Five years after bringing all of its media operations under one roof, NASCAR is recasting NASCAR Media Group as four independent departments: NASCAR Broadcast, NASCAR Productions, NASCAR Digital and NASCAR Entertainment. They will have separate financial goals but continue to share the same P&L and revenue with racetracks.
When it announced the change last week, the sanctioning body described the move as a rebranding.
The change brings with it several shifts in personnel. NASCAR Chief Marketing Officer Steve Phelps will assume oversight for three of the four departments, taking over the responsibilities once held by NASCAR Media Group President Paul Brooks, who left the organization in March. He will have two direct reports: Marc Jenkins, vice president of digital, and Steve Herbst, vice president of broadcasting and production. Zane Stoddard, managing director of entertainment marketing and business development, will continue to report to Eric Nyquist, vice president of strategic development.
Herbst takes over responsibility for production from longtime NASCAR Media Group COO Jay Abraham, who is leaving the organization.
“It doesn’t mean the group from a functional standpoint is going to change all that much,” Phelps said. “If you look at the core group in terms of the talent we have and product they produce, it’s an incredibly high quality and that’s something we want to continue.”
As part of the change, NASCAR’s production division will cease production of college sports and other content and focus exclusively on NASCAR programming. Phelps said that NASCAR Media Group’s revenue from production of non-NASCAR programming was insignificant.
