the racing post.

​On Thursday March 26th the industry newspaper the Racing Post published its last edition with the headline ‘See You Soon’ on its cover page. I hope the next edition is published soon as without it to accompany my breakfast a large hole has appeared in my life that no other newspaper can bridge. I fear, though, as its only current media presence is on-line, somewhere I have yet to follow them, that given the cost of producing a hard-copy of the newspaper, on-line is where the newspaper will remain.
The Racing Post is horrendously expensive to buy on a daily basis and, at £25 for the week, is far outside the reach of the ordinary working-man. I am sure Tom Lee, the current editor, is not sitting on his hands or taking advantage of the Government’s furlough scheme, and is itching to get the paper back on the newsstands. I hope, though, that he is reflecting on matters other than the Covid-19 (scandal) outbreak and when normality is restored (as well as our democratic freedom to go where we please and say what we feel to be the truth again) and we have our sport returned to us, he will have realised that the current cover price is detrimental to the clarion call to bring the sport to the masses.
As editor of racing’s only daily newspaper, Tom Lee has a duty to assist all of racing’s stakeholders to present the sport to all levels of society. At its present horrendous cover price only those people with large salaries can afford to buy the paper on a daily basis. Those employed in the racing industry, of course, have little choice but to cough up the £3.50 a day, and without the betting shops taking the bookmaker’s edition of the paper Tom Lee could only pull stumps as to continue publishing would have no doubt bankrupted the paper. I would urge Tom Lee, though, to seek ways to reduce the cover price; not by cutting the numbers of excellent columnists he employs or by reducing the overall quality. In fact, I believe he is making a major mistake by not including a weekly column by a female journalist. But that is another matter.
I would like to see the Racing Post published in two forms: one, a horse racing edition, though covering sports betting in general; and secondly a greyhound racing edition, again covering general sports betting; with the cover price of both editions set at no more than £2. This maybe a naïve suggestion to a problem I have no understanding of. And in my tiny mind this would increase rather than undermine current revenue for the paper.
I surmise that those of us interested in horse racing would buy one edition, those interested in greyhound racing would buy the second, the Greyhound Racing Post, with those with an interest in both horse and greyhound racing forking out for both editions.
The Racing Post is the shop-window of the sport. The newspaper is blessed with great writers who not only explain the sport with eloquence and verve but also bring it to life for the reader. In Alastair Down the paper has one of the greatest sports writers of the age, with many equally talented writers on its team. These are the people who could enthuse the casual visitor to our sport to stay awhile and learn more about the stars, equine and human, and its unique history.
I have suggested in the past that Tom Lee should consider either hiring out his columnists on occasion to the daily newspapers that no longer have a regular reporter or selling at a reduced rate racing stories that have already appeared in the Post. To boost attendance at racecourses, to I.T.V. racing and the betting shops, the sport must be sold through truthful representation of the sport by those with the talent to enthuse and interest the reader and there is no group of people better able to do that than the journalists at the Racing Post.
To the sport, the Racing Post is indispensable. It is unthinkable for it not to be represented in newsagents and supermarket shelves. Yes, it no doubt will exist in digital form but that would be to hide it away, out-of-sight of the man-on-the-street. We all should support, when funds allow, of course, the paper. We, as readers and racing enthusiasts, have that duty as the paper has the duty to promote the sport when and wherever possible.
But Tom Lee must reduce the cover price. The £3.50 price-tag alone puts into the minds of the non-racing man and woman that this sport is for the rich and even richer, is out of the reach of the working man and is a world that he or she has no right to be involved in. The image of racing is demeaned by the cover price of its industry newspaper. It shouts elitism.