualifications, and if they continue to shout loud enough and long enough people will start to believe it – even if they have never set foot in a Formula 1 paddock, never spoken to a single person in the business, nor ever even attempted to get (let alone be granted) an F1 media credential.
You cannot stop those who are convinced they know better than the pros. I was lectured the other day by a real twerp who said that I did not behave like an F1 journalist should, because I had admonished someone for something they wrote in the comments. I asked him if he had ever actually met a real F1 journalist and he informed me, rather pompously, that he had in fact met the editor of Autosport. There was not much point in telling him that the last Autosport editor to be a Grand Prix reporter was in the early 1970s. He knew all the answers. Trolls are like that. They always think they know best. It is best to leave them to their delusion.
I was also asked by a student of media studies for some comments about journalism in the Internet age, and I thought it would be interesting for blog readers to read some of the responses I gave, if only as an illustration of why I feel it is more difficult than ever to get quality Formula 1 information. High quality global journalism does not come cheaply. I offer insight for free because I feel it is really important that those of us who can should at least try to maintain standards.
It is true that one can sit in the backwater suburbs of Nowhereville, Tasmania, and with the help of Goggle translator, you can spend your days lifting (some might say stealing) stories that appear elsewhere in the world about F1. You can rewrite them to avoid copyright questions and sell them to unsuspecting websites who think they are dealing with professional F1 journalists.
The problem with this is that if one does not understand the context in which stories are written, it is inevitable that the interpretation is going to be wrong, or worse still you will be led up the garden path by clever placing of stories by propagandists, who are out there trying to get their messages heard. This happens all the time at the moment, with stories being copied willy-nilly without the facts ever being questioned. Only those who know the way this system operates can hope to spot the manipulation that is going on.
“I believe that the arrival of online amateurs has confused the market considerably, to a point at which the average reader no longer knows who to trust and who not to trust,” I wrote. “The Internet is filled with clutter from wannabes and fraudsters and this is having an effect on the overall quality of F1 coverage, because people with no insights nor access are able to put their own spin on stories (wrong though it may be) and if people see it sufficiently around the Web, they assume that it must be from someone in the business.”
To illustrate the point, in recent days the US has voted through the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012, which lists tax breaks that are granted to certain organisations. This included a section relating to “motorsports entertainment complexes”. Out there on the Web this has been dubbed “the NASCAR tax break” by all and sundry. The splendidly-named Bob Lawless, a law professor at the University of Illinois, is an F1 fan and tipped me off that the sweet irony is that the only current facility that will gain significantly from “the NASCAR tax break” is the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, which is in reality a Formula 1 circuit and (as yet) nothing to do with NASCAR. The F1 world will benefit from the tax break because it will leave the circuit with more money to play with, either to give to the Formula One group, or to use to keep ticket prices down. It is worth noting that the New Jersey F1 organisation might also be able to argue its way to getting some tax breaks as well…
A very different story.
In the interim, the battle goes on to spread the word about sensible F1 news outlets so that these can be built up and will ultimately bulldoze the clutter out of the business. Hopefully that cause will be aided one day soon by software that will trawl the web and automatically identify and highlight plagiarism, and perhaps create the possibility for legal actions.
I am not really bothered by the numbers who read the blog, but I am aware that the more people who read it, the more that battle will be won. I received an email the other day from WordPress, which hosts this site, informing me that 55,000 tourists visit Liechtenstein every year and that if the blog were a country, it would take a century for Liechtenstein to get as many visits as I had last year!
Conquering Liechtenstein was never really an ambition, but onward and upward…
joeblogsf1 
Magnificent! Very, very well said Joe.
So Joe,
What will your first reforms be as King of Liechtenstein! 😉
More taxes.
Does that country have space for a circuit, or would you have to run it around the edge?
Does this mean that Liechtenstein will, with your involvement Joe, get an F1 race? (Hope that this post doesn’t start any false rumours!!!)
Rikki von Opel will be pleased that Liechenstein gets a mention in your excellent piece!
Thanks for giving tasmania a mention joe, and tempted as I have been to start my own f1 blog, (as a Tasmanian myself) your crusade against the people who do what I was going to, woke me up.
I am a very well informed Tasmanian in the relations of F1 and very proud of it. There aren’t many of us here. Yet still I took the high ground and leave my F1 opinions to myself. In saying that I have written a few posts for our good friends mr and mrs C under my Kerbrider “tag”.
I’d love to be able to have an intelligent conversation with you which begs me to ask, are you still doing your audience evenings? I haven’t heard many rumblings of those lately.
BTW when wil saboteurs be made into a movie?
Will be Audiencing in Melbourne. And the film folks are still ferreting. I sell them am option each year and leave them to do their thing.
Pleased you didnt take offence at Joe’s referencing of “backwater suburbs of Nowhereville Tasmania.”I was going to suggest to him that it was only us mainland Australians who could take such liberties.Thanks to Mark Weber Tasmania is on the F1 map,albeit for other than car reasons.
Ricky Ponting is Tasmanian too, I understand.
A happy new year Joe, and here’s to the cause of finding/pointing to the real deal and getting rid of the frauds and propaganda!
Thanks for another one of those posts that make it great to read your blog.
The ‘Nascar’ tax loophole allows all race circuits to accelerate their depreciation of asset spend. (Over 7 years – instead of 12 years)
This helps COTA particularly because they have spent a reputed enormous $350-400m in just over a year. Old NASCAR race tracks have already depreciated their big capital items so only have modification capital spend to write down (maybe a few million)
It wouldn’t help NJ as much because not all of their setup costs will be capital, as the annual costs of putting up bariers, stands etc would be allowable as an revenue/expenditure item and written off in 1 year not over 7.
But they still have capital expenditure in building work that is permanent.
Agreed, but this is a far smaller proprtion of the total spend than for COTA. I believe Singapore (granted has lights) is $40m a year on ‘moveables’, NJ has to build a pit complex, paddock and the rest is temporary
True, but a tax break is still a tax break.
“I was lectured the other day by a real twerp who said that I did not behave like an F1 journalist should, because I had admonished someone for something they wrote in the comments. ”
You didn’t notice he was being sarcastic, as opposed to ‘lecturing’?
It was not sarcasm.
I know the lad in question, and the response (which you’ve now deleted); it was certainly sarcasm! Problem with the internet, Joe, is that facial expression and tone of voice can be misinterpreted very easily. I might add I agree with some of your points above, but then that’s the way of the world – information is easy to access these days.
You were not privy to further exchanges that showed me his real character, so respectfully I stick to my assessment.
Very interesting article, thanks. I contribute to an F1 website that’s increasing in terms of readership. The problem is that because there are many sites out there that thrive on non-stories, gaining trust from readers – as you said – is difficult. It also creates a situation in that increasing quality comes from attending events, which is dependant on finances, which are difficult to raise when trying to weed out the mess. There’s an irony that the majority of fans want people to cover races and will buy a magazine but as soon as a pay-per-view scheme is suggested for online coverage – such as one now used by Autosport – there’s outrage. Happy New Year by the way.
Outrage and very small numbers sign up
But unless you’re the leaders in a specific market, is it viable to charge?
I think at the moment there is a general perception that magazines have a cover price but that the internet should be free, which is frequently more than much of either is worth! As paper decreases in popularity, however, and the ether takes over as the preferred medium, it is inevitable that charges will have to levied or else proper journalism will effectively disappear and only the kind of articles to which Joe alludes will be reach the masses.
My feeling is that Autosport has probably jumped the gun a bit. Much of the website’s news is available elsewhere free (if sometimes plagiarised) for non-devotees and will doubtless be included in the magazine probably already being purchased by the serious fanbase. People will resist paying twice for the same thing and currently the magazine is the preferred format for many, but when this changes web-fees are likely to be accepted by those seeking more informed articles.
I subscribe to Autosport for the reliability of their reportage, but more for their superb photo galleries.
Clarification: I subscribe to their website for the superb on line photo galleries.
I’m willing to admit being incorrect, but I’d guess another issue with financing is the fact there are now 20 – possibly 19 this year – races in more far flung places, which increases the cost of reporting from events. Another problem is the limited PR time given to the media, meaning that the majority of people end up, naturally, with the same quotes. I’ve been in the paddock for one weekend and it was an eye opening experience; what I also found is certain sites which people would trust are the paste-and-copy brigade, without giving credit, that some are quick to belittle.
Today Lichtenstein, tomorrow the world! I have to admit a few mixed feelings about the number of readers you have Joe. I thought this was a cosy, exclusive club of afficiandos; instead you have a following of global proportions. Time for me to change the mind-set and spread the word of good, solid journalism to counter all PR nonsense and money grabbing opportunists that infest our sport.
The amateurs on the periphrery have always been there, whether in print, the net or just in their own little worlds.
I remember my first visits to Brands in the mid sixties with my uncle who introduced me to this sport. He was involved in club racing as a gifted mechanic who “worked” (it wasn’t work it was a passion) for various good drivers including a young Peter Gethin. He pointed out a number of bullsh***ers hanging around the paddock “they can’t do anything, so they just talk”
It was ever thus.
All the best to you and yours for 2013.
Best wishes.
Sadly it is still rather too cosy!
That depends on your point of view! Have you read some of the bovine droppings posted on other forums?
I’m never dead sure how unique viewer stats are compiled for websites. As a reasonable guess it would be linked to IP addresses or something – or perhaps individual devices via cookies?
Either way, I probably count as at least 4 people singlehandedly, which might give some indication as to why GP+ subscription is perhaps “too cosy”.
I shall harangue my chums more about signing up.
Well I suppose it was me, the idiot, that asked about Brabham (still slapping myself for getting excited as I thought it sounded strange, which is why I asked you) and perhaps I played a small part in the inspiration of this article. A nice swipe at me Joe, not really nessecary, but I’ll take it for my stupidity. Trust me, I should know better. For your info, the place I received that information from is on my blacklist, however there were signs from other misinformations it provided that made me cross reference any unique news. Anyway good article and food for thought for all who rely on insider experts on the Internet for any news, be it financial, political, celebrity, sports etc. Even the seasoned can get fooled!
Not meant as a swipe at all. I am sorry you took it that way. I was simply illustrating the point.
No problem Joe. Was just surprised at the initial read of the article, first line clearly me being the “someone”. On second read, it is clear you were simply illustrating an important point. You are the real deal for sure and I honestly feel privileged to have some small amount cyber access to you and F1 journalists like you. As long as you keep it up, I will certainly keep reading and recommending.
Ok, who is the offending “F1 expert” this time? LOL!
The story was three years old? Funny. I’ll check the F1 app I have on my phone to see how many “bit” and regurgitated it. I need a laugh anyways…
I remember seeing a picture of you with the number 500, was it? How many races is it now?
I just wish that Korea was a nice enough place for you to spend time here to meet some of us expats.
I honestly don’t know who drives faster here-the F1 drivers in the race or their crews trying to get out of Dodge…
The sign said 400 but I guess it was about 18 races ago
How big do think the number will get before you “hang up” your pen?
Hang up my own? Don’t be silly…
Sorry, that was silly, wasn’t it?
Reckon Inje circuit would be able to cater for F1 cars?
The track on video seems nice. maybe a bit short.
Joe,
Thought you might like today’s Dilbert then: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2013-01-04/
It’s interesting to note that some ‘trusted sources’ who have decided to limit the viewing of stories to those who do not want to subscribe, have diluted their own content in order to push people over the monthly limit. Not surprisingly, this has annoyed people who have cancelled their subscriptions as a result…
That to me is the saddest part if they feel they have to resort to do that in order to make money and compete with the fakes out there…
Well I for one am unlikely ever to visit Liechtenstein but am pleased to visit your blog on a daily basis. Most informative F1 source out there. Thanks.
Well said Joe as always. Couldn’t agree more about the so-called modern experts. I welcome your insights, I can think of no-one better qualified nor more readable, unless one can get Pete Lyons back. I loved his writings, After Liechtenstein I suppose onward and upward leads to …… Melton Mowbray perhaps.
Lovely pies.
Lyons or Melton Mowbray?
quote>> I did a double take myself today when I saw the headline “Ecclestone set for Prisoner remake”, […] <> He knew all the answers. Trolls are like that. They always think they know best. It is best to leave them to their delusion. <<
Not sure about your definition of "Trolls". Trolls, in the senses of the word that took form on the internet (and as occasionally found commenting on this blog), are *deliberate* in their apparent delusion — aiming to provoke impassioned response from the unwary or the unfamiliar — rather than being self-deluded.
Er, that’s not what how I wrote it!… there’s a chunk missing from the middle. Perhaps I’ve fallen foul of my reason-lapsed use of angle-brackets, sorry.
Though equating Ecclestone with Trolls is no more unlikely than it is unoriginal, they were in entirely seperate points, and what I actually wrote was closer to:
“I did a double take myself today when I saw the headline “Ecclestone set for Prisoner remake”, […]”
🙂 That conjures a lot of possibilities!
And might your double take be an example of the current strength of word association between Ecclestone and [the looming spectre of] prisons?
Not related to BE, but:
“He knew all the answers. Trolls are like that. They always think they know best. It is best to leave them to their delusion.”
Not sure about your definition of “Trolls”. Trolls, in the senses of the word that took form on the internet (and as occasionally found commenting on this blog), are *deliberate* in their apparent delusion — aiming to provoke impassioned response from the unwary or the unfamiliar — rather than being self-deluded.
Hi Joe,
I think any sensible person these days who consumes any news media on the internet has to have a rather healthy dollop of critical thinking when digesting it, precisely for the reasons you have said. Propaganda and mis-information are part of the game unfortunately and as intelligent human beings we should be able to see through it most of the time. This is definitely not confined to F1.
I would also argue it is not as black and white as you have made out. There is a mountain of dross to be sure but there are also some fantastic bloggers out there. For example ScarbsF1’s technical blog is one that I admire greatly and has information that you would never get from mainstream outlets or even perhaps yourself (you never claim to be a technical analysis blog I know!). I also enjoy some of the opinion sites such as formula1blog.com, who never set foot in an F1 paddock and freely admit that fact but win you over with their irreverent style, humour and great content (videos, articles, podcasts, interviews).
On the other side there are people like yourself and Peter Windsor who through close relationships within the industry, attendance at race weekends and vast amounts of experience offer something of real journalistic integrity and depth with valuable historical context.
For the record I find Autosport.com’s “F1 news” to be some of the most insipid and regurgitated as any. But I guess they are a print business so they can’t put everything of worth on their free site. The irony being their free site has put me off paying for their full site.
It is a thing to be thankful for (as it hasn’t necessarily happened in other areas of journalism) that although the dross has gone up exponentially the good stuff has gone up too, if you have an idea of where to look. If I think back to when I got into the sport in the early 1990’s, I was reading Autosport, Motoring News and Motor Sport, which were fantastic, but fast forward to 2013 I personally am a Motor Sport, Grand Prix +(getting to me the night of the race) and GP International subscriber, all at good value prices in my opinion, and when you throw in some of the great stuff you can get for free – blogs by Joe,Peter Windsor, James Allen, Scarbs and so on, all the stuff Motor Sport do on their website, good columns by such as Gary Anderson on the BBC website, and a lot else, I would definately say I have more and better quality content to read now than then, it’s definately ‘you’ve never had it so good’ territory! Hopefully in the future more social media interaction among fans might direct people to the higher quality stuff better, because really given the amount of tip top quality stuff I listed above its shocking some fans are missing out and unknowingly spending their time on dodgier/ill informed sites!
I agree that Scarbs is excellent for technical content, but sadly it has not been updated since the middle of October. Anybody have any indication what’s going on there?
I recall Scarbs saying on his Twitter feed that he’d been quite ill & in hospital in November. He seems to be on the mend now.
I believe he’d been rather poorly, a trip to the hospital. He has since being discharged but is still recovering. I suppose there’s not much tech news to report at the moment anyway.
Andrew, thanks for the tips! Before your comment, Joe’s blog was the only source of info I’d bother with. The others were “tosh”!
Scarps technical site is exactly what the gearhead in me has been looking for.
Happy New Year to all!
It’s a slow process for some, I first looked at your blog some years ago, and initially didn’t have time to look at it in depth, so carried on skimming occasionally.
Time passed and I kept coming back, I liked your style of writing and occasional humour, and eventually I became a ‘full-timer’, looking most days for new posts and reading the comments of others.
‘Comfortable’ is the word I’d use for your blog, it fits well both technically and in terms of news and information provided with my world and I’ve never had cause to question any of the items you have published. I don’t always agree with you, but prefer to keep my views off the page for the most part.
The GP+ side is probably the best value for money going, bar none, and I’d recommend it to others, of all ages.
Keep it up, you have a very faithful band of followers.
The NASCAR tax break has more to do with:
http://www.nascar.com/en_us/news-media/articles/2012/06/29/daytona-improvements-application.html
than any present track.
BZF needs all the help he can muster since he’s hemorrhaging money due to his divorce settlement.
The internet gives an equal platform to all, whether they deserve it or not. Having said that, even in the days of print not all “F1 journalists” made it to the races and few of them actually had an individual voice or offered much analysis.
Joe, you aren’t much of a gusher but are there other F1 voices out there who you do respect? Either now or from the past?
It depends on the criteria you are wanting to know about? News, writing ability, evocative skills, analytical abilities. People have different strengths and weaknesses. And there are some fine people working in other languages as well.
All worthwhile attributes. One would hope that a decent (F1) journalist would have at least one of the above in their armoury. So I guess my question is who do you think offers or has offered a combination of these skills that raises them above the average? No doubt there are many fine writers in other languages. I wish I was sufficiently educated to read them all!
Isn’t the important thing to follow and respect the authors who get the news right the majority of the time? Basing your decision of who to follow on where they are based, where they travel or anything like that is verging on prejudice and awfully elitist. I have never read the work of a single journalist who has not made at least one significant error but I don’t follow the ones who make more than others!
Journalists write to be read and to make a living. The cut and paste brigade is alive and misleadingly thriving. It seems as if I have timing on my side. Chicane 001 is now available and Iit is based upon over three dozen interviews I conducted as well as contributions from those within F1. It is also designed by the friendly folk at Interstate so if you would like a copy Joe please contact me off blog. Quite a few races ago an experienced permanent pass holder and his photographer mate told me to stop whining, use my contacts and to launch my own mag. It can be done.
I’ve been meaning to ask about that for a while : are there any Francophone F1 journos you have a lot of time for? I really need to get myself reading more French outside the office and F1 is one thing I can happily read about all day long.
Jean-Louis Moncet is up to speed and the guys at Autohebdo know what they are doing.
The Ecclestone/Prisoner remake story has been knocking around even longer than the Brabham story.
So on addition to your blog, which I’m convinced is one of the most credible sourcess on the net, what other sites do you respect?
I really don’t read much.
I obviously click on your web page to often,
Unfortunately For more years than I care to remember I have had a very low opinion of print media you can generally tell bullshit straight away, the web hasn’t changed this just made it worse.
My greatest despair is the fact that people actually believe half of what’s written without using there own judgement then willfully carry on as if its fact.
Joe I find it difficult to find some of the writers I have followed over the years. I will run across theirn work once in awhile but can’t find a regular column.
Would you consider posting a list of your prefered writers?
I am not sure I know where to find all of them either.
I miss DSJ; he was the first writer I ever read all those years ago. His reports made me feel that I’d been to the race. After that, I guess the writings that I’ve enjoyed the most (aside from Joe’s) are Windsor, Roebuck, Dodgins, Tremayne and Donaldson. Might not have agreed with all of them down the years but They all seem to have produced work of consistent quality. I can already hear people going ‘ouch’ at some of my suggestions (!) but guess it all ultimately comes down to personal preference.
He was a great journalist, always used to enjoy his articles in Motor Sport, but he’s been dead since the mid-90’s, his drive with SM in the Mille Miglia is the stuff of legends.
Yes; I felt that he was never quite the same after Senna died. I seem to remember that Imola ’94 affected him deeply. I might be wrong but I remember that they were close enough for Senna to send him a Christmas card each year! You’re correct, I remember that he died….’96 I think. I kept a copy of Nigel Roebuck’s obituary in Autosport at the time, which I found quite poignant, and sill have it somewhere. In fact, it’s kept with a personal letter that I received from Jenks himself during the late 80’s, which I treasure greatly.
Hi Jo,
I can well understand the frustration you may have with regard to this topic. It makes me think about the similarities to brand fraud and the resulting frustration felt by the original label when it discovers others taking advantage of their hard earned work.
But so what? You’ll never educate everyone and providing you keep your quality, people will read your stuff. There’s got to be some pleasure in knowing you have the “real” info, similar to having the “real” Rolex or whatever.
Bad info, good info – it’s still info. A least you have your F1 pass, the other tossers don’t 😉
” Hopefully that cause will be aided one day soon by software that will trawl the web and automatically identify and highlight plagiarism, and perhaps create the possibility for legal actions.”
Already being done. By Google. They attempt to identify the genuine site and plagiarising sites get lower search result rankings. In some cases to the point where plagiarism is a really bad strategy for promoting your website.
Inexplicably, I have a sudden urge to go visit Lichtenstein…
To the point, I think journalistic integrity is harder and harder to find nowadays, what with the tabloids and editorial journalism advertising itself as ‘news’. It’s less fact and information than it is entertainment. Many people don’t want to hear the truth, they just want their simplistic minds entertained.
Well written joe, you do have a point, us bloggers do im afraid get carried away. We should remember, only the pros have privy to the real and correct info and news. Thats why i read your reviews, keep up the great work joe and a happy 2013..
The tax relief aspect isn’t as simple as Mr Lawless led you to believe. The “NASCAR Tax Break” was mostly the work of Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow and was designed primarily to help Michigan Intl Speedway, which is an older track in her constituency. As fellow blog reader “cvrt” astutely posted above, older US tracks retrofitting and installing upgrades can now depreciate the improvements faster.
Maybe we should ban amazon to to save the high street!
But in all seriousness the cream always rises to the top. Your content is great even if I don’t always agree with your opinions but you could do way more in regards to lifting the profile of the site and the revenue it generates if you wanted to.
I’m a long time F1 fan and work in web marketing so know something of the internet and I only found your blog in Feb 2012, imagine how many others don’t know about it.
Everyone’s a publisher now, if you want to be the best be the best, moaning won’t help.
I think the best ‘true’ marketing is word of mouth…
Joe aggresively advertising his blog might just drown in a sea of existing advertising where everybody and their dog are jumping up and down shouting “Look at me! Look at me!” Slick and widespread marketing is usually compensating for something lacking.
I kinda like how Joe and his blog seem to fly under the radar. Makes it that much more of a jem!
Over 15,000 reads a day – 365 days a year!!! That’s most impressive.
Congrats on conquering Liechtenstein!
I took a history class covering WWI and WWII the past semester, and we had an “approved list” of books we had to read and do a report on as one of our assignments. The Grand Prix Saboteurs was not on the list, but I did my paper on it anyway. It was a great book and fit perfectly into the class. I got an ‘A’ on the paper, and I told the professor she should add the book to the list for future semesters. She said she likes to read them first, but probably would add it to the list soon.
If followers of your blog have not read it yet I strongly recommend it. I am not sure Charlie would have approved the safety barriers at the top of the parking garage race!
I hope you still get to enjoy the “off-season” and continued thanks on doing the blog too!
All this talk about Liechtenstein – and the new season is still months away . . . Nevertheless, look out for quick Argentinian rookie, Eric Lichtenstein, in GP3 with Carlin this year!
Thanks for all the good work, Joe. Please keep it up throughout 2013.
As another happy Tasmanian reading your views I was pleasantly surprised to see your reference. I thought immediately that this was the place you were referring to http://goo.gl/maps/YIZgx :):):)
Cheers
Wow Joe I did not know you had so many fans from Tassie – nice to see – great to hear An Audience is on along with that thing in Meb at Albert Park. Each day I surf the net with the same stories – then come to the blog/podcast to find out the real story.
Any thoughts on the Longford GP pitch to Bernie for the 20th race this season..
Now you have started a rumour…
Joe I’ve often wondered why you don’t have more advertising on your blog? It wouldn’t bother me at all because I’d like to think that internet news (F1 or otherwise) can always be free to the end user with a little trade-off of some annoying advertising. I’d also like to think you could make some scrilla off all your hard work here! Or perhaps I should start paying my way and subscribe to GP+?
As for the fakers, don’t stress too much about it. Sensible fans will spot the BS and eventually make their way towards the actual news. Years ago I used to skim about a dozen websites for F1 news, now it’s only yours and one other, plus an occasional look at f1.com to see what Bernie is selling.
Thanks for another year of hard work, virtually free of charge. I look forward to reading your thoughts in 2013.
Andrew
I recommend you buy GP+. You will enjoy it.
I second that. I enjoy my subscription to GP+, although I originally purchased it as a way of saying “thank you” to Joe for the effort he puts into the blog. Great photography, and the addition of a couple of other great writers; it’s a good read and good value, IMHO.
5 Million uniques pa? Thats impressive.
I think it is a good start.
How do RSS feeds count? I only go to the actual site when backtracking a comment to get context (e.g. JS: “I think it is a good start”). I prefer RSS to deliver a variety of sites to me rather than my having to poll them, but I’ve always wondered about those counts.
Carry on with the good work, quality free information is what the internet is all about (finding and trusting sources makes it a much more personal act than first anticipated)
Joe,
You should really visit Nowhere Else, Tasmania when you’re next here – it’s a real place 🙂 http://goo.gl/maps/tqRWL
“Ecclestone set for Prisoner remake”! Fantastic!
I’ve been to Liechtenstein once on my 2007/8 big European busking tour, plying songs for a couple of hours along the pedestrian high street. A bit quiet, not much more than a village with a castle and multinational banking, but nice friendly people. Transferred my coins into a little diesel, and headed south towards Austria and San Marino. I’ve been visiting your little patch of www since insidef1 days, around the turn of the millennium. These days I read Joe and James Allen, with a little bit of BBC, grandprix.com and sidepodcast. You are always my first call, cause other people give us the news, but you tell us what is actually happening. Keep up the good work, and onward towards conquering Luxembourg!
I have not worked for http://www.grandprix.com for about four years.
That’s a shame. It is a fantastic wesbsite
I’d say the tax-legislation catchphrase is less a manifestation of journalistic wannabe-ism and fraud than it is of how, at long last, to the USA’s general public, Nascar IS big-time racing, and vice-versa. Thoroughly legitimate people in US journalism and politics would innocently commit or embrace that mislabeling.
I’m scared of what I might do when one day I’ll be watching F1 or IndyCar on TV, and some clueless comes up behind me and says “What’re you watching? Oh … NASCAR.” I should rehearse now my explanation to the judge afterwards…
It always amazes me that if I read the Guardian, Times, or often Autosport, shortly after a race, what I read seems to be a verbatim transcription of what I have just heard a driver say to Lee McKenzie on the BBC.
From what you are saying Joe, accredited journalists are actually few and far between.
There are not many.
It’s the fundamental problem with the internet. You can be an ‘expert’ on the anything by Goggleing (I like your corrupted form of the word) or at least appear to be. It goes hand in glove with this medium where you can be anything or anyone in the virtual world without having to prove your credentials (apart from yours of course Joe) – down to the necessity of supplying one’s real name (although some do – but do they?). In a way you have to suspend (dis)belief.
Generally, fans do have something to contribute, apart from their cash, and although we all sometimes make mistakes I think it’s important to be heard but also corrected where necessary. Well done for executing this often thankless task. I hope you really do gain something from it.
Another Tasmanian here Joe… unfortunately “Nowheresville” has lost a lot of homes this weekend and maybe some lives.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-06/tas-residents-counting-cost-as-fire-fighting-continues/4454148
Interesting info Joe concerning the tax breaks. My friends down south have told me that COTA recently cancelled a lot of SCCA regional events at their track that were booked for the 2013 season and may be heading toward a country club format of rich exotic car owners renting garage space for their cars (storage) in between their private lapping days. Wonder if the new tax structure helps this new business plan or is it just coincidence?
“sensible F1 news outlets”
You’re not advocating censorship are you?
I like my first amendment, and it is protected no matter how inaccurate or unpopular your words are. The best way to deal with this is to keep a level head and not panic everytime someone blogs that Ecclestone is headed to prison.
For example someone in Indonesia could lift that last line and then blog that Ecclestone is going to prison, and source it from a Saward web page. If someone is so ignorant that they believe everything they see on the net I expect no amount of censorship will save them.
You cant control information, you can attempt to manage it.
There should be an amendment for people who put words into other people’s mouths as well. I am not advocating censorship at all. You can wasting your life trying to figure out which writers are idiots and which are not, and you wander around with a handgun stuck in your trousers, if that makes you feel free.
This just in, top F1 journalist Joe Saward declares that “writers are idiots”!
Reminds me of a response in Total Film magazine to a letter asking about the quotes shown on movie posters, which are done without any authorisation by the publication in question and can be taken in whatever context the PR people like – with the added twist that film reviewers are often after their own slice of PR and like to see their names on posters around the country.
What are you on about?
I would ask, “What are you on?”
Excessive caffeine. Lost myself in my own tangential thought processes about bad journalism, putting words in people’s mouths, misquotations, context, false rumours, etc., etc..
My train of thought occasionally goes a little like a game of Mallet’s Mallet.
I just got my weekly #&+@§sport.com “newsletter” and guess what?
Brabham may be coming back!
After I stopped laughing, I realized how fortunate I was to find your blog and GP+.
Thanks again!
Interesting thoughts and observations Joe, thanks. However, I’ve just finished reading Di Spires’ fascinating account of her time in F1 and she paints a rather different picture of the reliability and integrity of a number of your colleagues, all those of which she mentions being pass carrying members of the F1 community. It is very clear from her book, and from events and stories arising this year from what should have been absolutely reliable sources, that deliberately inaccurate or simply misinformed and unchecked rumours are not an uncommon part of the accredited journalists’ arsenal. Given that, how are those of us who watch from the sidelines supposed to differentiate? I read your work – and that of DT, JA, Hamilton, Roebuck and others – because I have been following this sport for three decades and I have come to trust your reputation. With people like Sylt contributing to national broadsheet papers, and your own rubbishing of rumours coming from the UK broadcaster, what would you recommend a newcomer to the sport to do?