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Photo courtesy of Wikipedia / The Daytona Beach News-Journal and Daytona International Speedway have an exclusive marketing agreement. Read our story below and here is a link to what the News-Journal reported online overnight: http://www.news-journalonline.com/business/local-business/2011/02/03/news-journal-becomes-official-newspaper-of-dis.html
DAYTONA BEACH -- The Daytona Beach News-Journal is reported in its Thursday edition that it has signed an exclusive "marketing agreement" making it the "official newspaper of Daytona International Speedway."
The announcement comes on the heels of Speedweeks and the Feb. 20 running of the Daytona 500.
The story reports the agreement with DIS is for one year, but quotes Publisher Michael Redding as stating: "Our marketing and promotions staff is looking forward to a long-term partnership with the track."
As for how much revenue may be in it for the News-Journal, the story points out: "Terms of the partnership agreement were not disclosed."
That means the public has no way of knowing the extent of the agreement in terms of advertising revenue for the newspaper and what impact, if any, this has on editorial coverage, such as advance press releases and exclusive interviews.
The marketing agreement comes on the heels of the News-Journal's exclusive Jan. 26 story on the hiring of former Daytona State College President Kent Sharples by five prominent local.business entrepreneurs to head their recruiting efforts to help bring potential employers to Volusia County. Among them were Daytona International Speedway CEO Lesa France Kennedy and NASCAR Chairman Brian France.
The News-Journal first reported Sharples' new job in a brief posting on its website the day before when its editorial board met with Sharples, France Kennedy, France and Brown and Brown Insurance's Hyatt Brown.announced the hiring on its website.
The subsequent published story in the newspaper made no mention of Sharples' ouster just weeks earlier from the college or the $1,5 million lump sum he received to fulfill the remaining three years of his contract. Sharples was blamed by his board for the college's $1.8 million loss in the American Music Festival fiasco. The News-Journal was the largest of the owed media vendors owed money under an advertising agreement with the festival's board at $75,000.
The News-Journal story on Sharples, while making no mention of Sharples past had extensive quotes by the racing executives including a gratuitous plug for the date of the Daytona 500.
As for the exclusive marketing agreement reported today by the News-Journal, first-year DIS President Joie Chitwood is quoted as saying the marketing agreement between the speedway and the newspaper allows for cross promotion of "two companies like ours that are so integral to the community."
The former owners of the News-Journal have had marketing agreements with the speedway. The News-Journal was acquired by Redding's Halifax Media last year in a fire-sale for $20 million from Cox Enterprises, the media conglomerate that owns the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and the Palm Beach Post. Cox was a minority partner with News-Journal Corp. owned by the late Tippen Davidson and his children, Marc Davidson and Julia-Davidson Truillo and her husband.
Others on the board were Georgia Kaney, who served as publisher and Jon Kaney as general counsel. A seventh board member was David Kerndall, who was chief financial officer. The $13 million naming rights paid by the elder Davidson for the $29 million News-Journal Center, which received nearly half its funding in taxpayer-supported county grants, led to a federal lawsuit by Cox in 2004, which valued its 47.5 percent share at $149 million.
A federal judge ruled after a trial in Orlando that Cox's share was worth $129 million. Despite appeals, U.S. District Judge John Antoon's ruling was upheld.
Over the last five years, nearly half the newspaper's 800 employees were let go and all its bureaus in New Smyrna Beach, Orange City, DeLand, Bunnell and Tallahassee were closed for good. Because the Davidsons were unable to pay the $129 million, the court approved the sale of the newspaper to Redding's group for the far lower price, a testament to the deep recession and dying print media competing against online media sources.
While negotiations with Redding were ongoing, more employees were terminated. Even after new ownership took over, more employees were let go, including spouses of those who worked in the same departments.
In 2001, at the height of the News-Journal's popularity with readers, circulation was close to 105,000, making it the 100th largest newspaper in the country. That was the year Dale Earnhardt was killed after crashing on the final lap of the Daytona 500 and his widow, Teresa, filed suit in circuit court to keep her late husband's autopsy photos out of the hands of the media.
In the First six months under the new ownership, The News-Journal's circulation plummeted from an average week-day circulation of 70,721 to 63,902, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. The Sunday circulation dropped as well during that time, from 92,553 to 83,486.
Ironically, the News-Journal Center was acquired by Daytona State College under Sharples at a fraction of the cost, but under the sales agreement, he had to take on several of the employees, including Manuel Bornia, who headed up the disastrous American Music Festival that led to the president's ouster in November.
Prior to that, the News-Journal reported that the college and Redding were negotiating a possible selling of the "Daytona Beach News-Journal Center" naming rights for $1 million to the newspaper. Nothing new has been reported on that front.