Comments for autowriters.com

Comment on The Road Ahead: February 2010 by Terry Parkhurst

Terry Parkhurst — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 05:35:26 +0000

I think Craig Newmark has almost destroyed the legitimate publishing business; and so, he prattles on about some nonsense about “trust being the new black,” leaving us to scratch our heads and go, “Huh?”

Look, it isn’t rocket science. It’s always been about the person or people behind the book, or in today’s world, the web-site. There’s going to be some ambiguity resultant from that, but in the final analysis, we’ve got to ask, “Do these new tools work?” Work to create some things worth reading or images worth viewing.

Sad to say, much of what’s on the Web still doesn’t measure up to some of the worst in print.

Comment on Autowriter Spotlight: Michael Karesh by discount car electronics

discount car electronics — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 01:45:06 +0000

“TrueDelta’s car reliability information is, on average, over nine months ahead of the information provided by other sources”

Wow that is an amazing advantage to have that info so far in advanced! Great post.

Comment on The Tom-Tom: Tom Kelley by Edward

Edward — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 17:38:21 +0000

I completely agree that it’s the quality of writing that defines “journalism” rather than the means of distribution. However, I do think online journalists are sometimes the unintended victims of the web’s “quantity over quality” model, which has been exacerbated by social media. It’s hard to rise above the noise of the digital world and get noticed. Likewise, apart from a highly elite few online outlets that demand paid subscriptions, it’s actually quite a challenge to make a profit from online, as the essentially infinite ad inventory exerts a strong downward pressure on digital ad rates, which once again “feeds the beast” of quantity-driven media. Until there’s a concerted, industry-wide shift away from a “free” content model to a paid one, I’m afraid this downward spiral will continue.

Comment on The Tom-Tom: Tom Kelley by Michael T. Lynch

Michael T. Lynch — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 04:36:55 +0000

I don’t believe many regional automotive press associations “vet” anything, other than that the author has published somewhere. This has nothing to do with whether what was published was “journalism”. It is simply covering their behind so that if they allow someone to join, i.e., pay dues, and the person abuses getting credentials for an event he/she had no intention of placing a piece about, the association has something to hide behind. In the old days, many tracks had a policy of collecting a fairly large ( up to $100) deposit when they gave out credentials. When you sent in a tear sheet, your money was refunded. In a society where money talks so loudly, this might not be a bad idea.

Comment on The Tom-Tom: Terry Parkhurst: Internet Scammers by Stephan Wilkinson

Stephan Wilkinson — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:08:19 +0000

Hilarious! The number of typos, misspellings, illiteracies and simple grammatical mistakes in each of the posts above certainly reveals what amateurs today’s automotive “journalists” are.

Just an example: “…the dearth crap commentary that has not been vetted…” Obviously, there’s a missing “of,” and equally obviously, Landspeed Louise means the exact opposite of “dearth.” Look it up, Louise, if you own a dictionary. Or, better yet, get somebody to vet your copy.

Yeah, I know…picky, picky, we move at the speed of the Internet and don’t have time to spel rite, what’s the big deal about where an apostrophe belongs, it’s a living language…