Question Time with Autosport's John McIlroy

[diz]

I was pleasantly surprised to see that Autosport's editor, John McIlroy has popped up here on ten tenths. I suspect that many journos read the forum as guests, but aren't allowed / don't have the bottle to register, so well done John and welcome to TT.

If I may be so bold as to ask you to answer my questions - and hopefully many more in the future from fellow members.

There have been numerous threads on TT bemoaning the lack of club racing content in the magazine [also MSpN. from the same stable]. There also appears to be a discrepancy as to what ASpt. considers 'Club / National' racing and what the readership does. I fondly remember the days when the likes of Robin Bradford, Ian Phillips and Ian Titchmarsh wrote copious amounts of words in race reports. They were allowed to tell the tale of the meeting. We could read all about the splendid battles for 12th place, the class battles etc. Nowadays, it seems the small reports are just repeating the results.

Before the freelance contributors start replying in their droves, I know your problems. 'I've only been given 530 words for a 19 race, 2 day meeting' etc.

So John, what does the editorial team class as Club Racing and what as National Racing?

Moving on.

Why can't you major your F1 coverage into your F1 sister publication?
You could then lead in ASpt. with the likes of TOCA, F3/GT and their supports. You would then be able to give the 'club drivers' a fair go in an expanded club section. There are thousands of race licence holders who will never see their exploits committed to print, as they are unlikely to ever be in the top three, or they race in a class that will never be near the front overall.

As an experiment, why not select one club race meeting per week and give it a proper two page spread?

Why does the content in ASpt. and MSpN. have to be so similar?

Have Haymarket ever given any consideration to publishing a Club Racing magazine?

I could go on and on, but will stop here for now. I look forward to your reply. Yet again, thank you for standing up to be counted.

[John McIlroy]

Hi 'diz',

Thanks for your question - although there are gaps what you're asking me to answer.

You state that Autosport doesn't seem to understand what its readership calls 'club/national' racing, yet you don't state what your understanding of it is. I take it, though, from your analogy about Robin and the two Ians that you're saying larger Club reports would solve the problem.

Part of the issue here is that national motorsport has expanded and diversified over the last few years. I think this is often forgotten. Magazines like ourselves and 'them upstairs at MN' have to cover a broader spectrum of series (including the proliferation of one-make categories), while still coping with what is the global trend - i.e. declining magazine sales. More series = more page demand, but there's less money to splosh out on pages. The amount of pages devoted to Club Autosport is an argument, believe me, that I have with Marcus and Edd on a regular basis. Last year, I gave Club more than 30 pages more than it had had in 2002. Doesn't sound much, I know, but in the overall page budget it has to come from somewhere.

As for what we class as Club and National, this is always a bit of a movable feast. It has to be, basically - we need to balance up how much we're trying to get into the Club section (which is in the back of the magazine due to production schedules) with what's going up front. That's why we put the TOCA supports in the back but BTCC up front, likewise with British GTs and F3.

Moving F1 coverage into F1 Racing would be an enormous, COLOSSAL commercial risk with a title that has been at the core of Haymarket's activities for many years. Most of the men in suits would regard it as commercial suicide, in fact. A readership survey carried out last year (at more than one national racing meeting) illustrated that F1, WRC and Le Mans are at the top of the list of our readers' favourite subjects. So tell me, why should we move F1 out when it's the subject that the majority of the readership turns to every week? Can you guarantee that we'd pick up 40,000 extra readers by doing it? Of course not. But I can guarantee we'd lose that many.

There ARE differences between Autosport and Motorsport News - we cover international motorsport more in-depth than they do, but then, we don't go as far down the rallying hierarchy or into karting and stock cars. But on the middle ground, it's true that we're often chasing the same stories. All I can say is that I don't know what MN is printing in any given week until it turns up at my desk late on a Tuesday evening, and I'm sure Tim Bowdler is in the same boat.

Regarding giving a two-page spread to a club meeting, there's another thread on this forum where someone argues we should be making all sportscars features at least three pages... You get the idea? Anyone interested in a particular level of the sport will always want more space for the discipline/level they love.

I honestly don't know if Haymarket has given consideration to publishing a Club Racing magazine. I'd suspect, though, that in terms of catering for 'grass roots' MN is the chosen 'vehicle'.

No worries about 'standing up to be counted'. I'm happy to answer any further questions, but I've flirted with forums several times before and I often reach a point where there's a hard-line enthusiast stance who simply believes that F1 is the anti-christ and should be removed to make way for 10-page reports from Cadwell. And at that point, any rational commercial argument (yes, we are a business) becomes futile...

John

[petestenning]

This is only my personal thought, but is it worth considering maybe an insert with a report on a club race meeting or series once a month to cater for the club racer. Every week would be to costly
hence the monthly slant.So instead of throwing the advertising inserts away, there would be something of interest to the clubbie?
I do buy Autosport every week and as a member of
750 Motor Club i always look at the club scene first, as i think do a lot of the marshals on this forum.

Regards,
Pete

[diz]

Originally posted by John McIlroy
You state that Autosport doesn't seem to understand what its readership calls 'club/national' racing, yet you don't state what your understanding of it is.

John thanks for your speedy reply. I already fully understood most of your reasons before you replied, but felt like jumping on my soapbox on a Saturday morning.
With regard to my understanding of club / national. To me, club is the amateur, non career class driver [Gregor Grant's idea of the grass roots area of the sport]. National is TOCA, F3/GT support race type drivers.

So when the Autosport Club Driver of the Year is McLaren Mercedes bankrolled and racing in the 'Premier League', it doesn't fit in with my understanding.

[John McIlroy]

Pete,

The 'centre fours' cost extra to print due to the heavier paper, and they are purely for advertising. We'd have to put the price of the mag up if we started using them for editorial...

Diz, we're looking at labelling Club Autosport slightly differently in the coming weeks as the redesign 'beds in' but it won't necessarily result in an increase in pagination.

John

[petestenning]

John, the problem is, as posted in other forums we have too many Championships and too many meetings
every week!. I they were cut down it would make your job easier.Thank you i understand that the costing is the reason for not doing inserts it was just a thought.

Pete

[Sheila M]

John, welcome to the forum. What I would like to see (if its at all possible) are more articles featuring marshals. After all, no matter what level of the sport, marshals are always there and without them there would be NO sport!

Perhaps you would like to be a marshal for a day and write up your experiences?

Just a thought.

Sheila

[Matthew Ronke]

Hi John

is there any plans to increase the international section of Autosport. I live in Australia an subscribe and enjoy reading your magazine but would like to see more about DTM, ETCC and Nascar there doesn't seem to be a magazine that fully covers world motorsport although yours is the closest I have seen.

[Les]

Hi John,
I cancelled my subscription mainly due to it arriving so late that all the good stuff was on the forums.
Any chance of a non-paper subscription - i.e. just get it on-line?

[Peter Mallett]

Er.

Is this fair to the bloke?

BTW. I'm a club racer and I'd like more coverage of me, me, me!

Actually the thoughts here are valid but I suspect we come from a different age. Certainly the level/quality of club reporting is diminished from the 70's when I started buying the mag. But we only have to look around to see that Club motorsport doesn't attract anything but enthusiasts and they won't pay for their own mag (In Gear anyone?).

So more to the point John. Where do you see club motorsport fitting in this media controlled life we live?

[ooo-arr27]

Hi John,
Les mentions an On-line subscription, and I know that you currently have the 'Autosport firstview'. What doesn't make sense to me is that you MUST be a magazine subscriber in order to access the 'Firstview' item. I try my hardest to read Autosport from cover to cover but due to time limitations caused by work and family,(not reading ability), it is not always possible.
If there was a way, as Les describes, of having a non-paper subscription only (obviously with a charge), the likes of myself and probably many others, could browse all the sections of Autosport we wish to read from the comfort of our PC's.
I would not for a minute suggest that I have any in depth knowledge of 21st century journalism, but I do know that entire publications are drafted on computers, so there would be no excuse of "it would not be cost effective for an online only subscription" as the cost of transfering a draft copy to the readable web page format would be, I guess, minimal.
This is not intended as a grumble, but meerly an extention of an idea. Keep up the good work.

[Matthew Ronke]

I am a subscriber, how does the first view work? I am in Australia so when Autosport arrives sometimes I am reading a GP preview after the race, so the firstview sound interesting to me.

[ss_collins]

I'll say now - knowing who most people on here actually are - there are a lot of MN and AS people lurking in these parts

[John McIlroy]

Really? Like who?

[John McIlroy]

First View is pretty neat, actually. You get a subscription number, then log on through the website and then you can either read through the magazine on your screen on line, or download it for viewing later. It's got features like direct access to features and pages, and a search facility.
It's better on broadband, as you'd expect, but it is possible to use it through a regular 56k connection.

Regarding an 'on-line-only subscription', this is something that we're keeping a close eye on. But a few other factors have to catch up with the technology before we'd go down that line.

John

[ss_collins]

sent you an e-mail john.

[Snapper Baz]

As a regular contributor to Autosport "veteran snapper" as they kindly captioned me recently!-I often thought why the hell do they have to have so much F1-every week its on the cover and a good part of the rest of the mag. I, like most of us on here, read the club motorsport pages at the back, then any NASCAR stuff, the letters, the F3/Touring car/GT pages and then the front pages in that order. From a sales point of veiw though you must think what is going to sell my magazine-what a few thousand want to read or what many, many thousands want to read and you will then understand that F1 sells! You cant get away from the fact that people are in this business to make money and without the big headline makers you aint going to do it...If Johnny Herbert wins a Formula Ford Festival it won't increase sales but if Jonny Herbert was to win a GP then it most definately would! (yes I know that was years ago but you get my drift!!)

[Sheila M]

Originally posted by Snapper Baz
As a regular contributor to Autosport "veteran snapper" as they kindly captioned me recently!-I often thought why the hell do they have to have so much F1-every week its on the cover and a good part of the rest of the mag. I, like most of us on here, read the club motorsport pages at the back, then any NASCAR stuff, the letters, the F3/Touring car/GT pages and then the front pages in that order. From a sales point of veiw though you must think what is going to sell my magazine-what a few thousand want to read or what many, many thousands want to read and you will then understand that F1 sells! You cant get away from the fact that people are in this business to make money and without the big headline makers you aint going to do it...If Johnny Herbert wins a Formula Ford Festival it won't increase sales but if Jonny Herbert was to win a GP then it most definately would! (yes I know that was years ago but you get my drift!!)

I agree with you - F1 may be the so-called pinnacle of the sport but there is so much more out there to capture the interest of the majority of readers.

I still think regular articles on marshalling would be good though! (gets off soapbox with assistance)

[Vernon Head]

Hi John, I be intrested to know how much sales are affected by the front cover picture, for example does a Ferrari sell more than a Williams, a mug shot more than a car, or F1 car more than a rally car. I think this would give a true picture of the readers who dont subscribe.

[Chigley]

I'm a subscriber of Autosport and have been for years but I must admit my enthusiasm is waning lately. Why? AS is perceived to be, and is in my opinion is the bible as regards motorsport coverage. However given the dire straits that British "club" motorsport finds itself in these days, AS does not seem to be actively trying to broadcast to the nation that actually there is some fantastic club racing going on which is light years ahead of the "commercialised" nation and international features which AS focuses on.

A more proactive role in trying to get the folks who think that Grand Prix races are "the be all and end all" of motorsport to realise that actually GP/F1 is boring when compared to some of the excellent entertainment that is available on their doorsteps. If AS took the lead in promoting / advertising this wealth of talent, spectacle and entertainment the british motorsport industry would receive a much needed and welcome boost in punters who attend races.

John, instead of the same old trend of fillers featuring F1 teams, F1 drivers, F1......., why not actively report on good value Club championships and Series which are well supported, have full grids and give good old fashioned clean, close, hard fought hard driven respectfull racing. The fanciful manufacturers "contact" series (BTCC, SEAT...) do nothing but introduce bad practice and example to the very people who they should be setting an image of excellence to; the novice club racer.

[Matthew Ronke]

I subscribe to Autosport for an entirely different reasons. The coverage of World motorsport not British Club Racing. You and I have different opions on what AS should have and thats ok by me. But John has the unfortunate job of trying to balance our different opions and make a retun to Auto Sports investors.

[John McIlroy]

Vernon,

I'm not going to get into sales specifics, obviously, but yes we do monitor what sells and what doesn't. Still very hard to draw conclusions, though. The new-look Williams cover at the start of the year sold very well, for example - we reckon this was down to people catching a glimpse of the car in daily newspapers or websites and then picking us up on the Thursday to get a longer story on the launch.

In Damon Hill's glory years it was generally accepted that you could add sales by having a 'Damon Hill cover', regardless of whether it was positive or not.

And in general, rally covers don't sell as well as Formula 1 ones, which is why you don't see many (obviously pains me to say that, given that I covered WRC for several years!).

John

[ss_collins]

I still think regular articles on marshalling would be good though! (gets off soapbox with assistance)


Sheila - MN do that.

[Adam43]

Originally posted by Peter Mallett
BTW. I'm a club racer and I'd like more coverage of me, me, me!

Good point. Me too please. A special section covering Capri and XJS racing please. Bound to be a winner!

Anyway, John McIlroy good to see you here at ten-tenths and it is brave of you to enter into such a thread. It is very courteous of you.

I think that the general coverage of Autosport is where it should be. Mind you speak as someone who is a F1 moderator here at ten-tenths and also a club racer! F1 is not mutually exclusive to other motor racing, despite the snobbish attitudes on both sides. It is obvious that it is F1 that gets the readers in and it is great that all the other aspects of the sport are in the same magazine as it provides those other branches with exposure. This brings in new fans and makes other motorsport markets available to them. I think that a similar situation occurs here at ten-tenths, F1 might drag them in, but hopefully we can get a few of them discussing sportscars etc...

Before I move on to the national and club racing question (as this is the part of 10-10ths we are in!) I'd like to just mention a couple of positives. Sportscar racing seems to be getting quite a few more articles in Autosport at the moment, which I am enjoying immensely. It seemed to have slipped down the priority before, but there is a good level in Autosport now (and of all parts of sportscar too). The new service Firstview is fantastic too, especially for me as a subscriber - my copy arrives while I am at work, but I can still read Roebuck. Thanks!

National and Club racing. Most points have been discussed. The news level is about right. Not many people (especially non competitors) are going to be that interested I would guess. There are always big issues concerning racing in Britain and the rest of the news gives a feel for what is going on.

However as mentioned by others, I am disappointed at the race reports (in both Autosport and MN). I speak from the point of view of a spectator and competitor here. I would like them to be more than just a competition to spot your own name (it only interests a couple of people, which is why I quote Peter above).

When I go to a race meeting it is good in the following week to read about what you saw - to fill in the gaps, jog your memory and remind you about the great action you've seen! It gets you more involved and helps promote club racing.

The main problem with club racing in terms of spectators is that there is no personal involvement. If you go to a GP you know everyone involved, talk before hand is of opinions about who will do what. At club racing it isn't - no one knows a thing. If Autosport or MN could fill them in then spectators might go again because "I saw that race at Brands, it was excellent, so and so was great at Brands I wonder how he will do this time". Maybe not quite like that, but a little knowledge about the cars, the drivers, a previous race, etc... will breed interest. Get them through the gates once and persuade them to come through them again. Maybe it isn't Autosport's job to promote races, however surely it is in its own interests.

Still we've hardly got into the new season.

A great magazine, keep up the good work.

[Snapper Baz]

As much as we all would like to see indepth race reports from our own national series-with sometimes a dozen or so meetings taking place over a weekend it would be impossible to give them the space they deserve unless more pages were added which would then mean a price hike I guess. I do however get a bit anoyed when a lengthy race meeting report ends with something like..."...and Peter Baldwin won a thrilling Miglia encounter"! which often happens. Personally I'm glad to see NASCAR getting bigger spreads at last. The UK interest is growing by the day-another anoying thing from the past was seeing a race reports on a Brazillian saloon car round which got consistantly about half as much more words than that weekends NASCAR round which didnt make sence to me at all-but I guess somebody wanted to read about it. Either way-Autosport is unbeatable in quality and for the price and will always be our main staple diet of reading about four wheels going very quickly!