26 Years Beyond Our Dreams and a New Opportunity to Grow Our Sport

A MESSAGE FROM RACER’S FOUNDER

It was 26 years ago this week that RACER Magazine was revealed to industry insiders at a launch party on the eve of the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. RACER’s talented editors, writers, photographers and illustrators have much to be proud of in what we’ve accomplished since that night. We never dreamed our RACER brand would grow to the scale and influence we see today: The RACER brand platform reaches and engages more than 500,000 people each month with our combined print, digital and social media platforms. Amazingly, we are still growing… fast.  

Since the beginning, we’ve occasionally been told by some potential advertisers that we have a wonderful magazine and a fantastic website but we are “preaching to the choir." Obviously, our 26th anniversary proves we’ve overcome this predictable objection because smart advertisers know that the RACER brand serves as the ideal media platform to convey and reinforce the emotional and intellectual appeal of the sport that they have invested in. They also understand that RACER’s audience has a strong affinity for brands, products and services associated with the sport. Our advertisers realize that RACER doesn’t just focus on one form of racing, but instead we cover more than 40 different series, and we strive to continually cross-pollinate interest. In the age of new media, our audience is also the medium. RACER’s “choir” is incredibly knowledgeable and engaged as evidenced by our active comment sections and our vibrant social media channels where RACER’s loyal audience share their infectious enthusiasm and passion for all forms of racing. This underscores our strong belief that the first steps in growing our sport must be to respect, inspire and energize racing’s core fans.

In that context, I am proud to report that RACER Magazine now has twice the BPA-audited circulation that it did when the founders reacquired the company in March, 2012. Since then, RACER.com’s users have quadrupled and, as a result, RACER.com is now ranked as the #1 racing media site in the USA by Alexa. Our audience clearly likes what they are seeing because RACER.com has grown by more than 33% during the first 100 days of 2018 compared to the same period in 2017. Remarkably, the first ten days of April 2018 show this growth is accelerating with a 50% spike in users versus 2017.  This proves that the RACER brand is not just “preaching to the choir,” but instead we are amplifying their evangelic power. 

In the weeks ahead RACER.com will move to a new site platform hosted by the USA TODAY Sports Media Group that will improve user experience on mobile and desktop for our readers along with enhancing ad visibility and engagement for our advertisers. Most importantly, RACER’s new content syndication and marketing alliance with USA TODAY promises to grow the audience for auto racing in the United States via Gannett’s network of 119 websites that reach more than 116 million people each month. While we will always believe that driving the passion of racing’s core audience is vitally important to the sport’s health, we also know that attracting and keeping new fans is critical to the sport's future, so our team at RACER is committed to doing something lasting and meaningful about it.  

RACER is still here after all these years because people have been willing to subscribe and companies have chosen to advertise. Thank you to our loyal RACER readers and advertisers for making these past 26 years possible beyond our dreams. Onward to the next era for RACER and the future of sport we love.  

All the best,

Paul Pfanner