Changes in Sports and motoring coverage

"What happened to today's entries at Del Mar?" asked reader Richard Faeh of Sierra Madre in an e-mail.

Faeh is one of more than 100 readers who have contacted The Times to ask where the horse-race results are. Sports editor Randy Harvey says this is one effect of the layoffs and cuts that were recently announced in a memo to the staff and July 3 news article in the Business section.

Wrote Harvey, "Due to layoffs and upcoming space cuts, we’ve had to discontinue the handicap and the charts for horse racing. We will continue with occasional horse racing stories as news and events dictate at Del Mar. And we will have robust coverage of the Breeders’ Cup this fall at Santa Anita," including, he hopes, entries and abbreviated charts for Santa Anita.  For what it's worth, Harvey points out that most newspapers have cut back racing coverage in similar fashion.

Eliminated along with the horse racing from Del Mar and Bob Mieszerski's handicap column are three weekly features: Gearing Up on auto racing, Teeing Off on golf and Corner Kicks on soccer.

Several dozen readers asked, too, about Highway 1, which ceased publication July 9. As last week's notice explained, starting July 18 Dan Neil's column will move to the Friday Business section, along with other auto coverage. The Throttle Jockey column has been discontinued, but editors advise that staff writer Susan Carpenter, who wrote the weekly feature on motorcyles, will be writing other stories.

Comments

[Oscar]

BOOOOO!

Shame on the LA Times for eliminating this great column from the paper.

Susan Carpenter's Throttle Jockey column has always been a great treat for me, keeping me up to date on new trends and technologies in motorcycles.

It seems like every day there is less and less for readers to enjoy from the LA Times, it just gets thinner and smaller, I wonder if it will get to the point where the times shrinks down to the size of the Grunion Gazette.

[Michael Wyman]

Discontinuing Susan Carpenter's excellent "Throttle Jockey" column was a real blow. I recently enrolled in the California Safety Riders course because of her column about it some time ago. I would not have learned about it otherwise. As other writers here have mentioned, at a time when people are looking at many different modes of alternative transporation it is regrettable that the Times chose to eliminate such a usefull and important public service. Regrettable too is the fact that one of the few women writing a weekly column in a major daily newspaper about something as traditionally male oriented as motorcycling is now no longer able to do so (and a once-in-a-while article just isn't a subsitute).

[David Jankowski]

Just when you think the Tribune couldn't drive down the quality of this paper any further, in comes the new owner. Another owner who cares only about making money. You want to turn around circulation? Give people a reason to read the paper. Cutting editorial is about the worst response you could implement.

[unclewill]

Please bring back Throttle Jockey - it was one of the few enjoyable weekly articles in the paper...

[Diane P.]

Ditto what Dan H and Ham Radio said. Throttle Jockey was one of my favorite parts of the paper, and it made the LA Times stand out from other papers. Eliminating content seems like a strange way to respond to dwindling subscriptions - won't people have *less* of a reason to subscribe now?

[Dan H.]

I hope the Los Angeles Times will reconsider the decision to end Susan Carpenter's regular column on motorcycles. Two-wheeled transportation is going to play a bigger role in helping Los Angeles and the U.S. solve our oil and traffic problems. Ms. Carpenter's writing was great, and the subject matter is important. Her column was a big part of the reason I personally went from never thinking twice about motorcycles, to now being a dedicated every-day motorcycle commuter. Her column also became a big reason I looked forward to reading the Times each Wednesday. Now I'm going to have to reconsider whether I'll continue my subscription ...

[Ham Radio]

Motorcycle and scooter sales are booming, so naturally the Times discontinues Susan Carpenter's excellent Throttle Jockey column. Just another reason the Times is becoming more irrelevant by the day and fully explains why readers are cancelling subscriptions in droves. If you throught the Chandler family was a bunch of buffoons, you've got to just love the management style of the Sam Zell bunch. Makes one pine for the old Herald-Examiner, the last newspaper that kept the Times honest.

[Dan Costley]

Cutting back on Bob Mieszerski's handicap doesn't seem to make any sense - the space saved seems to be minimal (and there still seems to be space for the Tour de France, along with a map! ), plus many readers use the handicap when watching TVG or HRTV - the Times itself reported on the increase in Advanced Deposit wagering. So even though horse racing is going through a drop in attendance, the number of people using the handicap on a daily basis has probably increased greatly in the past five years.

[Gregg Humphrey]

Very sad. I fear the end is near for what used to be one of the great sports daily newspapers in the US.

[Chas Glazer]

I find it interesting that the sports that are of great interest to Southern Californian's: Horse racing, golf, auto racing are the stories that get kicked to the side of the road and out of the daily paper and apparently off the web also...

But, stories on MMA and high school sports get printed in the paper and online...Who cares about these subjects....MMA is not a sport and high school athletes would never think to look in the newspaper to read about themselves...These are stories and coverage belong on the internet which is where high schoolers and MMA fans instantly go to to get coverage...

And, as for Sports Editor Randy Harvey's point that other newspapers have cut back on horse racing coverage in similar fashion is a 'crutch excuse'...This is a major market that should have coverage on the sports that impact L.A., including horse racing...

I just hope Harvey remembers his point the next time the Times whats to take a 'cheap shot' at the sport of horse racing and decides to pass on it, just like the Times Sports will pass on covering the Breeder's Cup in October...

[Jeff Prescott]

If 100+ readers asked where Del Mar entries/charts/Mieszerski"s handicap are.......doesn't that tell you it's a mistake to get rid of it?

Swap Del Mar for "In The Bleacher's" for griminy sakes..........

[Hank Weeks]

The Times cutbacks in the Sports section remind me of the classic MBA example of poor management decisions wherein a retailer discontinues advertising and promotion due to declining sales!