February 2009

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New Roads-February 2009

February 15, 2009 in Miscellaneous by Glenn Campbell | No comments

From Wooden Horse Newsletter and news releases: . . . FOREVER MX-5 is a new quarterly that targets Mazda Miata enthusiasts. Content focuses on road trips, car projects and parts, buying and selling Miatas, and club events.  Jeff Zurschmeide is the editor-in-chief of the magazine, which is published by MediaSpigot LLC and sold in bookstores and on newsstands throughout the US… Courtney Caldwell, publisher/editor of Road & Travel Magazine, announced that her Earthbound Express, Inc. has launched Earth, Wind Power Blogazine to bring consumers the latest environmental developments and news on a variety of topics and tips on what readers can do to reduce their carbon footprint. 

Autowriters.com: New Roads

Racing World magazine was inspired by the 2008 opening of the New Jersey Motorsports Park in Vineland, NJ, but will cover auto and motorcycle racing from New England to Virginia. It is planned to launch this spring as a free bimonthly with hopes for a 40,000 issue distribution and cover NASCAR but also road racing, GT, vintage cars and the accompanying lifestyle, including coverage of local dining and hotels. Gerald Covella, owner of New Jersey Angler and Golfstyles New Jersey heads up editorial and design and is currently seeking funding. Interested writers and photographers should check out the website at http://www.racingworldnj.com.

Decades ago Paul Eisenstein christened his automotive news and feature writing for publications worldwide The Detroit Bureau and continued that service while nurturing his pioneering web site The Car Connection.com for 11 years until he sold it last fall. He has now launched The Detroit Bureau.com. He says the new site does not try to aggregate everything automotive but will be selective and focus on intelligent and reasoned commentary on things automotive. While it is a non-paying enterprise at the moment he has enlisted Joe Szczesny of Michigan’s Oakland Press, freelancer Mike Strong, environmental writer John DeCicco, Netherlands-based Henry Hemmes, marketing specialist Marty Bernstein, spy photographer Brenda Priddy, commentator Charlie Vogelheim, and others he has heard from to help make it a success. There have been offers of financial backing and advertising for the new site Eisenstein reports. However, he says, the main emphasis now is finding out if they can identify a niche in a heavily saturated market and provide a good product to fill it.

Road Signs-February 2009

February 15, 2009 in Road Signs by AWcom Staff | No comments

A Research Brief from MediaPost reports, “according to Deloitte’s State of the Media Democracy survey, three-quarters of Millennials (ages 14 to 25) view the computer as more of an entertainment device than their television. Ed Moran, Deloitte director of product innovation, notes that “This (early-adopter) generation of consumers was the first to be raised on the Internet and is united across borders and cultures by their digital media preferences, so the implications for global marketers are unprecedented.”

More specific to car buyers is a study of young car buyers released by AutoPacific and www.vehiclevoice.com.  In keeping with their entry-level status in the work force,  members of Generation Y, not surprisingly, were found to favor less expensive cars but aspire to larger, more sophisticated and expensive vehicles. . . . Another Research Brief posted January 22nd predicts online and interactive video will be hot in 2009 with 400 senior-level decision makers surveyed by Permission TV saying online video is their top priority for their digital marketing budgets.

Digital editions of newspapers are gaining readers but they will have to increase page views dramatically (in the case of the New York Times, six-fold) to match print revenues which are declining due in no little part to the switch to online used car sales. Toyota, for one, is showcasing dealer inventories of its Certified Previously-Owned Vehicles on EBay. In December, the company’s retail sales operation manager Norm Olson was quoted: “Most of our advertising and marketing is on the Internet; we have been almost completely out of print for quite a while–we found that for our product, interactive is really the way to go.”

Which raises the question of who is going to pay for the quality journalism that attracts eyeballs? For those who missed his Time Magazine cover story and speech excerpt on The Huffington Post, or interviews on the Daily Show and Colbert Report, Walter Isaacson has anTime Magazine Cover: How to Save your Newspaper answer. The president of The Aspen Institute, former Time Magazine managing editor and author has revived the micro-payment solution. Taking into account the long-tail economics of the Internet, he was quoted Feb 5 in The Huffington Post, “Newspapers who felt their daily output was worth a dime – - and who readers felt the same way –could end up charging a dime and thus be more likely to survive and thrive. The people at these papers would also wake up each morning with the worthy incentive to produce a paper that people thought was worth at least a dime.”

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The Road Ahead: Impact of Social Media

February 13, 2009 in Road Ahead by Glenn Campbell | No comments

Autowriters.com: The Impact of Social Media on Auto Journalists

The growing impact of social media brings some good news to auto journalists impacted by the dwindling print market for their services. It is a combination of shrinking ad budgets and marketers’ growing awareness that their brands need a winning personality to succeed. It is a theme that runs through nine of the top ten social media experts’ predictions for 2009 as selected by Max Gladwell in his blog. Anne Handley is quoted: ”People who are trained as journalists are specifically geared to helping companies execute on their 2009 marketing strategy, which is to become trusted sources of information within their specific industries.”

Autowriters.com: The Impact of Social Media on Auto Journalists

Michael Blumberg says, “Giving high-quality content as a gift with no strings attached is likely to increase consumer appreciation. I therefore predict that brands will shy away from ads and toward sponsoring more independent editorial.” Paul Dunay of Buzz Marketing for Technology says: “I think you will see more companies acting like Media companies and even launching their own media properties based off of blogs, communities, and wikis they set up over the last few years.”

Autowriters.com: The Impact of Social Media on Auto Journalists

Gladwell adds: “We’re journalists by trade. The best PR firms have always recruited journalists, and now marketers are waking up to the value of using top-notch storytellers to tell their clients’ stories. It’s a tough time for journalists, so it’s good news that they (we) will play a key role in the new media revolution, where all companies are media companies.”  Another aspect of social media – interconnectivity – raises yet another prospect for the auto industry. In a January 29 Business Week.com article and interview titled, “Detroit Should Get Cracking on its Googlemobile,” Jeff Jarvis, author of What Would Google Do? says “The huge declines in sales reflect a fundamental disconnect between drivers and Detroit. It’s time for a radical rethinking of the way U.S. automakers do business. … Car companies have no good way to listen to customers’ ideas. If they had opened up, years before, I would have been among the legions who’d have gladly told them to invest 39 cents for a plug-in car radio so we could connect our iPods.”

The Tom-Tom: February 2009

February 13, 2009 in The Tom-Tom by Glenn Campbell | No comments

Autowriters.com Editor & Publisher Glenn Campbell

Glenn F. Campbell

The auto crisis has spawned at least three major proposals for communicating what their propounders think people and the Congress should hear. One asks for $50 million dollars. Another, a lobbying effort, and the third, advocated in a speech by incoming NADA chairman John McEleney, asks dealers “to tell state and national leaders and the public that dealers are an asset, not a liability.”  These sound like communications models based on the old “fortress” paradigm of the newspaper city room where editors decided what and how much their readers should know. The words “listen” and “engagement” are missing from the descriptions of these proposals.

But, they are not alone in ignoring the reality that the Internet makes journalists and publishers of us all.

From a Center for Media Research summary of a survey of 480 marketing executives, “Senior marketers admit their companies are failing to take decisive, company-wide action to integrate customer voice and experience into key business and marketing processes.” The study underscores critical deficiencies in the way companies measure, optimize and leverage customer experience to drive loyalty, improve brand value and increase business performance and growth.

Chrysler, at least, has initiated a listening program titled, “Chrysler’s Consumer Advisory Board.” Begun in early 2008 by a company named, “Passenger”, the CCAB now has a community of more than 2,000 Chrysler enthusiasts participating. According to Passenger executive, Emily Gates, “What’s unique about one of these communities,” she explains, “is that it’s less formularized, less hierarchical if you will, and more of a two-way back and forth with customers that you can have an ongoing dialogue with over time, vs. only once.”  She adds in a Behavioral Insider interview: “What we’ve found,” she says, “is that the people closest to a brand can be the most vociferous critics of the company. So it’s important going in that brands don’t expect sugarcoated comments because that’s not what customer collaboration creates. Fortunately the most sophisticated brands understand this and encourage honesty and transparency as the way to yield real insights and value.”

Autowriters Spotlight: Bob Golfen

February 13, 2009 in Autowriters Spotlight by AWcom Staff | No comments

When journalists anoint Bob Lutz and others as “Car guys” it credits them with the first and highest credential in the hierarchy of autodom authenticity. It is a trait that weaves across station, gender and vocation to unite kindred spirits in a shared affection or affliction, depending on your point of view.

Autowriters Spotlight: Bob Golfen, Speed TV

Bob Golfen

Bob Golfen, the new and first auto editor of www.SpeedTV.com, has been a car guy since he and his boyhood friends dreamed about owning the cars they loved and eagerly awaited each fall’s new models. There were some guys with MGs, Triumphs and Alfa-Romeos in the Philadelphia neighborhood where he grew up plus an occasional Corvette or Boss Mustang and he recalls, “I lived vicariously through them.”  Later, after graduating Temple University with a degree in Journalism he rebuilt a 1970 MGB, which he used as a daily driver for years. Considering that the car’s belt line didn’t come up to the one on his lanky 6’6” frame, he says driving it has prompted many humorous comments to this day. (He has since rebuilt it a second time.)

But the hands-on experience didn’t further his ambition to write for a car magazine, so he took a straight reporting job at the Arizona Republic. Because he was, “the only gearhead in the newsroom who could write”, he relates, he was asked to contribute to a new Home and Auto Section the paper was starting in the mid 80’s. Since then he’s covered the auto industry and transportation for the paper and he believes he has driven and reviewed just about every new model car on the road today. Those 20 years of auto writing and continuing passion for cars (currently he is rebuilding a 1967 Austin-Healey 3000) will be put to good use in the new SpeedTV.com post.

“What I’m trying to do is provide first-rate automotive news, reviews, stories and features for a wide range of web visitors, from serious gearheads and hobbyists to regular consumers. This enhanced coverage includes new-vehicle and product reviews, up-to-date industry news at this most interesting time, and event coverage, such as our recent in-depth reporting on the Barrett-Jackson Collector Car event in Scottsdale. While I am the primary writer and editor, I am developing partnerships with other auto writers to post on SPEEDtv.com. This is an ongoing effort that will help build the content available to our visitors.

“Some upcoming features to watch for: a national calendar of major automotive events; a column for questions about mechanical problems; another column for questions about new and used vehicles; and an interactive feature for car and truck hobbyists.

“Most of all, I want the Cars section to be fun and entertaining as well as informative. I welcome press releases from every automotive source, business and event.”  Send them via email to bgolfen@gmail.com or by mail: Bob Golfen, 8514 N. 17th Drive, Phoenix, AZ, 85021.”

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