Monte Dutton's new blog

For those who don't know, syndicated NASCAR writer Monte Dutton's position was eliminated by the Gaston Gazette earlier this month. Just a sign of the times perhaps as the newspaper business continues to shrink into an increasingly irrelevant oligopoly.

He is working on moving forward with new perspectives. From what I can tell, he plans to continue covering NASCAR to some level. He recently set up a blog where he'll post columns from time to time. They can be read at montedutton.com .

Try www.montedutton.com . Thought almost all sites were such that the www was no longer necessary. Apparently not.

Sorry to hear that the Gaston Gazette has eliminated the position. Monte has long been one of the best and most astute motorsports writers.

The press ox seating areas for deadline print media must be looking pretty darned empty these days. I remember when I didn't have enough seats for deadline print media seeking seats.

While I haven't talked to Monte specifically about his layoff, I can read between the lines. More than once, he explained their business model. The Gazette is simply not that big. On their own, they couldn't afford Monte's salary, benefits, and travel expenses. But they syndicated his content to a few hundred other papers. As THOSE papers have gone belly up or cut costs to the bone, I'm sure they cut out purchased content. As the syndication revenue shrunk, the cost to be absorbed by the Gazette would go up significantly. In the end, it just wasn't a good biz situation for the paper. And poof like that, out went Monte.

Thanks Chase. I will follow Monte. He is one of the good ones.

I think that it sucks but as least we can read his insiders analysis on-line, good luck Monte!