Racing and newspapers muzzled by a failure to communicate.

Who decides what is news or how we get the news? Is it the advertisers or the consumers? Is it the bloggers or the “real” journalists? What role does the media play in deciding significance? These are important, emblematic questions.

In the traditional news media these days, both print and television, it seems the decision is in the hands and minds of editors. They dictate and shape the message. For those of us in the horse industry, this is a frightening proposition because, in most cases, the editor/decider does not have experience or interest in our sport. Editors definitely don’t consider it an industry of note – except when a disaster happens. Remember Eight Belles or Barbaro – if it is sensational, it will be news. This is not a surprise, and it happens in many other sports, but there the shocking usually is tempered with some appealing and pertinent reports as well.

Editors seem to think that horse racing is outdated and archaic; we know it is full of compelling characters and colorful stories. Like the newspaper business, horse racing is trying hard to find a place in the 21st century. Racing writers have become obsolete. The only state still with a full-time horseracing writer is Kentucky, and she covers college basketball in her spare time.

Both the horse racing and newspaper industries have complicated relationships with television. As with the Internet, they were slow to understand its value both as a resource and a vehicle. Now they recognize the problems but seem acutely unprepared to deal with the Now generation. Holding and reading a piece of paper seems to be going the way of the milkman. Going to the track to make a bet is deemed an unnecessary and often unpleasant experience.

Again, horse racing has missed the turn, and newspapers have fallen off the truck. Neither industry saw that electronic technology would offer an opportunity to grow and thrive. Let’s just say if it were the Derby, Technology would be the chalk, and Racing and Newspapers would be struggling to hit the board.

So how do you make the superfluous necessary? That is the question, and the answer lies in the audience and method of delivery. People of a certain age prefer to get their hands dirty reading the newspaper and to watch a horse race from the rail, while those “kids” want to see it all on a screen (preferably one that fits in a pocket). Universally we seek to be amused, informed and entertained, but can the generations do so simultaneously?
Our fate, in fact our future, will be determined by how many people are interested in our product, be it horses or newspapers. And it seems that, without smart and skillful leaders, the media will determine whether our industry or sport is ubiquitous or obsolete.