North American motor-racing series Nascar has restructured its media division in a process that it said would strengthen its broadcasting and production services.
Steve Herbst, who has overseen Nascar’s broadcasting and global media rights business since May 2011, has been selected to lead what was formerly known as Nascar Media Group Productions as vice-president of broadcasting and production. The unit to be overseen by Herbst – who will report to Nascar senior vice-president and chief marketing officer Steve Phelps – will be renamed Nascar Productions, sitting alongside the Nascar Broadcasting, Nascar Digital Media and Nascar Entertainment divisions.
“Going forward, Nascar Productions will focus solely on delivering content and executing projects that support Nascar’s broader mission of serving current fans and growing new audiences,” Nascar said in a press release. “Current projects unrelated to Nascar will be completed, but initiatives outside Nascar’s core mission will no longer be pursued.”
In other appointments, Steve Stum has been promoted to vice-president of operations and technical production, Tally Hair has been named managing director of production and programming, and Seth Bacon has been appointed as Nascar’s senior director of broadcasting.
Nascar vice-president of digital media, Marc Jenkins, will continue to lead the Nascar Digital Media division and report to Phelps. Zane Stoddard will continue to lead Nascar Entertainment and report to vice-president of strategic development Eric Nyquist. Jay Abraham, who has held various leadership roles at Nascar and was most recently chief operating officer of Nascar Media Group Productions, has left the organisation.
The changes follow an extension of Nascar’s long-standing digital partnership with cable-television broadcaster Turner Broadcasting System in January. Under the restructured deal with Turner, Nascar will take a core part of the operation in-house from 2013 by managing business and editorial operations for its digital platforms. Turner Sports will continue to oversee advertising sales and sponsorships across Nascar-branded digital platforms.