Judi Boland writes: "I really like your blog. While a civilian would enjoy it for its "peak" inside, I enjoy it by reliving the memories of working for a newspaper vs. now for the AP. Keep up the good work. I hit your Web site as often as I can."
Thanks, Judi! We also had a note this week from an unhappy reader regarding our off-season coverage (or rather, shortage of coverage) of NASCAR: "My husband and I are big NASCAR fans. I know we are not the only NASCAR fans in the Eagle’s circulation area.
"Why is it that, except for racing season, there is little to no news concerning the sport of auto racing? There is much going on in NASCAR after season and before the beginning of racing season yet the Eagle prints hardly any news from them.
"NASCAR champion Benny Parsons recently passed away – big NASCAR news – nothing in the Eagle. I was shocked. We hear about drug problems of athletes, injuries, personal problems, troubles they have with breaking the law, etc. NASCAR is a sport and these men and women are definitely athletes. What it involves to "just drive around an oval racetrack" takes MUCH more than just getting into the car and driving. Ask anyone who has taken a racecar driving class and they will tell you just what that sport involves.
"You report on all other sports everyday, while we care nothing about these sports with the exception of hockey we continue to look at the Sports Section with hopes that there will be NASCAR Information. There was a small paragraph, I believe yesterday, WOW – I almost passed out from excitement.
"PLEASE, consider the thousands of your readers who are hungry for news from NASCAR especially now that pre-season activities are in full swing. Surely there is room in the Sports Section for daily updates from NASCAR on a daily basis. You’d make many people really happy if you’d consider our feelings about our chosen sport.
"Thank you for reading this. I would like to hear from you concerning NASCAR in the Sports Section, however, I am sure you are far too busy with football, basketball, golf, hockey, soccer, etc."
I asked our sports editor, Kirk Seminoff, to respond. He wrote:
"Thank you for taking the time to let me know about your disappointment in our NASCAR coverage.
"There’s one main reason why we don’t have much NASCAR coverage during the off-season (though, I will point out that we had a Tuesday story on our Sports front page about the change in the Chase format).
"It deals with the amount of coverage that the Associated Press devotes to NASCAR. We rely on AP for our motorsports coverage outside Kansas. AP frankly doesn’t do not much during the off-season, normally only big news such as driver or rules changes.
"I think if you look at our coverage of national sports during their offseasons, you’d notice that we don’t do much on any of them besides players changing teams or coaching changes. Certainly very few feature stories.
"Believe me, I’d love a much bigger sports section every day where we’re able to chronicle the happenings in all major sports that are in their off-season. But constraints limit us. I think we made the right call in putting the Tuesday Chase story on the front page, and we’ll get back into a NASCAR groove as we get closer to Daytona (including this weekend’s Rolex race).
"On a side note, I regret we didn’t have room for a full story on Benny Parsons this month. We did, however, have a small story in our Sports in Briefs.
"Thanks for allowing me to explain our coverage. If you have any thoughts or concerns, please let me know. My office number is 316-268-6278."
Theresa