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 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 »