Why did this F1 story get taken down?

#F1 #Formula1 #katewagner
It's not every day, actually, this seldom happens, that a piece is published in an outlet, only to be removed just a few hours later. I wanted to examine why Kate Wagner's 5,000-word essay on Formula 1 was taken down, specifically what this tells us about the shifting F1 media landscape.
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Chapters:
0:00 Intro and too much noise in F1
01:19 Kate Wagner's F1 piece
04:27 The criticism of her piece
05:09 The shifting F1 media landscape
07:50 The rise of sponsored content in F1 media outlets
08:40 How we consume F1 is changing
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Edited: yours truly (I'm aware of my limitations)
My (not so) secret weapon: Descript since 2020

[@tonicowan-brown]

This is the link to her piece which ha snow found a new home - escapecollective.com/behind-f1s-velvet-curtain/

[@jamiekowatch278]

thank you for sharing the link!!

[@maxheadroom7687]

Link makes you sign up to a bloody site and doesn’t let you read the article unless you do. Piss poor if you ask me!

[@tonicowan-brown]

@@maxheadroom7687 That is new - they must have noticed a big influx of people coming for this piece and added that. I understand why but if you decide not to sign up you should just be able to close the box and continue reading. Agreed

[@Hogey501]

@@tonicowan-brown Just went to read it, and closing the box takes you elsewhere. Can't finish the article unless you sign up!.

[@Bobtek]

Hmmmm, yeah I just watched an interesting video about an interesting looking article.....that I can't read.

[@williamwade7059]

F1 doesn't care about their fans they only care about making money.

[@matiusclicarelli700]

5:37, not Rocket Powered Mohawk. He doesn't give a toss. He says it how he sees it and does not care as to whose toe he may step on. A real pioneer in F1 JOURNALISM.

[@S.0.S.]

i was searching for this comment!

[@eddymoretti3742]

The Liberty era of F1 is addicted to an untenable and unsustainable high-growth strategy.

[@feliciavidal5805]

Also not stated here is that F1 controls granting access to media coverage so that will skew how this sport is covered and that there is a strike system.

[@tonicowan-brown]

although that only covers the FIA media accreditation system. This doesn't always trickle over to passes the teams request.

[@eddymoretti3742]

Great reporting. Great perspective. You are a much needed voice in the F1 media landscape.

[@dcormier]

I have to agree with the sentiment that F1 capital-J Journalists don't write for the average fan. I've only been following F1 for about a year, but I feel much better served by many who I would call content creators (from social media to some podcasts).

[@tonicowan-brown]

and I actually think that's why we have so many 'armchair experts' and F1 creators. They (we) initially created this content by necessity because nothing that already existed was created with us in mind. And that's actually been a good thing because we have this incredible diversity of content in the space right now - far more than we've ever had.

[@AASpanishTranslations]

GEE I WONDER WHY THAT HAPPENS...

[@reedharper7013]

I love that piece from Kate. It was well written, I believe everything she said and most of all, I laughed out loud because to ME, you can see it and I feel her! Well done Kate!

[@Mohdn207]

great video as always keep it up your one of the best f1 creators really been enjoying your content thanks after all

[@tonicowan-brown]

Thank you for taking the time to share this - much appreciated.

[@wasdwasdwwasd]

This article was better written than 90% of the stuff (mostly about automotive journalism) I read on R&T.

[@gregoryf9299]

Saw this article (thanks to Reddit) and thought it was an excellent article. It was odd to me that it was taken down because there was nothing shocking in it IMO. F1 is the richest, most money-focused sport (arguably with football in Europe….), with tickets unaffordable to most people and access that only the richest can attain, and I don’t think that’s earth-shattering news for anyone. I definitely find most F1 journalism to hyper-focus on the tiniest rumour, and rarely dig into deeper issues. But I agree with your comment on empathy - I don’t see how most humans could spend a year with the paddock and not feel for all the people who toil race after race (not just the driver and TP but everyone else).

[@richij]

Link, so we can read it?

[@tonicowan-brown]

escapecollective.com/behind-f1s-velvet-curtain/

[@sebulbathx]

Interesting and different F1 video! Funny how F1 is still growing yet it has been the biggest motorsport in the world for decades. But sure F1 is really becoming mainstream nowadays which is a good thing. About media F1 is not very different from any other organisation or company. I mean they protect themselves and try to control the narrative as much as they can.

[@Jorpl_]

That was a good read, thank you for recommending it

[@tomc6671]

As a fan since 1983, I yearn for the days when Bernie and Max ran the show. I think it’s reached critical mass and will implode in the next few years. Casual fans who came to the sport because of Netflix are a great addition, but will quickly become bored with it. Liberty Media is doing what Disney did to Star Wars; Squeezing the life out of it. The only thing they want more than a 3 or 4x MOIC, is a good exit strategy. I was a new fan of the sport, like so many now. The difference is it’s now a circus full of idiots who whine about everything and can never be pleased nor offended. The way to save the sport is to stop trying to squeeze every penny out of it (24 races, really?) and learn from the self-inflicted wounds of NASCAR. F1 should look in its mirrors for the way forward or it is in danger of scoring a permanent DNF.

[@moiseulpasmoi]

You being a long time fan should know that F1 has ALWAYS been about the money for the heads. FISA FOCA war proves it. We as fans who love it will always watch it and those who can will attend the races. Not every race is expensive. European ones and Bahrain are an indication. True F1 nuts will make sure the sport continues

[@seanonraet8327]

Bernie only ever cared about money too. F1 becoming more open on social media has definitely brought a lot more toxicity but that's just what happens when more people watch the sport. Let's not pretend that the sport was better or less elitist before

[@happyjoyjoy6976]

i stumbled upon your channel earlier tonight Australian time, great video without the clickbait BS you get on here on most channels. my only gripe is your audio could be bumped up, i had to max everything out to hear you. other than that keep up the great work. much love from the insane asylum formerly known as Australia

[@tonicowan-brown]

Noted and thank you for taking the time to provide useful feedback 🙌🏻 Appreciated

[@happyjoyjoy6976]

my pleasure my friend. @@tonicowan-brown

[@TheCasualF1Fan]

This is interesting Toni but I'm not sure what you mean when you say "F1 Journalists don't write for the fans". I do think they do because right now, more than in any other era, It's very hard for the media to make money and survive if it does not have the viewcount very high. If it isn't, we lose big time and this does seem to hold true for almost all the top F1 outlets right now(which is why they have this premium content section as well). There is however an aversion to writing critical stuff not only because they meet them in the paddock but it also kills one thing almost every Journo is vying for , 'access'. Whatever I've learned in covering the sport for a few years now and handling the F1 vertical of sportskeeda, this stuff still takes precedence over everything

[@tonicowan-brown]

Happy to provide further context - Almost every piece I find these days is missing broader context, further useful explanation about the landscape, the history, the details... I.e. I too often feel like F1 journalists are writing for people they assume (i.e. people like them) will have the 70 years of history of the sport, the inside knowledge, understand the nuances... I think we often forget most fans dip in and out of the sport and so when they read a piece, for example, a piece on how tire warmers are no longer going to be banned this year. Okay, tell us why this is even a topic of discussion, explain why it's hard to ban them, what is the push back and form who, how we got here in the first place, why this even matters... Instead it's written with the assumption that you know why this is a big topic and you've read the past few pieces on this. I also say this as someone who's spent many hours on calls with the series, the teams, other series and a handful of the media outlets to understand how to write about this sport in the most entertaining, complete and simplistic way, and unanimously we agreed that 90% of today's F1 journalists are writing for themselves and their piers. There is also a huge layer of ego in this as well as the sport is so complex and it's important to be seen as understanding all the complexities of the sport.

[@tonicowan-brown]

worth adding that not a single one of us has yet figured out the answer to that last part and mostly because it's incredibly difficult and I think that the entity or media outlet that figures it out, will win big.

[@TheCasualF1Fan]

@@tonicowan-brown yes I do agree with you on the context part. As a writer the first thing I was told was to imagine the reader to be a new fan and hence context is important. I agree, that this is something that is missing in general.

[@TheCasualF1Fan]

@@tonicowan-brown hmm, what would you suggest? What's the future? How does the media go about this?

[@TheCasualF1Fan]

@@tonicowan-brown Pardon me asking too many questions, just picking your brain :)

[@mauricerose3082]

The paddock bubble?

[@markalbert9011]

This story highlights the primary problem with F1 today. 90% of what the sport is....isn't even sport, it's artificially created drama. Only 4 champion drivers with only 2 manufacturers championships over a 13 year period. The championship is decided before the first race so you've got to fill the airwaves with something. Since their decision to write off the American market (TV ratings have tanked in the US) I'm anxiously awaiting Liberty Medias inevitable bankruptcy and F1's new owners.

[@crescentworks6855]

Someday people will look back on this era of insane wealth disparity and F1 will be one of its most quintessential (and damning) examples.

[@davidh8083]

You can only fit so many animals on the ark.

[@flat6croc]

Thank you for the video, it's an interesting subject and you raise some good points. However, I'm afraid it's not even close to being true that F1 hacks / content creators aren't writing /creating for F1 fans. It's a brutal media market out there and being ultra responsive to what wins eyeballs is what it's all about. Little else matters. You literally couldn't be more completely and utterly wrong about that. As for F1 content creators not holding the sport to account, well of course they don't. As a broad rule, it's not their job and it's not what F1 fans want to read and watch. Because they are F1 fans, not F1 antagonists. F1 is an absolutely rotten circus and essentially always has been, but the specialist F1 media, like all specialist media, by definition fundamentally buys into whatever it is specialising in. That media isn't there to hold F1 to account other than by its own internal standards. It can't. It's a part of F1, that is not its role. It is for external media to do that job. For context, I am a specialist journalist myself, though not in F1.

[@tonicowan-brown]

I’m not sure we watched the same video.

[@flat6croc]

@@tonicowan-brown What is confusing you? You said, and clearly I'll need to quote, "Formula 1 journalists are not writing for the everyday fan. Formula 1 journalists are 100% writing for themselves, for their peers and potentially a handful of people inside of Formula 1." Are you now somehow claiming you didn't say that? Hopefully not, and if not why did you respond to my post as if I had posted something entirely irrelevant and tangential to the content of your video?

[@wreagfe]

It's funny how her article "found a new home". You know anyone and everyone can start a blogspot or substack and self-publish anything right?

[@tonicowan-brown]

cute.

[@ytjessaie]

Journalists trying to push their worldview on something that holds on to tradition... again... as usual... I wouldn't give a tribune to someone who admittedly doesn't like my sport and wishes for it to change either if I owned a news outlet or was responsible for one. They built a media platform, now they get to choose how to use it and the views they prefer to push. To those journalists I say: build your own media platforms and outlets, if as you say it's so very important to the people to hear your worldview and perspectives, they surely will pay to hear them with their viewership or money.

[@svtinker]

How is the pinnacle of western motorsport socialism?

[@innoc3ntbystndr]

Sorry, but IMHO there is a high horse and that article rubbed people the wrong way ( hypocritical ). Perhaps she can learn a thing or two on proper sports journalism from Rocketpoweredmohawk.