Media applying for Series Accreditation for the Supercars Championship must meet the below guidelines. Supercars recognises the value of media coverage and reporting of the Supercars Championship, provided that coverage respects ethical and industry standards and does not breach any copyright legislation.
Media applying for accreditation are encouraged to read the Guidelines thoroughly prior to submitting their application.
1. ACCREDITATION PRINCIPLES
2. ACCREDITATION CRITERIA
2.1 Event-Only Media Accreditation
2.2 Coverage
2.3 Quality
2.4 Circulation
3. PHOTOGRAPHER ACCREDITATION
4. WEBSITES
5. PIT LANE ACCESS
6. INTERVIEW PROTOCOL
7. ACCREDITATION PROCEDURES
7.1 Event-Only Media Accreditation Procedure
7.2 Photographer Accreditation Procedure
1. ACCREDITATION PRINCIPLES
Media Accreditation is restricted to professional journalists and photographers only. The Media Event Pass and Media Access Pass are considered a working tool and are only to be used by working media members.
Under no circumstances will media accreditation be supplied to advertising and public relations companies and the like or representatives of sponsors, suppliers, engine suppliers, teams and drivers (this includes media managers and public relations officers).
Note: Publishers, marketing personnel, sub-editors, publications secretarial staff and technical or service staff will not be accredited as media.
Supercars Australia only accredits publications and agencies:
a) with a minimum circulation of 20,000 for magazines and 50,000 for newspapers
b) with a format and quality which fulfil the criteria
c) which are available to the public in sales outlets (for publications only)
d) only the official Supercars Australia website or websites with more than 60,000 unique monthly visitors or a minimum of 40,000 Nielsen unique monthly visits
Internal magazines of companies, trade magazines and newsletters cannot be accredited as media. However, at the sole discretion of Supercars Australia, and where the quality and circulation criteria justify their consideration, such magazines may be eligible for accreditation on a case-by-case basis.
Applicants who wish to undertake a commercial venture (this includes but is not limited to website, television, radio and commercial photographers) must send their accreditation application to and receive prior approval in writing from Supercars Australia.
Event Media Passes and Media Access Passes are granted at the discretion of Supercars Australia and if at any stage Supercars Australia reasonably suspects that photographic images or similar are being used for commercial purposes, accreditation will be revoked without notice. Event Media Passes and Media Access Passes remain the property of Supercars Australia and may be removed at any time.
Note: All Media Accreditation is issued at the sole discretion of Supercars Australia and decisions will not be reversed.
Television media / or motion cameras except the Broadcast Rights holder are only permitted to capture / record vision on pre-specified days by Supercars Australia. This will be advised in a timely fashion prior to each event.
2. ACCREDITATION CRITERIA
Supercars distribute two forms of Media Accreditation; Event-only Media Accreditation and Series Media Accreditation.
2.1 Event-only Media Accreditation
Event-only Media Accreditation will be granted for media only attending select Supercars Championship events. Additionally, Event-only Media Accreditation will be assessed on the merit by the relevant Event promoter with the final approval by Supercars.
For Event Only Media Accreditation, priority is given to publications intending to publish a report specifically related to the event which accreditation has been requested.
Event only passes can also be allocated to general news, specialist, business and lifestyle consumer publications who do not intend to publish conventional race reports, but the coverage is considered to be of editorial benefit to Supercars Australia.
In most circumstances a maximum of two representatives (journalist / photographer) per publication may be accredited for any one round of the Supercars Australia Championship.
All applicants must fulfil the following criteria to be granted Media Accreditation.
2.2 Coverage
Daily newspapers are required to produce a substantial amount of coverage per event. For example (coverage is not limited to) an introductory article in the Thursday edition, follow-up articles on Friday and Saturday (and Sunday where applicable) plus a race report in the Monday edition.
Weekly and monthly publications should cover a substantial amount of coverage per event and the major portion of the content should be on the subject of Supercars Australia.
Publications and agencies applying for Event-only Media Accreditation for a photographer must supply evidence of independent coverage of a minimum of 15 images per pass from the previous year.
2.3 Quality
Supercars Australia expects the utmost standards of fairness and accuracy as minimum quality requirement from the pass.
2.4 Circulation
Accreditation decisions are based on the relative ‘media market’ in the country of the applicant. As previously stated, Supercars Australia will only accredit applicants with a minimum circulation of 20, 000 for magazines and 50, 000 for newspapers.
Photo agencies must be able to supply evidence that images have been regularly sold to publications that meet Supercars Australia Media Accreditation criteria and have been paid for at the normal commercial rate. The purchasing publication must be able to prove the pictures are the original work of the accredited photographer.
3. PHOTOGRAPHER ACCREDITATION
Photographers cannot apply as individuals. All applications for photographers must be made in writing by the publication or media outlet. There will be stringent guidelines applied and it may be a case that the media outlet may need to use agency or supplied photography.
Media outlets applying for photographer accreditation must write to:
The Media Department, Supercars Australia, PO Box 607 Southport BC, Qld, 4215
Email: media@supercars.com (for Photo, TV and Radio)
All Series photographers must possess a CAMS Gold Level Accreditation. Limited exceptions may be made for CAMS Silver Level Accreditation and this will be determined in the absolute discretion of Supercars Australia and only on the request from the publication / outlet.
All Series Accredited Media must be working directly for a major metropolitan or national news outlet, a dedicated Supercars Australia / motorsport magazine, an international news agency or an endorsed Supercars Australia news-based website. Supercars Australia will only accept bonafide media producing work certain for publication, no speculation.
Rights free images for editorial use only will be made available on direct request to Supercars Australia, and will be distributed / issued at the organisations discretion.
4. WEBSITES
In the main non-SC related websites will not be granted accreditation. Websites that are operated by major media outlets (ie news.com.au or yahoo.com.au) are generally serviced by the masthead or the broadcaster but can apply in writing on a needs basis.
Websites are permitted to display single Supercar images however they must be watermarked, not able to be downloaded or saved, of low resolution and not for commercial use. Images must accompany news articles only and should be contained within the article page or opened from the article page and not used for other content within the site. ie. photo galleries of the event are not permitted.
Image dimensions cannot exceed 800 pixels in height and width and be no greater than 500 kilobytes and 200 pixels per inch.
Websites must employ their own journalists and not syndicated content.
Failure to comply with the stipulated conditions may result in accreditation being revoked by Supercars Australia and in its discretion Supercars Australia may take further action.
Media Accreditation for websites will be granted at the discretion of Supercars Australia.
Applicants must also provide satisfactory evidence the website is a professional Championship or professionally run general news or sport website with a clear Supercars Australia / motorsport section. Evidence should include Supercars Australia coverage of each Championship for the past three Championship seasons, with publication dates and correct by-lines. In each case all coverage on the Championship must be free of charge to the public. Blogs, forums and other personal websites will not qualify.
If the above requirements are met a maximum of one representative journalist per website per event may be accredited. Websites associated with a print or broadcast media organisation that has already applied for, and been granted, any other form of media accreditation will not qualify for accreditation.
The applicant must provide audited traffic figures confirmed by an Internet auditor or industry repute accepted by Supercars Australia for the last three years (express as unique IP address per year) along with a geographical breakdown of users i) for the website or ii) in the case the website is not dedicated to the Championship, the section which compiles the Championship section of the website.
The representative journalist must be (i) a full time professional journalist and (ii) must be employed or engaged by the website as a journalist, wholly or primarily for the coverage of the Championship.
The website must maintain a clear “contacts” section with a link from the website homepage and which must contain full contact details for the website including a full postal address (PO Boxes not accepted), telephone and fax numbers, email address; and (ii) all contributing journalists must be named either on their articles or elsewhere on the website, photographs must be accompanied by a photographer’s credit and all sources must be credited in accordance with editorial best practice.
The website must have a suitable written Privacy Policy, a Right to Reply/Complaints Policy and otherwise comply with all laws, regulations, guidelines and good practice relating to the operation of a website.
The applicant must respect others’ intellectual property rights. This shall include the strict prohibition on the taking of any moving picture images, sound recordings, use of trademarks, title or logos or the transmission of certain kinds of results. If any pass holder is found producing moving images of any kind of the Event (or any part thereof), their accreditation will be withdrawn and the pass holder will be not be admitted to any Supercar Event for the foreseeable future.
Supercars Australia will allocate Internet Accreditation taking into account the above criteria in order to ensure that Championship coverage on the Internet is carried out responsibly and that coverage is as widespread as possible.
5. PIT LANE
Series and Event-only Media Accreditation does not include pit lane access.
Pit lane access is restricted to specified photographers only; these photographers have been notified.
Media, with exception of authorised Broadcast Rights personnel and the photographers noted above, are not permitted into pit lane at any time whatsoever whether prior to, during or after racing, subject always to Supercars Australia discretion.
Fire suits are compulsory in pit lane during all Supercars Australia sessions unless otherwise advised.
6. INTERVIEW PROTOCOL
Interviews must be conducted at the media conferences held after practice, races or at the team garages/transporters with the permission of the team.
All interview requests with Supercar / officials must be requested through the Supercar GM of Media and Communications
7. ACCREDITATION PROCEDURES
All Journalist Accreditation applications must be submitted through the Supercars Australia Media Accreditation Portal, which will be provided to those who express their interest.
Applicants must complete all mandatory fields and accept the terms and conditions stipulated in this document.
The applicant will be notified of their application status (approve / decline) via email from Supercars Australia.
Event-only Media Passes and Media Access Passes will be distributed to successful media applicants via post or other requested collection methods.
7.1 Event-only Media Accreditation Procedure
Applications must be received three weeks before the requested event. Applications lodged after the deadline, incomplete or sent via fax may not be considered.
Requests must include a formal application letter written on the applicant’s letterhead which must include;
a) name/s of representative/s who will be covering the event
b) job title/s of representative/s (journalist or photographer)
c) information on publication (circulation, readership, frequency etc)
d) pdf files of material published following the previous Championship events (in most cases the content the applicant was accredited for)
e) a formal approval from the editor to publish a report related to the requested event and an indication of the anticipated publication date
This document must be signed and approved by the editor/senior member of the editorial staff. Signed by other clerical / general staff will not be accepted.
Supercars Australia will verify whether the application meets the relevant criteria and will send a confirmation/ declination email to the applicant.
7.2 Photographer Media Accreditation Procedure
Photographers cannot apply as individuals as per the above guidelines.
All applications for photographers must be made in writing by the publication or media outlet. There will be stringent guidelines applied and it may be a case that the media outlet may need to use agency or supplied photography.