Here is the news…

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Starting today F1 Fanatic will be offering more Formula 1 news.

These stories will be listed under ‘News in brief’ on the right-hand side of the site, and as you can see that box has been re-designed to fit more content in.

Hang on, isn’t this a blog? Why have you added a news service?

The blog will continue as usual but I want F1 Fanatic to offer more than blog content, including video, forums and news. This is another step towards that.

However these stories will all be ‘comment-able’, just as they are on the blog, offering a greater depth of interactivity that few other F1 news sites offer.

Who writes it?

The articles are supplied by motoring news agency GMM’s team of writers, who also supply news to other F1 sites. They are all checked by me before being published here.

The news content will be supplied on trial until the end of November, after which I’ll decide whether or not to continue with it.

You’ve crashed my feed reader!

All this new material does mean that the F1 Fanatic RSS Feed will be putting on some weight.

I could offer a ‘non-news’ version of the feed if people are interested, so if that’s something you’d like to see, please leave a comment below.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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26 comments on “Here is the news…”

  1. Very good idea. But please do always check the GMM stories, in the past I’ve found them very poor at understanding the rules, particularly the engine rules.

  2. i am so disappointed to read this keith.

    *looks for unsubscribe button*

    GMM have proven themselves to be incompetent beyond belief this year. earlier in the year we actually asked all commenters on sidepodcast.com not to post links to GMM sourced stories, so wrong was the information most of the time.

    you must be desperate for content to go down this route :(

  3. Don – I will do, and if there’s something in there I don’t think is right I won’t be publishing it.

    SPC – I had a look at some of the reference to GMM in your comments and among the stories your commenters were encouraged to take ‘with a pinch of salt’ were early reports about Toro Rosso testing Takuma Sato and McLaren doing a deal with Force India. I’ve found GMM produce good material which I wanted to offer here. If during or after the trial I decide it isn’t up to a high enough standard I’ll drop it. It’s not a case of being ‘desperate for content’ – this arrangement is anticipated to break even at present.

    Can I take it you’d rather see two different feeds, or are you so offended you never want to come back here again?

  4. Please make a feed for non-news items. It would be gratefully appreciated.

  5. Yup, a non-news feed would be appreciated.

  6. I would be interested in separate RSS feeds.

  7. i’m not bothered what it cost, nor how much you make. when i say “desperate for content”, i mean it sounds like you’re less interested in writing unique posts.

    i can get genetically modified media stories from a hundred other places and the only difference is the adverts i see. sounds to me like you’re generating a lot of duplicate information, much of which is decidedly ropey (unless they’ve upped their game recently, that’s just what it is).

    maybe you’ll manage it well, maybe it’ll be the best thing you’ve ever introduced. two feeds is an absolute must though, yes.

  8. When did I say I was going to be writing less original content?

  9. Well I think it’s a good idea, Keith. As long as it’s clear what’s a news item and what’s an article, I’m not bothered if you do one or multiple feeds.

  10. I don’t know why so many people are against the idea. I love it as it saves me time so I don’t need to go to other sites for news. And as f1fanatic is the best site for F1 fans I can’t see the problem with combining best of both worlds as they say. I know Keith will continue his amazing blogging I am very much for an expansion of this site.

    Keep going Keith.

  11. “I don’t know why so many people are against the idea.”

    i woke up and got spammed by a bunch of content i spend my life trying to avoid :)

    if keith says decent articles will be continue that’s cool. with a separate feed it’ll probably be fine. doesn’t feel like f1f to me though.

  12. I don’t think is a good idea to post news from GMM. This blog is great, the work you’ve done here is just great, but I think this news service is unappropriate.

    Of course, it’s your blog and you will have the last word on this. But please think again about this.

    And if you decide to continue with GMM, please offer a second RSS-fedd just with your posts.

    Thank you.

  13. I don’t think this site needs news, it’s where I come for a slightly different take, and for the arguments discussions about the stories, not for the news itself. The actual original content is in danger of getting overwhelmed, which I think would make this site a less valuable destination for me (just an opinion of course).

    I’ll add my voice to those who’d appreciate a non-news feed.

  14. Got more grief for this than I did for saying Kubica was the driver of the year. But that’s why there’s a comment box: I didn’t think this would be so divisive. Just like I’m sure if a news story goes up that people object to, I’ll get told about it through the comments.

    Anyway, to be clear: no reduction in original content (aside from the unavoidable off-season slow-down), and a non-news feed is high on to-do list.

  15. Yes please for a blog post only feed.

  16. “Anyway, to be clear: no reduction in original content (aside from the unavoidable off-season slow-down), and a non-news feed is high on to-do list.”

    thank you :)

  17. I’d also really like to see at least non-news feed and it would be a much better idea if all the news articles were grouped together into a section of their own away from the regular blog pieces.

    I’m a bit unsure about the news articles being lumped with the main content because it’s not really why I read F1Fanatic.If I wanted to read stories I’d use Autosport or possibly Grandprix.com.I’m looking for mainly opinion here and you’ve done some excellent pieces since I started reading regularly in the middle of last season.

  18. Interesting discussion here guys. I have to ask though, why GMM and not yourself? Why not write the news articles yourself with your own take and unique perspective? If time is the issue, then is there not someone you could ’employ’ to write the newsy posts? The thing about blogging is that it seems much more personal than Autosport or BBC News, which sets us apart from the MSM. And that is what would be lacking with content written by someone who isn’t emotionally attached to this site.

    As always, just my two penneth worth – a separate feed would be good though – if I want hum-drum news I’ll read Pitpass (or my own site! :P )

  19. Ollie – There’s no way I could take on that much work by myself, and paying another contributor wouldn’t be cost-effective. (And don’t call your own site ‘hum-drum’!)

  20. here’s a thought, having mulled over it for a while.

    could you not take an alternative approach and remove the news items from the normal feed using something like ‘wp category excluder’ plugin?

    then provide a separate news feed for anyone to subscribe to should they want the newly provided info?

    that way gmm won’t be pushed onto subscribers unwittingly.

  21. I’ll check the click through rate from the original feed between now and the end of the trial before I make that decision. Thanks for the suggestion.

  22. using something like ‘wp category excluder’ plugin?

    Or add a query line to the loop – more on the codex.

    By the way, tried to post code in ‘code’ tags, but didn’t work. Also tried ‘pre’ and `backticks`.

  23. I don’t know what all the fuss is about – I’m sure that using a news feed will be well managed by you, as with all things on your site.

    Personally, I mainly visit your site for the excellent unique and personal posts you and your guests write. So long as I can clearly get access to to them (ie the home page isn’t cluttered up) then I’m happy!

  24. The reduced feed is now available – find it here: Get the latest from F1Fanatic

  25. Well, here’s my penny’s worth – Keith, I think it’s a great idea. I’ve read the opinions of the other bloggers and am happy that you’re going to check each story for ‘quality control’. I have very little time each day to read up on F1 news, and sometimes 2-3 days go by before I get to check for news. So the fact that I can get the ‘total mix’ of news, original articles and a blog on the same site is music to my ears. Good luck with the trial Keith…

  26. At the beginning I had my concerns about this (not another everybody-has-the-same-news website, please!), but I quickly realized that this site has something the others don’t: a great community to talk about the news. I’m tired of reading something and having nobody else to talk about it…

    Mi recipe to read many news sites is: read first the more attractive one (because of information and/or interaction), and then filter the titles of the others. Now your site will be the first in the ‘news’ list Keith :-)

    As long as you keep-up with the original work, I’m happy

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