What’s Next

By The Editors

In September 2008, Raceday 360 Wire launched with the simple goal of providing horse racing fans with a constantly updated stream of links to great racing content from around the web. The site has been a quiet success: With little promotion, R360 Wire traffic has grown month after month, and May 2009, thanks to Triple Crown interest and links from Paulick Report and The Rail to our Blinkers Off posts, was the best yet for unique visitors and page views.

But May was notable for more: In a month when single visits are typically high on racing sites as casual fans search for Kentucky Derby news, nearly 86% of first-time visitors became repeat visitors, a stat in keeping with the loyalty R360 Wire visitors indicated in a recent survey. A third of respondents said they visit more than once a day; another 22% once a day. For many of the survey takers, R360 Wire is, along with Daily Racing Form or Blood-Horse, their primary online racing news source.

Something about the site must be working …

Which is why R360 is changing. Beginning today, posts will appear regularly on R360 in addition to the aggregated headlines and curated links found on R360 Wire. We’ll be adding contributors and original features and commentary to the site, and looking for new ways to promote and support compelling, independent turf writing and photography. Consider R360 an ongoing experiment in new racing media.