Media Ride-Along

I spent an 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. shift on April 9 at RacingOne Multimedia with J.J. O’Malley.  O’Malley is the senior print editor of the corporation and was very helpful with the exception of not providing his salary.

Diary of a Shift

8 a.m.               Arrive at office, work on Grand-Am story for immediate website publication

10 a.m.             Create electronic folders for stories and pictures for upcoming IRL race at Richmond International Raceway

10:45 a.m.        Pick stock photos for the Richmond program—1or 2 photos per story

11:30 a.m.        Walk over to archives building to look for pictures of certain drivers for the program

Noon               Walk over to the Grand-Am headquarters to rub elbows with the corporate brass that RacingOne writes about and for

12:30 p.m.        Lunch

1:15 p.m.          Collects file photos and puts them in a file to be sent to art department for color correction

2:30 p.m.          Edits other staff members’ stories

4 p.m.              Calls it a day and goes home

Hierarchy Chart

Profile of an Editor

J.J. O’Malley, 54, was born into the journalism world. His father was a newspaper

man, writing for several papers in Pennsylvania where J.J. grew up.  He had a paper route as a boy and began working as a disc jockey at a local radio station in high school.

He attended King’s College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he majored in English.

“They didn’t have journalism as a major back in those days,” he added.

While enrolled, he worked at a number of local publications, including the only paper that survived the flood of 1972.  Being on that staff allowed him to cover multiple beats, including the one that he would pursue for the rest of his career, auto racing.

After graduation, he got a job reporting for National Speed Sport News with famed motorsports journalist, Chris Economaki.  In 1978 he was also hired to be a sports writer at the Pocono(Pa.) Record.

In 1984 he was hired by his current employer, International Speedway Corporation (ISC), to be the PR director of Watkins Glen International in New York.  He worked there until 1998 when ISC moved him down to Homestead-Miami Speedway to takeover the same position.  In 2001, ISC moved him to Daytona International Speedway where he edited all of ISC’s track programs.

The rest of this story unfolds in the Fusion portion of the report.

Ethical Policy

RacingOne does not have a written ethical policy because motorsports coverage does not necessitate strict guidelines for ethics.  O’Malley did say that it is written in language geared toward family reading and that the editors follow AP Style.

He also said they do not show wrecks where people have been injured or killed.  They will show pictures if a driver walks away from a spectacular crash.  He gave an example of Michael McDowell’s wreck last weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.  The car hit the wall then flipped eight times in the air. McDowell crawled out and waved to the crowd.

All of the editors agree with the ethical policy, as the stories are meant to be read by fans of all ages.

Policies

Anonymous sources: RacingOne blogs can use anonymous sources for rumors about certain racing series and teams. But nothing is ever published if the information is asked to be kept confidential until a press release.

Fact checking: Editors/Reporters are responsible for checking their own facts. Most information can be double-checked against the archives which cover 95 percent of auto racing history.  O’Malley has a book case in his office that is filled with reference books he uses to check facts.

Outside Influence on News Content

There is one glaringly obvious sacred cow at RacingOne Multimedia: ISC.  This is the parent company of RacingOne and therefore is usually shown in a positive light.  This is a necessary evil because without ISC, a lot of the races to report on wouldn’t exist.  Writers at RacingOne are still allowed to report that a race was filled with caution periods; they just can’t say it was mind-numbingly boring because of it.

Training

RacingOne does not offer formal training for its staff.  New employees are given some instruction and help, but after that they are expected to keep up with the company’s pace.  They do hold production and editorial meetings every Monday at 10 a.m. to keep staff informed about what is going on for the week and let them know what is expected of them.

Editing Protocols

All of the editors at RacingOne are also reporters. They do not have a formal editing protocol; it is understood around the office what is expected when editing. O’Malley said part of the day he spends working on his own projects and the other part he spends editing the work of others. After a story is written it is tacked on to a manila envelope with a sign-off sheet attached. It must get around to four editors before being prepared for print or online publication.  Captions must reach at least one other editor before print. These envelopes float in and out of O’Malley’s office all day.  Nothing is off limits for editing, but everyone is pretty respectful of the writer’s original voice, he said.

Pay

O’Malley said none of the staff at RacingOne belong to a union. The pay for editors starts at about $30,000 per year and goes up with experience.

Online Fusion

News from RacingOne is delivered strictly online; there is not a print version. They do create the programs, which are filled with feature stories, for race tracks, but the hard news is delivered on the website.

Four years ago, ISC bought RacingOne.com and converted it into an online news site. The group went from writing just the programs to writing for an online news site that is updated three or four times daily. On race weekends they will often have hourly reports as well as immediate details when something significant happens during a race.

The site also has a community area that includes staff blogs, an open forum and a place for fans to create their own blogs. This is often a good place for fans to get insider information before the rest of the general public.

Career Advice

O’Malley advised that to get started in the field of motorsports journalism, one needs to be persistent when talking to media outlets about wanting a job.  Getting your name out and in print, going to races and helping media outlets at races with anything they need are also good ways to get started in this field.

When looking at a resume, O’Malley pays close attention to a person’s background.  He especially checks the applicant’s job history and said it raises a red flag if someone has changed jobs a lot.  The look of the resume, how it is organized and having everything correctly spelled are also things he looks for.

Abstract week 13

            The existential copy editor was quite a read. If you were to plug it into the program that analyzes the grade level of writing, I imagine that it would register at about 25.  But it did make some important points.  I agree with the point of view of the author about needing copy editors who question what they are editing.  They cannot be afraid to speak up when a reporter hands them something that may have questionable ethics. 

            Some may argue that copy editors need to only focus on correcting simple errors in grammar, spelling and AP Style.  Those same people might be the senior editors on the staff who don’t want to deal with something as petty as a comma error.  If copy editors become existential they may replace the senior editors on the staff because they are doing the same job.  When copy editors learn to question the writing styles and actual content of the reporters’ stories than the senior editors are there simply to write op-ed pieces and guide the reporters in story ideas.(Important jobs, none the less)

            With regard to being an existential editor, I feel that it is necessary to keep yourself valuable in the job market.  When you can bring something new to the table you remain an important part of the newsroom.  If all you do is copy edit, than you set yourself up to be replaced when you start earning too much money.  The news organization will just bring in the next mindless copy editor to sift through the day’s stories making simple corrections.

            The copy editor is the last line of defense before a story makes the paper, but they shouldn’t be, at least in their current form.  Stories should come from the reporters free of mistakes and senior editors should make judgment calls on the content of the stories.  But, that is not the way the newsroom works, reporters do make mistakes and copy editors should not only fix them but also introduce new ideas, or angles, to the reporters.