Lane Changes

Dan Neil has moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina and from the Los Angeles Times to The Wall Street Journal where his car column will resume in the Spring. It is rumored, he will be seen on Fox News TV, presumably commenting on cars. . . . Doug Stokes left Gale Banks Engineering where he beat the publicity drums non-stop for two and 1/2 years. He prefers not to call it freelance, suggesting, “reasonablelance” or “inexspensivelance“, but he is hanging out his shingle for PR, marketing, reputation management and consulting assignments and can be emailed at: stokescommunications@earthlink.net or telephoned at: 626-391-3772.

John Stoll is no longer covering autos at the Wall Street Journal’s Southfield, Mich. bureau. No word on his next stop or his replacement. . . . Washington Times business editor Dean Honeycutt has left the paper and Sol Sanders arrives as international business editor. . . . Reporter Chris Bjorke is the new automotive contact at the Tribune in Bismarck, N.D. . . . Donny Nordlicht has left NextNewNetwork and now provides automotive content for the Rye, NY Record. (donny.min@gmail.com). Read the rest of this entry »

Drivingwithdan@gmail.com is the best email address for Dan Wiese at the St. Louis Post Dispatch. . . .David Sloan succeeds Jerry Cizek as president of the Chicago Automobile Trade Association, producer of the Chicago Auto Show. . . . Sherry Shameer now works from home for Southern Connecticut Newspapers and automotive emails should be sent to her manager at the paper, Marsha Groglio marshagroglio@scni.com . . . The automotive contact at the Concord Monitor is Dan Barrick . . . Albert Flores has a new email address: albertfloresdmi@gmail.com  and he has added LaPrenza to his Texas newspaper, radio and TV outlets. . . . Michael Hiesiger, business editor at the Las Vegas Review Journal, has a new email address: mhiesiger@reviewjournal.com  . . . Neil Szigethy continues to work with Coyne Communications but now also has set up his own “jack-of-all-trades” company/agency, as can be seen on his website, www.carknack.net. He can be reached at carnack@aol.com . . . Gayle Smith is the autowriter at the Wilson Daily Times, in Wilson N.C. His email is gjsmith@wilsondaily.com  . . . Linda Finarelli now handles automotive programs for the Montgomery Newspapers in Fort Washington. Pa. Her email is: lfinarelli@montgomerynews.com.

Contrary to our previous listing, Michael Cotsworth is the current president of of the Rocky Mountain Automotive Press group (RMAP) . . . The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America is moving its collection from a convention center in metro Detroit to the Detroit Science Center, near the city’s downtown. The science center will house the hall of fame’s collection of racing cars and memorabilia.

Long time Booth Newspapers Michigan representative Richard Haglund has taken early retirement with plans to stay active in journalism. Feel free to contact him at haglund.rick@gmail.com. . . .Barry Toepke’s new post is: Vice President, Historic Races, Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca. He’s responsible for overseeing all aspects of sales, marketing, operations and the execution of the vision for historics. He can be reached at 310-990-6295 or 831-242-8291 or emailed: barry@mazdaraceway.com . . . Charlie Vogelheim has moved from J.D. Power and Associates to executive vice president of www.Intellichoice.com.

The shaking of the auto industry’s foundation and the downturn in advertising brought a sudden and serious retrenchment at NADA. The award-wining Auto Exec Magazine was shuttered Oct. 9 and all but one of the seasoned pros covering the dealer side of the automotive business were cut loose. Joe Phillips remains to work with NADA’s online communications department while Marc Stertz, Joan Mooney, Mary Anne Shreve and Peter Craig depart. Stertz chose to retire as executive director of publications after 21 years with the magazine which had its beginnings in 1917 and whose readership was recently ranked only behind Automotive News among automotive trade publications. Stertz plans to consult in publications management (print and online) and can be reached at Marcstertz@yahoo.com. Senior editors Joan Mooney and MaryAnne Shreve, and managing editor Peter Craig are on the market at this writing and can be reached respectively, at: jhmooney@verizon.net, maryanneshreve@verizon.net  and petercraig301@gomail.com

Joni Gray is an auto blogger for the L.A. Examiner.com and is busy on freelance assignments now that she has been laid off by the L.A. Times. A former Sr. Editor at Kelley Blue Book, and previously in advertising and marketing management with Mazda, Hyundai and Honda, she welcomes more freelance work and can be reached at jonigray2000@aol.com . . . Barry Toepke has departed RWB, LLC marketing and PR firm and is prepping announcement of the new, treasured responsibility he is undertaking in automotive PR.

Robert Farago may have stepped down as editor but not away from The Truth About Cars blog he founded. Still fighting to right wrongs wherever he sees them in autodom, he recently dissed Automotive News for chastising Fortune Magazine’s publication of insider criticisms of GM that bordered on gossip . . . . . AutoWeek has named Dutch Mandel associate publisher and editorial director, upped Roger Hart from managing editor to executive editor and named Wes Raynal editor of the print magazine and www.AutoWeek.com.

Nancy Lewis has departed SAE International and Sean Andreassi is now SAE’s Manager of Corporate Communications . . . . Michael Taylor has retired from the staff of the San Francisco Chronicle but still does occasional reviews for its auto blog Top Down (www.sfgate.com/autos). He can be reached for other assignments at: miketttt@att.net

Updated

Talking Business News, published by the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications, reports that before the sale of Business Week to Bloomberg, the magazine’s Detroit  senior correspondent, Dave Kiley, resigned with plans to write a screenplay and work with Icon Creative Solutions in Ann Arbor, Mich., which creates web-based content for companies.