Story and Photo by Art Petrosemolo
Getting more of your news online? If so, you are not alone. Many print publications are expanding their online presence quickly, some more successfully than others.
The move to web publishing has been a fast one for many specialty publications. Editors can work from a kitchen in Colorado or an office suite in Mumbai and publish worldwide. The Two River area is an example of such moves and has become the epicenter for thoroughbred and standardbred web publishing with the Thoroughbred Daily News (TDN) being produced in Red Bank and Harness Racing Update (HRU) in Fair Haven.
Sue Finley of Fair Haven is co-founder and publisher of TDN with Barry Weisbord. From second floor offices in Red Bank, Finley and a staff of nearly two dozen have shown that Internet publishing – especially niche publishing – can be a success and, as Sue said, “A success that supports 21 employees linked in to horsemen across the world.”
TDN has grown from a few faxed pages for 130 subscribers, paying $2 per day in the early 1990s, to a must-read, free emailed PDF to a subscriber list of more than 11,000 in the thoroughbred community. Countless others worldwide log onto the TDN website to read the latest news on thoroughbreds performances, breeding, and sales.
Holly Crest Farm trainer and breeder John Mazza rises early and is in front of his computer screen in Locust at 4 a.m. with a cup of coffee reading Thoroughbred Daily News. New York trainer Gary Contessa does the same from his home in upstate New York as do hundreds of other trainers, owners, breeders and handicappers across 25 time zones every day.
TDN indicates some 300,000 unique individuals have read the publication online or downloaded the PDF last year.
If TDN is the poster child for electronic publishing for thoroughbred horsemen, Harness Racing Update, published by Sue’s husband Bill, is moving along the same path for the harness racing industry.
Bill, the racing writer for the New York Daily News from 1998-2000 says he didn’t have to be a genius to see that newspapers were in sharp decline and his commute to New York from Fair Haven where the family lived, close to TDN headquarters, was getting old. “I started thinking creatively,” he said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be covering thoroughbreds for the Daily News when I was 50 and saw an opportunity to copy the TDN model and adapt it to harness racing.”
Bill’s HRU has 5,000-plus subscribers who receive his emailed PDF three times a week. Analytics show that some 70,000 individuals access his site or read the PDF download during the year.
TDN sets itself apart from its competition with its commitment to follow American-sold thoroughbreds purchased to race in Europe.
“American-bred yearlings can be brought to Europe to race in England or on the continent,” Sue said. “The TDN makes it easy for American owners and breeders to keep track of the families they still own, and have invested in.”
Trainer/breeder Mazza agreed. “I read TDN every morning, especially for the wealth of information about stallions and broodmares. It is critical for breeders especially when you follow their offspring’s race results.
Trainer Contessa has similar feelings for the publication. “Thoroughbred racing is a very tight-knit community and you can’t wait for print to know what is going on,” he said. “Things happen quickly every single day. I cannot imagine racing without it.”
Like TDN in its formative days, Bill’s Harness Racing Update is growing steadily. He and a small staff cover results, breeding and pertinent information for the harness racing community. A recent 20-page edition included a lead story on a successful pacer Captaintreacherous, a story on new Pennsylvania standards for use of whips during harness racing plus racing results, stakes previews and advertising targeted to breeders and trainers.
Karen Fagliarone, director of racing at Freehold Raceway, feels HRU is important to the industry. “It is one of the few publications which focuses on harness racing issues throughout the country,” she said. “The publication explores all controversial topics and offers a variety of opinions.”
A late September TDN led with a story about plans for a thoroughbred in England to begin a stud career. “Breeders and trainers are looking to see how successful horses are overseas,” Sue said, “as they may be racing full brothers or sisters and ultimately their horse becomes more valuable at stud or as a broodmare if full brothers and sisters do well overseas.”
Both TDN and HRU are free to receive as an email PDF or to read on the respective websites. Both TDN and HRU are supported by advertising, primarily from breeders and stud farms.
Internet publications can add a dimension that print publications cannot emulate. “If we are talking about a particular thoroughbred’s recent performance in an important race,” Sue said, “we have an active link to a video of that race.” Although thoroughbred and harness racing is simulcast today on cable networks, and available online, many times sites will force a viewer to sign in or join the site before viewing. “With TDN, that isn’t the case, as we contract for the videos so our readers can just click and view.”
Although Sue’s day is consumed with TDN, Bill still finds time to take his thoroughbred and standardbred expertise to other media. Bill freelances for ESPN.com and also hosts a Sirius satellite radio show each week on thoroughbred and standardbred racing. He recently won an Eclipse Award for an in-depth story in the TDN magazine called “Do We Need a Sturdier Racehorse.”
The Finleys know that on-site horse race betting is not what it was 50 years ago when it was the only opportunity for legalized gambling. Thoroughbred racing still has a following worldwide, however, in states like New Jersey, it is shrinking as casino gambling and slot parlors, some in neighboring state’s thoroughbred and harness tracks, bleed away potential bettors from a sport.
Many believe traditional harness racing tracks are on life support and its savior is the support of casino revenue. According to PJ Iovino, the racing director at Saratoga Raceway, N.Y., most of the $6,000 average purse for their races is because of casino support. “Casino revenue is what is keeping many tracks alive,” Iovino said.
Iovino is a subscriber and regular reader of HRU. “As the need for more comprehensive information on the standardbred industry grows … the ability to see updates digitally – almost daily – in an online publication like HRU is invaluable.”
Both Finleys says specialty online publications, like TDN and HRU, couldn’t even be imagined 25 years ago and the print newspapers that thrived covering racing either have stopped publishing or tried to move their operation to part online and print with varying degrees of success.
