A few years ago, I had a war of words with PR and other people in a MotoGP team who were looking to stop me from doing my job.
I wrote a blog about it. Because a journalist’s only strength comes from their laptop. If we don’t tell those other people to pull out, it won’t soon make sense for journalists to attend races, so we’ll have to take advantage of press releases instead.
In addition, those stories will offer enthusiasts an engaging insight into the strange and glorious dynamics of a journalist’s life in the paddock.
Best of all, this latest story is hilarious in its craziness. The team’s PR system started by complaining that I hadn’t used a certain word in my story (even though I had), while banning their engineers from that word.
Very rare.
It turns out that PR like that probably won’t be satisfied until MotoGP is just a soulless corporate marketing event, stripped of all its joy and beauty, existing just to sell you stuff, with a bit of motorcycle racing aside. Just like Formula 1.
Most of the PR MotoGP riders are doing a wonderful job. When I started in the late 80s, the only way to communicate with a motorcyclist was to knock on the door of their motorhome or tent.
Now, some RR. PP. se behave as if we are there to help them perform their task (whipping the product), and not the other way around. If HRs are not allowed to do so. If you have any doubts about this, the clue is in the title of your assignment: PR, for press/public. relations.
I still love MotoGP for the racing and the technology, and I love talking to the top riders and engineers in the world, but the PR layers get thicker and stickier every season.
Once again, Ducati looked unwise in MotoGP pre-season testing, but who had the most speed in the Lusail test?Yamaha!
Clashes between bloodhounds and PR are inevitable because their goals are contradictory. Journalists need to investigate what’s going on, while the task of PR is branding. The fact is not their number one priority.
As George Orwell wrote: “Journalism prints what it does not need to print. Everything else is just PR.
The world’s first public relations official was the American Edward Bernays, who, during World War I, was hired by the U. S. government to promote the concept of the country’s entry into war, when most Americans were not enthusiastic. He was so successful that he created the world’s first public relations firm after the war.
Among her many corporate assignments, Bernays contracted through the U. S. tobacco industry to trap women into smoking, as few women smoked at the time. She consulted a Freudian psychoanalyst and presented cigarettes to women as “torches of freedom. “This crusade was another wonderful success.
Bernays’ paintings gave birth to a global public industry that now operates in all spheres of human activity.
Relations with the press, as Bernays demonstrated, is a mind game: you tell the sleuths selective truths, giving them the data you need them to have, while hiding the data you don’t need them to have. You tame friendships with the hounds, because if they like you, they would possibly be nicer to your brand. And you’re still friends, even if you hate them to death, because it’s a game.
It’s also helpful to have an unclear concept of how journalism works. That’s why some of the PR people are former journalists who switched sides to make more money. “Journalism is more fun,” one journalist-turned-PR journalist told me. “But public relations is much more lucrative. “
The Red Bull KTM team is one of the most productive in MotoGP: incredibly dedicated, incredibly hard-working and well looked after by its management. It probably has the most productive morale of any factory team. There are rumours in the KTM garage: the mechanics really love what they do and regularly greet you in a friendly way when you pass through the pit lane.
Their drivers Brad Binder and Jack Miller are wonderful interlocutors and their engineers are generous with their time when you need a quick chat in the garages. And I’ve had some wonderful interviews with motorsport director Pit Beirer, engine designer Kurt Trieb and technical director Sebastian Risse. , team leader Paul Trevathan and others.
The last time I interviewed Risse (whose team nickname, like several Sebastians, is Clever Seb) was at the Malaysian GP last November.
The full interview published on this site some time ago, is over 2200 words long. The print magazines I paint for (in Europe, the United States, Australia, and Japan) have more limited space, so I only had 500 words to cover each. manufacturer, adding quotes from drivers and engineers.
KTM appears to be the closest rival to Ducati in the 2024 MotoGP championship, thanks to copying the Italians while searching for brave new technology. The team’s task manager, Sebastian Risse, answers our questions. . .
If an editor says you need 500 words, write 500 words, not 499 or 501. The journal’s writing should be strict, with citations edited for clarity and brevity. I’ve been doing this for over 40 years, so I think I have a general idea. idea.
PR looking at me telling me what to write is like walking into the KTM garage and telling the mechanics how to tighten the brake bolts on the RC16. No wonder he would get a slap in the face.
And yet, a KTM PR concept was a clever concept to tell me how to do my job. This PR man accused me of making “misquotations” in my magazine article and asked me to contact my editors to simply make “the mandatory corrections to reflect what should be said. “
At first I thought it was a joke because I still have the tapes and transcripts of the interviews.
But I take this attack seriously. KTM asked those magazines to sort my text correctly. I don’t have a contract with any of the magazines that publish my articles, so I’m still as smart as my last story. And why would an editor need to hire a journalist who would adjust quotes to replace meaning?Because it’s a felony in this business.
The attack seemed particularly perverse as my story was very complimentary about KTM’s work in MotoGP: “It’s a motorcycle to ride,” Miller said.
Why is KTM so with me?
Not to be mistaken, I forwarded KTM’s email to two well-known MotoGP journalists, who have been covering the championship for 80 years.
“I don’t understand what those court cases are about,” wrote Michael Scott, the doyen of MotoGP journalists, who began covering GPs in the early 1980s. “It is the journalist’s job to write commentary for the sake of brevity and comprehensibility. However, if someone needs to object to precise wording, they have to take the technique of [a former MotoGP journalist] and post any and all ‘uh’ and each and every half-finished and finished sentence. with too long a hubbub, or an indirect speech, to maintain clarity and ensure brevity. They’re picky because they’re nits.
“It looks like a stroller seeking to justify its existence,” wrote my other colleague, who covered his first GP around the same time. “He’s amazing, he’s just a fussy fool. What’s confusing is that the context of his story is 500 positive words about how KTM is a pioneer in technology! »
I would have posted the rest of that email, but it’s too rude.
I even contacted the National Syndicate of British Journalists to ask for their opinion. “I don’t see anything that changes the meaning,” an NUJ adviser responded.
So why is KTM so with me?
The first complaint about the name of my magazine and the following discussion about the carbon fiber frame of the RC16.
(Italics refer to his words. )
“We note that in the name he has included ‘CARBON,’ while in the text itself he has removed it and kept it in an undeniable ‘framework. ‘”
A quick read of the story (below) that the word “carbon” did indeed appear in hitale. Twice. Everything they smoke makes them paranoid and confused, and also a little sleepy.
Then KTM complained.
“We are convinced that sooner or later we will have a carbon frame,” says Risse.
This sentence has been replaced for the sake of clarity of the original: “We are convinced that sooner or later everyone will find themselves in this. “This is Risse’s answer to my eighth question in a row about the RC16’s carbon fiber frame, so there’s no doubt that “This” referred to carbon frames, so the meaning isn’t replaced.
His latest complaint about this quote from Miller. . .
“We’ve managed to find more grip with the carbon fibre frame, so I’ve been racing with the understanding that the front finish can handle more speed in the corners.
This quote has been edited for clarity and brevity, from 49 words to 28 words. Cutting text is a vital component of a journalist’s job; In fact, it takes longer to edit an article up to the required number of words than it does to write the first one. draft.
That full quote from Miller. . .
“We’ve been able to find a bit more grip with the new chassis, so that’s the most important thing we were looking for and they gave us some steps to take to continue that and test it. “We feel the front finish a little more, to have a safe turning speed.
Again, both quotes say the same thing: the new frame provides more grip, but we want more cornering speed.
What PR would have liked me to write something like this, to point out each of my edits to the reader?
Risse: “We’re sure that, sooner or later, everyone will eventually have this [carbon fiber frame technology]. “
And. . .
Miller: “We were able to find [a little] more grip with the new [carbon fiber] chassis [sic, the swingarm is already carbon fiber], so [that’s the most important thing we were looking for and we’ve achieved it. “he’s been given some steps to take to keep improving] and [Editor’s note: what he’s been running on, is] looking to perceive the front a little bit more, to have some speed in the corners.
The rider makes up about a third of the combined mass of a MotoGP bike. The engineers have a lot of knowledge about the bike, but they want to know where the rider is sitting and what he is doing.
There’s an explanation why you never read quotes like this: because they’re ugly to read, make the speaker look ridiculous, and take up twice as much space, so the story would involve some of the information.
That’s why I don’t like it when other PR people tell me how to be a journalist.
As already stated, history has praised KTM’s valiant attempts to beat Ducati. Perhaps his PR geniuses would have been happier if he had had more, as they should reflect KTM’s recent efforts in MotoGP and he would have written this instead. . .
“Despite a huge investment from KTM and Red Bull, working with Red Bull Advanced Technologies (arguably the biggest aerodynamics specialists in motorsport in the world), having one of the riders on the grid and taking some of the key brains from MotoGP dominators Ducati and Öhlins, KTM is the only manufacturer that hasn’t won a single Grand Prix in the dry for almost 3 years, since June 2021. Even Honda and Suzuki have won more dry GPs in that time.
During testing at Sepang, I had a lively verbal exchange with KTM, hoping they would realise that their accusations were false. PR doubled, so I advised KTM to sue me, so we can go to court and let the experts decide. My offer was rejected.
When I came back from Sepang, I got in touch with the magazines that had published the story, because KTM sought them out to make corrections, whenever possible.
And that’s when things got fun.
The first of my editors who contacted KTM PR told them that he had reviewed the transcripts and story and saw no lack of corrections. This prompted this reaction from KTM’s head of motorsport PR.
“To be transparent about this, no one at KTM has clarified that the new chassis will be carbon fibre in 2023 and we were surprised and disappointed to read it as a quote from an official KTM spokesperson. “
So that’s it! KTM engineers weren’t allowed to use the term carbon fiber to describe the new RC16 frame, even though everyone was talking about it.
Risse and I spent over 3 minutes talking in particular about the carbon frame. He described in detail how the bike progressed, but couldn’t talk about the carbon fiber.
How wild is that?!
Marc Marquez started the first MotoGP practice at Sepang, but the fastest rider, Jorge Martin, believes that the new Ducati signing could fight for victory in the first GP.
KTM’s PR specialists faltered: they were in a tank crash terminal, activated via diametrically opposed brain waves.
What would I have given to participate in this PR and marketing meeting?
“Ladies and gentlemen, our genius MotoGP engineers have designed a stunning new framework, so our genius marketing plan is to prohibit our genius engineers from mentioning their incredible creation to anyone, even though everyone already knows about it.
“Man, a marketing genius!”
High five in each and every level.
I guess as a result of this wonderful brain meeting, the KTM PR team blamed KTM’s MotoGP chief engineer for not telling me that the carbon fiber frame didn’t exist.
Talk about the tail to wag the dog.
And now the crowning glory of this comedy of the wild chicken.
A few weeks after my verbal exchange with Risse, another journalist interviewed Risse and he said the word not to be said (I wonder if the elite PR will have returned to the workplace of their genuine lead engineer to throw something else at him).
So the PR guy was sparing when he told me that “no one from KTM has specified that the new chassis will be carbon fiber in 2023. “
These other people have panties so twisted that I wonder how they get out of bed in the morning.
One last thought: the task of a PRit’s not just about building smart relationships with journalists, it’s also your job to advertise MotoGP to a wider audience.
Considering that motorcycle racing is currently the 30th most popular game in the world (after dressage!), I think those PRs would be better off spending their time looking to grow the game (by publishing articles in mainstream magazines, etc. ) than chasing journalists.
Finally, I wish Red Bull KTM all the best for the 2024 season. It’s a wonderful organisation (for the most part) and I’d love to see them win GPs again.
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