94 replies to this topic

[Andy Van De Burgt]

Just for the record there are no plans to expand the MotoGP coverage to Autosport magazine in the forseeable future.

Andrew

[Kilted Wanderer]

Bira, what's the view re multiple Moto GP threads in the Racing Comments Forum now? Yay or Nay?

[bira]

KW see my post here, from November last year: http://forums.autosp...841#post2546841

I haven't changed my view on that

[Kilted Wanderer]

Originally posted by bira
KW see my post here, from November last year: http://forums.autosp...841#post2546841

I haven't changed my view on that

Thanks bira - missed that thread

[Shallow Vessel]

Haaaaaaaaaaallelujah!
Haaaaaaaaaaallelujah!
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Halleeeeeelujaaaaaaa!

(Repeat over, one octave higher each time, until voice is horse)

[Shallow Vessel]

That said, ed, the F1 journal is "F1-lite" this week.

[Jodum5]

Well now that Nicky Hayden is defending his championship and we've got MotoGP here I may as well start following the sport. Hopefully I'll become a casual fan (F1 is a fulltime job).

Now only if we'd get some better coverage in the U.S.

[carbuff]

Thanks for this Bira, you just got a new subscriber.

Cheers

[Hellenic tifosi]

Originally posted by F1Johnny
I don't get this resistance on the first day of the introduction of Moto GP coverage. Give it some time. The site is Autosport and Moto GP is just that.

I find it amazing that people that love motorsports/F1 would not like Moto GP. Just my opinion.

I don't think there is a "resistance". The majority of readers were really happy about the MotoGP coverage, some people are indifferent towards it and some others are opposed to it.

All in all, this move will prove to be a success. Well done!

[Mark Bennett]

Originally posted by Andy Van De Burgt
Just for the record there are no plans to expand the MotoGP coverage to Autosport magazine in the forseeable future.

Andrew

Thanks Andy

[crazy88]

I've been a reader of Autosport for the best part of 20 years (God, I feel old now, I'm only 27!) and for the past few years I've been lurking on here with the comprehensive discussions leaving little for me to add until now.

I'm a keen fan of all forms of car racing, attending club races, watching obscure series on Motors TV, but I've got little interest in bikes past watching it if it's on and I'm at a loose end. The influx of MotoGP articles has annoyed me immensely, as it's not something I have ever considered part of the Autosport brief. Trying to filter it all out of the website is fairly tricky for the uninitiated like me, and it still shows in my RSS reader.

I have no concerns about the quality or quantity of car coverage being affected, but it just seems extraneous to include MotoGP in a car based website. Why not include snowmobile racing or sidecar trials? If it's simply that a lot of F1 fans also like MotoGP, then surely you should include football scores and news, following the paddock displays last year of mechanics and drivers huddled round plasma screens, special helmet designs and so on...

If haymarket want to release www.bikesport.com or some such, and want to do a little cross-promotion, then fine. If it interrupts the coverage of four wheeled sport (Which has been Autosport's focus for what, over a hundred years?) then surely something needs to be reconsidered.

[crazy88]

Originally posted by Hellenic tifosi


The majority of readers were really happy about the MotoGP coverage, some people are indifferent towards it and some others are opposed to it.

All in all, this move will prove to be a success. Well done!

The majority of posters in this thread are happy. I think it's unfair to say the majority of readers are happy. Only time will tell if it's a success.

[jcbc3]

Originally posted by crazy88


The majority of posters in this thread are happy. I think it's unfair to say the majority of readers are happy. Only time will tell if it's a success.

This prompted my inquiring mind, Bira.

Do you monitor the hits on the single articles on the site? I mean if the F1 articles are hit 10,000 times/day and the MotoGP only 100 times/day would that prompt you to re-think this whole business? (I still support the inclusion, btw)

[Hellenic tifosi]

Originally posted by crazy88


The majority of posters in this thread are happy. I think it's unfair to say the majority of readers are happy. Only time will tell if it's a success.

You are right, I shouldn't have directly related the one to the other.

However, I think that people who are unhappy about something have a bigger tendency to complain, than the tendency of happy people to praise.

Therefore I still think (and I hope I am proven right) that the vast majority of subscribers will enjoy the new addition

[Dudley]

Originally posted by Andy Van De Burgt
Just for the record there are no plans to expand the MotoGP coverage to Autosport magazine in the forseeable future.

Andrew

Well that shows the attention I pay, I was under the impression it was always in MotoGP.

[bira]

Originally posted by jcbc3



This prompted my inquiring mind, Bira.

Do you monitor the hits on the single articles on the site? I mean if the F1 articles are hit 10,000 times/day and the MotoGP only 100 times/day would that prompt you to re-think this whole business? (I still support the inclusion, btw)

We certainly have usage stats for sections, and of course they are a tool for us to work with and plan ahead.

But it's not always the case that something less popular would therefore be removed or minimized on the website. Sometimes things are by nature "important" but not necessarily popular.

Also, you always have to ask yourself whether something is not successful because it's simply not of interest to many, or because we're not doing a good enough job?

In the MotoGP case, we know the market numbers for the potential readership it should draw - among our existing readers, among our potential readers, and among brand new readers. So we know what to aim for. And I'll say that if we don't meet that threshold, we are not doing a good enough job in our coverage and should improve.

Anyway, it's early days. The initial response by emails we got are 9 to 1: for every nine enthusiastic thank-you email we got 1 angry dont-want-that email. And, incidentally, we had a spike in both traffic and subscription sales yesterday. So we're quite optimistic right now...

[Dudley]

Well indeed, if the MotoGP gets 100 readers but all 100 subscribed to read it, that makes it more valueable than a section 1000 people read but none would actually cancel if it went.

[Goma]

For me it's easy: I won't find anywhere else so much analysis, insight, interviews, pictures and stats (that I can arrange as I like) about so many series, with constant improvements and innovation, as I get for my subscription to Autosport.com.

So, to Bira & Co. for another excellent addition, you have one happy customer in Argentina

[ehagar]

Originally posted by scdecade

Do I enjoy MotoGP too? Yes. But there seems little chance that autsport.com will offer a service that is even remotely comparable to motogp.com. They cover MotoGP better than autosport.com covers F1. That's a problem. And it's free. And it's available in multiple languages. And it has video.

Ross already responded to this, but I would like to reiterate that MotoGP.com is owned by Dorna, the right holders to the series. Yes, I do find it a good service, particularly being from Canada and being absolutley starving for any sort of coverage. If I want to get video of a race live, its a hell of a lot better than waiting to see if Speed TV will decide bump the race around to make room for another Pinks marathon.

That said, right now I think there is a vacuum that needs to be filled. There is a need for an independent internet magazine providing analysis/coverage & opinion of bike racing. There are some good websites out there, but I do not think most people know where they are. There are precious few really good print magazines out there either.

I am not a subscriber to Autosport.com, but looking at a few of the names they have selected has for their motoGP coverage I am sure they will do just fine.

Good job guys

[Jedi_F1]

Originally posted by Andy Van De Burgt
Just for the record there are no plans to expand the MotoGP coverage to Autosport magazine in the forseeable future.

Andrew

Thanks and I hope that stays like that, because the world of Autosport is big enough to fill the magazine.
And it's just the point that the magazine is purely Autosport is just why I buy it.

[jcbc3]

Originally posted by Jedi_F1
Autosport is my life, my passion, my mind and a love!

You need to get out more!

[Jedi_F1]

^ did that

[Frogman]

Thanks for adding MotoGP content to the autosport website, a great addition IMO.
Just one tiny remark; the MotoGP calendar box in MyAutosport shows an eerie similarity to the F1 calendar box

[QdfV]

I wonder whether the MotoGP is not just additional content but also a loss of focus, which could be not so much detrimental for the number of members, on the contrary looking at the reactions, but for the quality of the site as (for me) the icon of quality F1-news as such. Telling maybe is that when I press on the top bar 'F1' (between Home and News), I get a lot of non-F1 articles. This being the result of the weekly journal not being about F1 to a large extend is the main cause for it, but yesterday it struck me when also the grapevine stories on there were mainly non-F1.

I understand the additional content = additional value argument as Autosport's reasoning behind it, but isn't it strange that in this year of change, the first year without Michael Schumacher, a single tyre supplier and many new drivers, many changes altogether and the beginning of a new era in a way, in the testing period a few weeks before the kick-off of the season, there is not enough material to fill a F1-Journal?

[djellison]

I wont be renewing my subscription. What next, powerboats? reno air races? donkey derby? If I wanted bike news I'd buy a bike mag.

I find it hard to believe that attention to and quality of reporting for F1 will go totally unchanged. Has money for new writers and their travel expenses suddenly grown on a tree?

It just seems like an effort to defocus the scope of what the place should be about. Sorry - just not what I want to see my subscription paying for, so I wont be renewing when the time comes around.

Doug

[Ross Stonefeld]

Your loss, MotoGP is an add on.

[camden]

Originally posted by jcbc3



Erhhh, correct me if I'm wrong but MotoGP IS motorsport?

As for the 'dearth' of F1 stuff, it might be connected with the fact that there is precious little to report at the moment. As a northern European I must also say, that I have absolute no interest in Australian V8. As some antiodeans might think that DTM news are irrelevant to them. So whatever 4-wheel'ed contents is moved around, shrunk or expanded you won't get a complaint from me. Unless it's the F1 content of course ;)

Well, it's bikes, not 4-wheel...and frankly bikes don't interest me at all.

But Aussie V8's - I live in Northern Europe and frankly the V8's produce far more interesting racing than DTM ever has. Much as I like DTM - which generally I do - I visited the Brands Hatch race last year, and it was dull as anything I've ever paid to see (although some of the support racing was fantastic).

Personally, I'd much rather see more in-depth coverage of a number of non-F1 series. For example, very often the race reports on the news pages for non-F1 series won't give championship standings and so on - very frustrating. After last weekend's A1 GP race, for example, I had to go to a1gp.com (a dreadful site to try and use) to get the latest standings.

[Frogman]

Originally posted by camden
Personally, I'd much rather see more in-depth coverage of a number of non-F1 series. For example, very often the race reports on the news pages for non-F1 series won't give championship standings and so on - very frustrating. After last weekend's A1 GP race, for example, I had to go to a1gp.com (a dreadful site to try and use) to get the latest standings.

I agree with most of what you said, except for the part about a1gp.com, the championship standings are on the front page, no need to navigate anywhere.

[Chubby_Deuce]

Originally posted by djellison
Has money for new writers and their travel expenses suddenly grown on a tree?

Considering the merger and the fact that they've been shorthanded for some time, I'd say that this is a fair assessment. Also, why decide against renewing now? Why not wait until we're into both series' seasons before you do that? You've only got two and a half weeks to wait..

[camden]

Originally posted by Frogman

I agree with most of what you said, except for the part about a1gp.com, the championship standings are on the front page, no need to navigate anywhere.

Granted...they are... but the site is so flash heavy and slow to load I'd rather avoid it. Besides, I thought it was the sort of thing I pay Autosport for ;)

[Ross Stonefeld]

http://www.autosport...=201&y=2006&c=1

[camden]

Ah....thanks. Um, where is the link to that page though? I may just be being blind, I haven't had my coffee yet today ;)

[camden]

Originally posted by camden
Ah....thanks. Um, where is the link to that page though? I may just be being blind, I haven't had my coffee yet today ;)

And now I have, I just found it. I think I am officially blind (either that or I keep my browser window too narrow!).

[bira]

camden there are three ways you can access that page from the homepage:

1) "Select series" dropdown menu at the top right of every page (this menu appears only when a subscriber is logged in)

2) Click on a series name in the "Next Race" box on the homepage (this box appears only when a subscriber is logged in)

3) Click on "Calendars, Results & Stats" on the navigation bar at the top of every page on autosport.com (this link appears for ALL users, subscribers or not).

[Dudley]

Originally posted by djellison
I wont be renewing my subscription. What next, powerboats? reno air races? donkey derby? If I wanted bike news I'd buy a bike mag.

I find it hard to believe that attention to and quality of reporting for F1 will go totally unchanged. Has money for new writers and their travel expenses suddenly grown on a tree?

It just seems like an effort to defocus the scope of what the place should be about. Sorry - just not what I want to see my subscription paying for, so I wont be renewing when the time comes around.

Well the business hope is that the new subscribers for the motoGP, pay for the motoGP.

[Hellenic tifosi]

Would it be possible to add boxes for MotoGP event schedule - results, etc at my.autosport.com? It would be very convenient to be able to access all this information without having to visit http://www.autosport.com/bikes/

[QdfV]

See, Autosport lost interest in F1; Bira did not even take part in the pre-season gamble ;)

[jcbc3]

I was wondering myself, where she was. My conclusion was that as reigning Queen of the Empire she must stay impartial.

[bira]

I've been embroiled in house moving drama these past few days, so I bailed out of the Gamble this year. Mind you, I haven't got anything meaningful to say anyway

[tweiss]

Originally posted by bira
I've been embroiled in house moving drama these past few days, so I bailed out of the Gamble this year. Mind you, I haven't got anything meaningful to say anyway

Some of us hang on your every word my dear Bira!!!!

[Hellenic tifosi]

I don't mean to sound "pushy", but would it be feasible to implement my suggestions to my.autosport?

[united]

While I am happy for MotoGP fans, I do not have an impression that MotoGP is an "extra". Now "exclusive interviews" with MotoGP people (ok, I know it's Illien, but the interview is 100% about bikes) appear as a regular news items. Half of the main page is devoted to MotoGP.

Autosport.com seriously compromised itself when the site made all the news free and frankly saying there were no perks added for a regular subscriber. Now MotoGP distilled the coverage even more.

I am not going to cancel my subscription, your stats will remain positive. Your site is still very good, but the WOW factor is lost. Which is very sad.

[Chubby_Deuce]

It's not like Toby would have been interviewing Patrick Head if he weren't busy with Mario. The Oz GP review would probably still be sitting as the top story otherwise..

[Jodum5]

Personally i think the quality of the stories fell way back when autosport merged with atlas f1. But that has nothing to do with the motoGP addition. I see no problem with it. Anyway, this is still the best site for f1.

[Dolk]

As long as autosport keeps David on the payroll so he can be my personal stats dude in chat, I'll keep my sub.