[krt917]

Morning all,

Thought I'd jump on and reply to a few points before we finish this week's mag. Thank you for the comments, some positive, some constructive, though obviously I find peebee's position frustrating. I suspect if you counted mag covers last year you would find Mercedes and Ferrari to be the most prolific because they were doing the winning. I need to confirm it with the web team, but I also believe the McLaren launch got the most traffic over the last week, so there is an interest out there. Surely we all want McLaren (and Red Bull) to do well so there is more of a battle at the front? Before I go on, there will be a McLaren on this week's cover too, but hopefully the image may amuse...

Right, I'll try and cover off a few comments briefly otherwise this will get a tad long!

- Mag size. Yes, I can't deny it has got gradually smaller over the years , with a few exceptions (for example, the last two Christmas double issues have been the biggest for years). However, I am hoping to do as many free supplements as possible this year, whether they be Engineering, Performance or Historics. They give the journos more space, mean we can do slightly different things, give the reader more and (for boring internal reasons I won't go into) don't normally affect my page budget. If you have any ideas for supplements, please let me know, although the ideas part tends not to be the problem!

- peebee is correct to say that reading/rewriting press releases is not journalism. All the youngsters are encouraged to source their own news and to do follow-up phone calls to releases where possible. There are two caveats: 1. Sometimes, because a team or series wants to control things, we can't get comment/info, even if we know something is happening. That means we either have to jump the gun with half-information (not good) or wait until teams/series etc are ready (not good, but at least it usually mean better accuracy). 2. Many more teams and series are better at PR now. So, whereas before someone might have just rung me (or whoever) to get a story out through Autosport (or A N Other), now they send out a release to everyone. Journalism isn't dead, it's just harder to make that obvious.

- Ferrari. Its approach to the media has been frustrating, though we are hoping that will change. That said, we'll still run pieces on Ferrari (for obvious reasons) when we can. For example, Ben Anderson spent months tracking people down for the Kimi Raikkonen cover piece last August, and then also got Kimi late on, so he was able to do a really good article on him. Similarly, we try to use the contacts we have to find out what is happening at the team, even if they are not putting out official information.

- chunder. I can assure you the people who don't care about motorsport are long gone when it comes to the editorial team. As you point out, this line of work is not going to make us rich, so those left now tend to be the people who really love it. In fact, one of the pluses of the past couple of years has been seeing the next wave of enthusiastic youngsters starting out. Typing that makes me feel old!

- News. It's probably worth pointing out that the news online and in print is diverging. Obviously online is instant, but the .com team have modified what they cover and how they cover things with all the data they get. So some stories might seem light but you'd be surprised (and in some cases probably disappointed) about which stories get big traffic and which do not. The mag is a bit different and that's why the P&P section tends to have a bit more analysis or opinion than just straight news. I try and view it as 'what are the essential and most interesting motorsport stories from the past week' that someone who is not clicking on the website every five minutes needs/wants to know.

- Off-season. Interestingly, although there isn't a lot happening at times during the winter, I enjoy the mags then because it gives us space to do retrospective pieces (we did a six-page Bernd Rosemeyer piece in the Feb 1 issue, for example), interviews, bigger features etc. Annoyingly, until the F1 testing season starts, they tend not to sell as well, which I think is an indicator of just how dominant F1 has become in terms of motorsport exposure/wider coverage.

One final point. I notice the 1984 retro special last August has come in for criticism. All I will say is that it is not reprinting of old stories. In fact, those issues are some of the most difficult to put together as we chase people from the time and try to uncover new stories/views on what happened. However, those issues (which did quite well when we first introduced them) often get criticised along similar lines and are marginal when it comes to sales, so we will probably stop doing them, at least when it comes to focusing on one particular season.

Ok, back to the mag! Thanks again and enjoy the racing season, wherever that takes you.

Best regards,
Kevin