Motorsport News

Good news? …. What was once the weekly motoring sporting ‘bible’ ‘Motorsport News’ has officially changed hands. Originally owned by the Tee family through their Teesdale Publications company it was sold to Haymarket Publishing in 1996, in which Lord Michael Heseltine had a stake, and who then sold it on to Autosport Media. Five years ago it was bought by Kelsey Media but they also failed to halt the decline. Circulation figures are hard to come by, but what once sold well in excess of 100,000 copies per week (way back!) now struggles to sell a tenth of that. The current editor and deputy editor have also been signed up.

The new owners are the MotorSport Vision (MSV) group founded by ex-racing driver Jonathan Palmer. MSV is not actually in the publishing business. They own six race circuits and an autodrome complex and they also own the British Superbike championship (BSB) so they are definitely serious about motor and motor cycle racing, but rallying?

However, Jonathan Palmer is a diehard motor sport nut and that does include rallying. He is also of an age to remember the golden days of ‘Motoring News’. More importantly he’s pretty good at making money!

He will face some immediate problems though, declining sales and subscriptions primarily, and of course, the biggest threat – social media. But when you see some of the ‘reporting’ on the huge range of social media outlets, there could well be room for a regular and authoritative source of factual content and news.

It will be interesting to see what happens next. Can he turn things around? I wish him well.