A shakeup in Charlotte....so what's up at AP-NASCAR?

  The AP's Jenna Fryer, with legendary promoter Bruton Smith (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
  

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

    However Fryer, who is the AP's lead national NASCAR writer, seven years now full-time on the beat, and with a reputation for feisty and inspired coverage, says any fears that the AP may change its NASCAR operations from a national approach to a more regionally-based format are unfounded.
    If the AP, which bills itself as 'the world's leading news-gathering organization,' were to shift its national NASCAR writer back to a regional beat, with NASCAR just on the side, that would be yet another major blow to the sport of stock car racing, which is already reeling from mass firings of NASCAR journalists at so many newspapers around the country.
    Virtually every significant American newspaper has essentially either dropped its NASCAR beat or severely curtailed specialized coverage over the past three years. In what could be seen as fallout from the sheer expense of covering this sport in depth, newspapers have been firing veteran, prominent NASCAR journalists right and left.
    Thus the AP's own NASCAR coverage has become ever increasingly important to the sport.
    Indeed, Fryer, who typically covers some 25 to 30 of the sport's 36 national Sprint Cup events from February through November, has become almost 'the last line of major league journalistic independence' on the print media side of the sport.
    Just a few days ago the Las Vegas Review Journal, Nevada's largest paper, suddenly eliminated its NASCAR beat and dropped veteran Jeff Wolf.
    Last month major newspapers in Tampa, Fla., Norfolk, Va., Roanoke, Va., and Greensboro, N.C. also abruptly dismissed their veteran NASCAR writers, continuing a troubling trend.
    Over the past few years major newspapers around the country, from Los Angeles to Boston, Kansas City, Dallas, Fort Worth, Washington, Baltimore, and other cities, have either completely eliminated the NASCAR beat or limited coverage to just a few events.
    All that has increased reliance on the AP's NASCAR coverage.
    Some key executives in this sport have not only expressed alarm at the situation of losing so many experienced NASCAR journalists but have begun meetings to study media alternatives.
    The big picture background here: The AP is a non-profit 'collective' that gets its income primarily from its clients, like newspapers themselves, by charging annual fees. However newspaper budgets have been under attack lately, and the AP's fees have been questioned, with papers wanting to pay less for AP coverage.
   And The AP's most recent budget analysis shows a $34 million loss in operating income for 2010, following a $21 million loss in operating income for 2009.