October 2008

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Lane Changes 10.2008

October 20, 2008 in Lane Changes by Glenn Campbell | No comments

Former Atlanta Journal-Constitution auto writer Rob Douthit wants to consider all the breaking auto news he can get for his new blog: Atlanta Auto Beat. Autowriters.com: Lane Changes: Photograph By: Michal ZacharzewskiIt features reviews and news plus content targeted for the Atlanta metro area. He can be reached at robdouthit@hotmail.com . . . Road & Track Specials editor Andrew Bornhop has assumed the duties of retiring managing editor, Ellida Maki. Bornhop has been with Road & Track for more than 20 years. . . . Matt Sullivan has departed his online editor’s job at Popular Mechanics for a senior web editor’s post at Esquire. His replacement has not been named. . . . Bruce Smith has moved to Tuscaloosa, Alabama to join Randall-Reilly Publishing’s Trucking Media Group editorial team. He will edit Custom Rig and can be reached at: trkeditor@msn.com or trkeditor@cableone.net Smith asks: “please direct all media invitations and press releases to Larry Walton(larry@smith-walton.com) who will be taking over the Editor’s duties of our family run business, Editorial Services/Editorial Services, West. Larry can be reached at: 541.954.5531.

Cliff Clements supplants David Bloom as the automotive contact at the Baytown Sun in Texas, cliff.clements@baytownsun.com.  . . . In an attempt to reduce the oppressive amount of spam coming its way Road & Travel Magazine has changed its editorial email address. Inquiries regarding editorial content, queries, press trips or press cars can be sent to the editor at content@roadandtravel.com. . . Dan Sharp, previously with AutobyTel, is now a video producer for JDPower.com. . . . Alysha Webb is a reporter in the West Coast Bureau of Automotive News. . . . Dave Versical has returned from Bloomberg News to Automotive News as editor of its online edition.

The Tom Tom: Vince Capece Follow-Up

October 19, 2008 in The Tom-Tom by AWcom Staff | No comments

When I was asked to write about the future of automotive journalism, I was honored. My blog caught the attention of someone and they asked me to expand on my viewpoints. I enjoyed the chance to speak up.

My earlier article received some interesting feedback and I felt the desire to expand on my thoughts with a piece I wrote a while back.

I’ve been working in and around the automotive industry for a number of years and it always amazes me that there is such a wide variety of abilities in the people who are supposed to be the face to the public and the media. There are people who you will go out of your way to see at every event and there are people you will avoid as if your life (and more importantly, your sanity) depended on it. I remember a woman who worked at Honda that everyone spoke of in only the most glowing terms and there were similar people Subaru and Ford. But unfortunately, it’s the people on the other end of the spectrum that you tend to remember the most.

I was walking around a public car show where a Slovakian kit car called the K1 Attack was shown. As I walked over, I noticed that someone was being interviewed just in front of the car. The videographer was setting up so I quickly snapped a picture or two before they were ready for the camera to roll.

As I walked away, the interviewer tried to impress his interviewee by making some disparaging remark about the audacity of any schmo with a camera, obviously trying to put himself on a plane higher than me. He was obviously younger than me so I was to assume that, unless he had been interviewing people since he was in diapers, I had more experience than him. But because I didn’t have an entourage or a broadcast-quality video camera, I must be one of the unwashed masses. I felt secure enough that I didn’t have to flash the media credentials in my pocket just to make myself feel important.

And because I’m a nice person, I didn’t embarrass this cub reporter in front of his “big interview.”

Now, as I’m reading what I’ve written, I feel like you, the reader, are going to get the wrong idea of me. I love working in this industry. Aside from that rare person, I’ve enjoyed the company of most automotive people (media, PR, and others) that I’ve met along the way. I do not, in any way, want you to think that I think highly of myself, because I don’t.

But when others put me down, I will get a bit defensive. Read the rest of this entry »

Autowriters Spotlight: Richard Truesdell

October 17, 2008 in Autowriters Spotlight by Glenn Campbell | No comments

Editor’s Note: This is an exceptionally long Autowriters Spotlight, but Truesdell deserves more rope to explain himself because he is taking on the largest publisher of automotive titles in the U.S.

In the 1976 classic “Network” Peter Finch’s character Howard Beale screamed at the top of his lungs “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.” That about sums up this month’s spotlighted writer, Richard Truesdell who in a classic David versus Goliath battle, is taking on automotive publishing giant Source InterLink over its onerous, all-rights, take it or leave it approach to content acquisition.

Over the past 18 years Rich has been a contributor to Road and Track Specials, Car and Driver, and Motor Trend, cutting his journalistic teeth while he still owned a mobile electronics store. Initially his specialty was providing in-car entertainment-focused content, culminating in his being named editor of Car Audio and Electronics in 1997. (Source InterLink recently shut down Car Audio and Electronics after a 20-year run).

After his time on the staff side of the editorial divide, Rich returned to the freelance ranks and has contributed to a diverse roster of titles at emap, Primedia, and now Source InterLink and is currently the West Coast Contributing Editor and columnist for Musclecar Enthusiast while contributing on a regular basis to the other five Amos Automotive titles including Cars and Parts and Mopar Enthusiast. His first feature was published in the October issue of the UK title Classic and Sports Car, a 1,500-mile drive from Denver to Las Vegas in a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T Hemi, following as closely as possible the route of the 1971 cult classic “Vanishing Point.”

“I contribute each month to more than a dozen automotive, travel, and lifestyle publications around the world so I jealously protect my rights. As I don’t normally work with the luxury of signed contracts, I make it very clear – it’s printed on each and every one of my invoices – what my submission terms are. Normally, for domestic publications it will say ‘First North American serial right and concurrent web use’ which I think is pretty generous given how little some publications pay.”

“This past January I provided one Source InterLink title, European Car, a new product review on automotive electronics products that premiered at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. I found out, after the fact, that an editor provided the article to a second publication, Lowrider Girls. The content was subsequently repurposed and reprinted without permission. After it was published Lowrider Girl’s editor contacted me saying that she would like the same type of content on a continuing basis.”

“I politely told her that she had no right to reprint the content, but if she paid me for the ‘borrowed’ content, and agreed to my terms moving forward, then I would consider the matter closed and I provided three additional content packages – Lowrider Girls is bi-monthly – and invoiced her accordingly, under my standard terms.” Read the rest of this entry »

The Tom-Tom: Al Vinikour

October 17, 2008 in The Tom-Tom, Uncategorized by AWcom Staff | No comments

 Al Vinikour is a Chicago native but a Detroiter for a few decades. He has walked along many streets in autodom and seems to enjoy them all: salesman, publisher, writer and sometimes PR representative.

Those Were The Days, My Friend

by Al Vinikour

A dangerous and short-sighted trend has hit automotive public relations…and the auto industry in general and it’s already starting to bite management in the ass. I’m talking about massive shedding of senior people, the only employees who have any inkling of corporate history and what has, or hasn’t worked in the past. I suspect the theory of this headcount reduction is “these senior people have been around too long, are too cynical and cost more than new hires.” This scenario is further compounded by employing “hired guns” from outside the industry to run public relations. The operative word is “outside.” The inoperative word is “run” because inexperienced PR people in high places can do a lot of harm real fast.

When I entered this business in 1968, there were by today’s standards an ungodly number of public relations professionals employed by the auto industry – most of them by the Big Four (American Motors was still part of this mix).

However overstaffed they may have appeared to a bean counter, the PR departments ran as smoothly as a fine Swiss watch. Seemingly an anathema to current business practices, phone calls were always returned before the end of each day (or else!) and there was genuine respect between the public relations and journalism community. If you want to add yet another ingredient, the writing “back then” was first-rate. On both sides, practitioners had paid their “Typewriter Jockey” dues. Most worked at a wire service or small weekly newspaper and had a curmudgeonly editor who seemed to have an unlimited supply of red ink. By the time he (most editors were men) edited the first draft it looked like open-heart surgery gone bad. But the reporter learned to write, quickly and to high standards of style and accuracy – and to make the subject come alive. When he or she progressed into larger publications or the public relations field their writing skills were finely honed and their appreciation for deadlines was sacrosanct. Read the rest of this entry »

The Road Ahead 10.2008

October 17, 2008 in Road Ahead by Glenn Campbell | No comments

The dilution and decline of auto journalism decried in last month’s Newsletter along with the suggestion that it might be time for a National Auto Journalists Association brought a modest and mixed response. The percentage of readers who weighed in was small and there were no outright Autowriters.com: Road Ahead: Photograph by: Quilobjections to the idea although IMPA membership chairman Paul Weissler, dismissed the decline in print outlets and the trend to online journalism as nothing to fear. In his full response, the first in our new Autowriters.com blog, he states that IMPA has found how to properly vet bloggers who wish to join. That was disputed by one of his fellow members who wishes to remain anonymous but noted the many unknown and presumably un-skilled dot coms at IMPA’s recent test days. And, that he talked to PR representatives in attendance who agreed. Weissler presciently covered that aspect in his blog, suggesting that IMPA membership might help improve the “breed” while improving access to “lifestyle journalism” for veteran auto writers. Read the rest of this entry »

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