january 2011 newsletter

Yes, we are going to be beset with more product offers in more ways than ever before, according to a MediaPost Research Brief (Trendy Trends for 2011) reporting on the 11 top 2011 consumer trends to watch for, as compiled by www.trendwatch.com. Number 3 among the 11 is: reaching us wherever we are. “Mobile devices and social networks allow consumers to constantly receive targeted offers and discounts, even at the point of sale from a rival brand. Other trends among the 11 are: acts of kindness as a brand’s means to achieve a humanizing "touch" with consumers; increasing consumer "openness" to new products, new services and new ways of communicating; more "twin-summers" groupings of consumers with similar buying patterns, likes and dislikes and lifestyle leasing business models where, for many consumers access is better than ownership.” Like Daimler's Car2go.

However, these Internet trends are not the chief threat to journalism and newspapers in particular, according to a new book published by Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. The book is titled, "The Changing Business of Journalism and its Implications for Democracy." According to its authors, who studied the newspaper industry in seven nations, "In many cases the Internet is not the main challenge facing the business of journalism." Click here for review of the book "Crisis? What Crisis? Study of the future of the international news industry."

Another take on the Internet’s effect on journalism is offered by Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams, authors of Macrowikinomics: Rebooting Business and The World. In a piece carried by The Huffington Post, they say print is dead in the long term but journalism will survive because people will pay for compelling, differentiated value and that journalists as professional bloggers can make a living contributing to virtual newspaper networks.

Daniel Ambrose asks, "in a world where every piece of content is one click away, will readers settle often for second best?" He says "no" in "Two Platforms Are Better The One" written for Online Publishing Insider. Ambrose believes, "quality, actual expertise and genuine human connections will rise to the top." From a business perspective he quotes an early Internet entrepreneur and investor, Bo Peabody, "high quality content has a lifetime that allows it to keep on earning revenue after it is first published." In addition to longevity, Ambrose opines that high quality content, i.e., news, analysis or entertainment, can and does transition from one platform to another because "Trust Travels."  And, as he sees it, print publishers who develop multi platforms for their product "will be better able to invest in the high quality content that builds audiences and profits."

This theory is supported somewhat by The Chicago Tribune's use of multi-platforms and channels to increase its revenues and increase its staff by 12 percent while in bankruptcy. An instructive look at the Tribune’s revitalization is provided by Dianne Mermigas, editor-at-large for OMA Magazine, in "Second Coming in the Second City."

Click here to comment online: Road Ahead

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Dan Ambrose "refudiates" long-held beliefs that giving away content on the Internet accounts for the serious drops in print pubs circulation and revenue. Headlined "Wrong All Along" in Online Publishing Insider, Ambrose says, "When we study things closely, the 'giveaway-equals-decline' cause and effect simply hasn't explained the successes and failures in the media community. Some magazines and newspapers with the most aggressive audience-building, offer-it-free Internet strategies have been the same properties that have the strongest circulations." He cites a report by Guardian editor Peter Preston that new research supports the contention that "giving away content doesn’t reduce demand!" Ambrose reasons that the proliferation of media piece-meals the market but "When more people consume a free article online, it builds the brand for offline demand."

The Truth About Cars editor Edward Niedermeyer relayed a report from Carscoop that Fiat is suing an Italian TV show for its remarks about the Alfa Romeo MiTo Quadrifoglio. Apparently Fiat feels the show’s mixing of earlier and new comparison test data was unfair and thereby "defamed the MiTo." TTAC is familiar with car manufacturer's ire but, to AWCom's knowledge, has yet to be sued by one. Niedermeyer, understandably, thinks suing is a step backwards for industry-media relations.

Gavin O’Malley reports in Media Post, "As planned, AOL’s hyper-local news network Patch has launched its 500th Web site." They are all similar in look and style but, quoting Bizjournals’ Portfolio, "Each one is staffed by an editor devoted to writing about the people and businesses in that community." The Patch network is growing rapidly. It began 2010 with 30 websites. . . . John 'Jay' Lamm has opened an online store for the "lazy, tasteless" fans of his 24 Hours of LeMons racing series. By clicking http://store.24hoursoflemons.com, they can access, "the ever-growing pile of shirts, hats, posters and sweatshop-made schlock from our races...without leaving their Lazy Boy. The goodies also include the usual LeMons-cheap helmets, race suits and harnesses, etc." . . . At the other extreme is Pirelli’s unveiling in Moscow of its always impressive calendar before celebrities, dignitaries from the arts and business plus politicians turned statesmen and stateswomen for the evening. This year’s calendar, featuring some of the world’s top models, was designed by Karl Lagerfeld and it is art (really dear, it's art).

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All those paper, ink and distribution costs saved by digital apps disappear before they reach a magazine publisher's pocket, according to David Link, creative director of a design firm, The Wonderfactory. Jeff Bercovi, writing for Forbes, reports that Link told him the problem is bandwidth. And, even when bandwidth costs come down, app-based publishing, like print, will be a cost-heavy, money-losing proposition, Bercovi predicts. That's because app-publishers are already teaching consumers to expect digital magazines to be rich with photos, videos and interactive graphics, for free!

And, if you are asking what role Facebook, Twitter, Google, You Tube, XBox, and the like will play in the communications chain that delivers your content, Joe Marchese, writing for Online Spin, says they will become a new Media OS layer – the interface through which people create, discover, consume and purchase media. . . . Or, your content could become part of a videogame. (like "Car Dreams" "Truck Luck" etc.) Media Digest reports that Ian Bogost, writing for New Scientist, suggests that "the best journalism of the future might not be read, but played." Bogost claims that videogames ability to "simulate rather than describe the world...reinvent journalistic principles, through their design, using current events, infographics, puzzles, community action, and more." He points to Burger Tycoon and Escapade from Woomera as examples of exposing corruption and investigative journalism and argues that videogames amplify "the how instead of the who...offering models of how the world works and how it might be improved, rather than skin-deep stories about what ails it."

As fast as Facebook has grown and is growing, generating one-fourth of all of the Web pages viewed in the U.S., it is still only one-fifth the size of our largest TV network. Dave Morgan reports in Mediapost News, that CBS viewers spent 210 billion minutes in front of the screen in October while Facebook visitors spent just 42 billion minutes on the site during the same month. . . . . A new browser is closer to making a dire prediction in last month's AWCom Newsletter come true. Christened "RockMelt," the  browser offers an Orwellian prospect of mashing Search and Social capabilities. For example, readers could be funneled news based on their and their friends' likes and dislikes. They would not know it is from an echo chamber designed by Facebook's feed algorithm.

Click here to comment online: Road Signs

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A name that has flown beneath AWCom’s radar for, perhaps as many as 15 years, resurfaced recently when two news releases from Myron Stokes found our screen. The first release referenced the death of the late U.S. Ambassador extraordinaire Richard Holbrooke, and the other references possible legal action against executives of the North American International Auto Show and others.

Stokes describes himself on his eMotionReports.Com site as an award-winning Detroit-based publisher, a special correspondent and investigative reporter for Newsweek Magazine, Newsweek Japan and Newsweek International and at one time the magazine’s acting Detroit Bureau Chief. His work has appeared in several other publications and he cites a number of big stories in and out of the auto industry that he worked on in the late 80’s and 90’s. eMotionReports.com was founded in 2001 and is sub-titled: “Automotive/Aerospace Industries Systemic Intelligence” and elaborated on as, “well placed to influence those who shape the opinions of those who buy the industry's product, buy its stock, set the price of its stock, and who regulate them.”

The first release calls attention to his piece posted on the web “Richard Holbrooke's World: Memories of a Newsweek Special Correspondent - A Quasibiblios by Myron D. Stokes.” Its only connection to the auto industry that AWCom saw was Stokes’ work on a Newsweek Japan cover story on U.S.-Japan trade issues that brought Stokes in contact with then Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown. This, apparently, led to Stokes’ involvement in some “dark” events suppressed until headlines about the late ambassador’s death resurrected them. Stokes acknowledges off the bat that he was not acquainted with Holbrooke but those headlines prompted his own memories of the 1992-1995 Balkans war that he was investigating while Holbrooke was in the midst of brokering what became the Dayton Peace Accords. Stokes' recollections raise suspicions about the plane crash in Croatia that took the life of Secretary Brown (who had invited Stokes to join him on the flight), the siege at Sarajevo and the genocide at Srebrenica. Proof perhaps that an enterprising auto journalist can build on his or her smarts and contacts to become involved in world affairs.

The second release suggests that such involvement may not be enough or too much to get you journalist credentials for the North American International Auto Show. This release contains news of Stokes being denied media credentials to this year’s show –despite his having been granted them starting in1988. The release says Stokes is pursuing the viability of pursuing litigation based on the assertion/assumption of discrimination. He says in the release, “I have reason to believe this response is associated with the piece '2009/2010 Auto Industry Analysis: GM's Transition to China' (http://slidesha.re/4F8lWe) and subsequent analyses” and points to a third party, Shanin, LLC, with connections to Chinese interests and the NAIAS/DADA as being part of the decision to deny him credentials.

Asked what reason show officials offered for denying the credentials. Stokes replied: “Bear in mind that whatever their stated reasons, it was not the reason behind this activity. A parting comment from them was 'until I provided automotive stories' no credentials. That said, and as was noted in the release, we fully expect resolution in accordance with strategies appropriate to these circumstances.”

Stokes may be right in his suspicions. Jack Baruth has just posted a TTAC piece (“How I Trained My Fair Lady") about registering his girlfriend as a journalist and escorting her around the NAIAS on press day although she had no clips (other than those collected as a hairdresser) to document her status. Ironically, a plug for NAIAS 2011 is (or was) on at least one site where the Holbrooke piece appeared.

Click here to comment online: Autowriters Spotlight

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Tom-Tom rants, raves, rambles and ruminations are volunteered and express the opinions of the writer. Autowriters.Com invites readers to submit a tom-tom.  Your reward: a byline and an audience of your peers.  All submissions are acknowledged, queued and used at the editor's discretion. 

Irrepressible PR Man and sometime journalist Doug Stokes  has come up with the kind of  "win-win-win" proposition promoters love. He writes: "Hey Glenn - Here's a real deal that I conjured up for your faithful ... Great fun and you get some "sunshine" for providing it!

AN AUTOWRITERS SPECIAL DRIVING DEAL

Doug Stokes

Special Race Driving Deal For Auto Writer readers of AutoWriters.Com

One of our regular readers, Doug Stokes, has talked LA Racing (the fine stock car driving school/experience people at Toyota Speedway in Irwindale, California - near Pasadena) into offering regular readers of this monthly bulletin a chance to learn how to drive a full-size NASCAR-style stock on the fast and famous Irwindale half-mile oval.

All you’ll need is a story assignment, your non-skid sneakers and a (very) light breakfast and you’ll be circulating the track nicknamed: "LA's Half-Mile Super Speedway."

Go through the classroom training, and then climb through the window of a big, nasty, gnarly stocker into an exciting world of speed, sound, and new sensations. All courtesy of LA Racing and Toyota Speedway.

Check out LA Racing on: www.laracingx.com

If the above sounds like something that you might relish doing all you need to do is get in touch with good guy Ozzie Blackwell and mention that you are an Autowriters.com reader and that you heard about this from Stokes (through the great Autowriters.com service of course). He’ll set you up with a class date and you’ll be lapping like a NASCAR pro in almost no time flat!

The deal here is to get some good ink not only for LA Racing, but for the Speedway as well. And to get YOU (secret Speed Racer) into a race car.

By the way, this will NOT be an all-journalist ego-fest; you’ll be scheduled with a regular group of attendees (which could range from 14 year old kids to people even older than our fearless leader Glenn Campbell). That sort of immersion always seems to pay off in two interesting stories: your experience and the mother of five, or the lawyer, or the eagle scout, or the movie actress. Any of whom could be taking the school for any number of interesting personal reasons.

Call Ozzie at 877-901-RACE X 2030 to set your date.

This is a clean - no cost - deal. The quid pro quo is a story assignment (and an outlet). We've done numerous such journalist rides. In fact there's a story coming out in AUTOWEEK shortly by Patrick Paterne. Sneak up on it, stay off the walls, see what it's like out there on the banked ovals. Write it all down or film it.

Click here to comment online: Tom-Tom

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Wooden Horse News reports: Road & Track and Car And Driver among the US and international magazines up for sale by French owner Lagardér. Hearst has been granted a month-long exclusive negotiating period in the deal estimated at $700 million to $1 billion. If concluded, Hearst will become the second largest US consumer magazine publisher behind Time Inc.

"If you liked the book, you'll love the movie." That hoary film promo is the hope of Steve Purdy (radio host of A Shunpiker's Journal) and his partners who are producing a documentary film of the book Sirens of Chrome. Working with him are veteran producer and director Mark Ducker and Margery Krevsky, author of the popular coffee-table book about the live models who graced the cars at auto show over the years. . . . Kimatni D. Rawlins, president and publisher of Automotive Rhythms, has added a blog, The Raw Truth, to the lifestyle automotive media and marketing portal. It will provide his timely personal take on a variety of experiences and happenings in the auto world.

Newsweek.com has been blended into TheDailyBeast.com following the merger of the two companies.. . .Wooden Horse News says Forbes.com advertiser blog program, where advertisers can run their blogs alongside editorial contributors, "is in response to editors being pressured to increasingly rely on unpaid contributors with the goal, as one former editor put it, 'of not paying anything for content.'"

Click here to comment online: New Roads

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MPG members presented Pete Lyons with its 2010 Dean Batchelor Award for the single piece of work which best represents the professional standards and excellence demanded by the late Dean Batchelor during his life as an editor, writer, and chronicler of the automotive industry. Lyons won for his book, Can- Am Cars in Detail, which also won MPG's Book of the Year Award. Arthur St. Antoine won for the year's best article; Micah Muzio and Michael DeLano won for best auto visual and Alison (Al) Merion-Padron for best photography. For the first time MPG’s Lifetime Achievement Award went to a PR Man – John Clinard of Ford Motor Company.

SAMA members did a turnabout at their annual Christmas party. They presented appreciation awards to representatives of the auto manufacturers that supported the organization in 2010. Hyundai southeastern region representative Yvonne Lorrie is shown accepting her award from SAMA president Paul Borden (right) and SAMA secretary Bill Adam.

WAPA will announce the winner of its annual Golden Quill Award during the Washington Auto Show. The award recognizes an outstanding, original piece of journalism (print, broadcast, or Web) related to autos or the auto industry. It can be either a single article or a series of related articles published in 2010 by a journalist working in the Washington-Baltimore area.

MAMA members elected Tom Appel President and Kirk Bell, Sr. Vice President at its Jan. 5 meeting. Mike Hanley is Vice President, membership; Wendy Orthman, Secretary and Don Sikora, Treasurer.

NEMPA has amped up its Winter Vehicle Awards to make it more rigorous and put the competition on a more level snow and ice covered playing field. The organization says every capable winter car should have ABS and anti-spin technology, to heated seats and wing mirrors, plus bonus options such as AWD or 4WD, remote starters, heated steering wheels and more. (And proper tires.)

TAWA members will have a breakfast meeting prior to the opening of the Houston Auto Show Jan. 26.

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Credentialing journalists for an Auto Show may be contentious in Detroit but it is confirmative in Chicago where Nissan has taken over a long standing sotto voce program to help selected journalists with travel and housing costs while covering the Chicago Auto Show. In addition, each exhibiting manufacturer will be given a unique URL to use in inviting up to 300 journalists per brand. Those invited will use that URL to register with the Show offices and print out their own badge. This will include social media communicators the manufacturers consider important to them. Inquiries about these programs should be directed to the Chicago Auto Show offices at http://www.chicagoautoshow.com/media/default.aspx

For those who missed it here is a link to a TV spot for car lovers submitted by one of our readers. Shown only in Europe, it ostensibly is selling for Shell Oil Company but it is the Ferraris used in it that make the spot sing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_kwxzU4wL4&feature=related

CDWrite reports "Green Racing Is Go!" The EV Cup racing series was officially launched January 13 and already has seven events scheduled in the UK, Spain, Portugal and the USA. The racing will include two principal one-make classes of zero emission electric cars: the celebrity-supported City EV cars, where drivers will compete in carbon-free, race-prepared urban THINK hatchback cars; and the Sports EV class, which will feature 120mph Westfield iRacers. A third category will be the Prototype EV class, based upon time trials and showcasing the latest, ultra-fast, non-production electric race cars, some with potential top speeds of 150mph and more. Hollywood's Creative Artists Agency (CAA) will provide celebrity racers. For more information query: news@cdwrite.co.uk.

Five new racing books with outstanding photography or illustrations are being promoted by Kristopher Skellenger. They are: Formula 1 Technical Analysis 2009-2010; Porsche 956 & 96: Immortal Endurance Racers 1982-1994; Sports Car Racing in Camera: 1950-1959; Pro Stock Drag Racing and Chevy-Powered Drag Racing (What, no Hemi's?). For more information and possible review copies, contact Skellenger at: kskellenger@quaysidepub.com . . .Jim Kenzie, writing for the Toronto Star, notes that the paper's "Wheels" section which he helped start is entering its 25th year and he believes it was the first dedicated automotive section in any daily newspaper in North America.

The DetroitBureau.Com has posted "A Dozen Ways To Improve Your Mileage." . . . Steve Parker reports "another moment" in his life's hectic adventure: successfully conducting a one-hour seminar/consultation and Q&A by phone from his second home (a Cedars Sinai hospital bed) with automotive industry participants in L.A., Boston, India and Japan. His health is relatively good, he says, but he did have to overcome the screaming of a dementia patient in the next room and a Tagalong-speaking Filipino nurse trying to interrupt the session to take his blood pressure. Hardly the first big business deal concluded at the famed hospital to the stars but perhaps the first automotive one.

Click here to comment online: Pit Notes

The selection of the Chevrolet Volt as the North American Car of The Year revives a PR firm's endeavor to help one of its clients sell cars it has in stock. Offered as blog fodder, it was sent after Rush Limbaugh and George Will criticized Motor Trend's selection of the Volt as its car of the year and after the magazine's Detroit Editor, Todd Lassa, posted a response to those two car "experts" at: http://blogs.motortrend.com/rush-judgment-5957.html

Here is the fodder offered by the PR firm:

Motor Trend Names Chevy Volt Car of the Year. Really?

Continuing a tradition of giving Detroit’s more questionable auto offerings their moment in the limelight (remember the K Car or the Dodge Omni?), the judges at Motor Trend have handed Car of the Year honors to the Chevy Volt, a car that isn't even on sale yet, and won't be in most parts of the country until perhaps 2012, when GM assures us that it can make more than 10,000 of these semi-practical vehicles a year.

For the moment, let's forget about the partisan outrage of George Will and Rush Limbaugh, or Motor Trend's poorly advised rebuttal, and take a look at the Volt for what it is: a $41,000 car that benefits from an optional $490 240-volt charger that costs around $1,475 to install. Federal and local tax breaks could let you get behind the wheel for a mere $35,200. That's $33,500 for the car and $245 for the charger after rebates, plus that $1,475 installation for the charger. Assuming, of course, that you can find one, which you can't, unless you live in California, Connecticut, Michigan, New York, New Jersey, Texas or Washington, D.C. and managed to land on the right side of the 1 in 12 odds of earning the privilege to buy one.

GM estimates that 120,000 people have "reserved" the new Volt. Only 55,000 are expected to be on the road by the end of 2011, which means that more than half of those interested in owning one are looking at a two-year wait. It's much quicker to get the new Bugatti Veryon, but that car only gets 8 mpg city.

What Motor Trend has done, essentially, is hand out the most significant marketing ammunition for any car company to a concept car. The Ford Fusion, Motor Trend's outgoing Car of the Year, sold 17,362 units in October. It would take GM more than three months, currently, to make enough Volts to meet that demand. They don’t need the marketing support, and until they prove that they can actually build these cars in reasonable numbers and make them reliable they shouldn’t be taking home accolades.

Given that Motor Trend looked at every new car that reached North America this year, there are plenty of other worthy offerings they could have chosen. Critics may be unhappy with the 2011 Jetta, but it’s selling well and landed on the finalist list for North American Car of the Year. So did the Ford Fiesta, Nissan Juke and the Chevrolet Cruze, which is essentially the Volt with a normal engine and availability at your local Chevy dealer.

Apparently 40 miles to the gallon just isn't sexy enough for Motor Trend, or for the folks who gave the Volt the Green Car of the Year award over something that people can actually buy. Perhaps Ford should limit availability of next year's electric Focus to fewer than 5,000 models so that they can get a crack at these awards.

The only silver lining in any of this is that the Volt won out over Nissan's similarly scarce electric LEAF, which lacks a gas-powered generator to keep it moving when the battery runs out. At least the highways in select cities won't be choked with Chevrolet Volts on the side of the road, accompanied by befuddled drivers uncoiling extension cords and looking for the closest electrical outlet.

Click here to comment online: Pit Fight

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John McCandless

John McCandless, "the face of Toyota in Detroit" for 20 years, has retired and opened Road Reports to provide "confidential consulting to domestic and international clients in the automotive industry," the long-time communications pro said. He became Toyota's Midwest Regional Communications Manager in 1990 and at retirement was National Manager for Field Operations, heading the industry's most extensive U.S. network of regional communications. Previously, he was Manager of International Communications at Chrysler Corporation. He can be reached at 313-610-5600 or j.mccandless@comcast.net.

David Reuter has been named Nissan's Vice President of Communications for North, South and Central America. Previously, he was head of Bentley's communications for the Americas. . . . Rex Roy has added monthly technology stories for Automotive News to his roster of outlets that includes: The Detroit News, Popular Mechanics, Auto Blog, AOL Autos and Winding Road.com. . . . Shamit Choksey and Aaron Zeuli have joined American Suzuki Motor Corp.'s PR staff. Choksey comes from MotorWeek where he was a journalist and producer for the PBS television show. He is product publicity manager and can be reached at 714-996-7040 ext. 2255 or shamit.choksey@suz.com. Zeuli is a public relations specialist promoted from within the company. He can be reached at 714-996-7040 ext.2509 or arron.zeuli@suz.com . . . Charles Trieu has succeeded Carter Jung as editor of Import Tuner Magazine at Source Interlink Media. He can be reached at 949-705-3152 or charles.trieu@sorc.com.

Christian Wardlaw has left his position as Director of Content Development with J.D. Power and Associates to become Managing Editor for Salt Lake City-based Vehix, effective Jan. 1, 2011. He is responsible for development of "in-market" content for the decade-old site that specializes in dealer inventory of new and used cars and offers research and information tools, car reviews and news. . . . After 10 years with Motor Trend, eight of them as host of Motor Trend Radio, Bob Long is moving. He can now be reached at boblongradio@yahoo.com. His new show runs Saturdays and Sundays from 8 a.m to 10 a.m. on the Talkradio network. . . . Veteran auto reporter and editor Bill Moore has checked in after his 3,800 mile west-to-east trek in search of work. Now in Waterford, Connecticut, he remains available at last report and can be reached at hemmmingwa@sbcglobal.net.

John Stewart

John Stewart is the new editorial director for SEMA, replacing Matt Pierson who has taken a post out of the auto industry. A veteran editor and publisher of consumer and aftermarket magazines and marketing guru, Stewart is responsible for the monthly SEMA News Magazine, SEMA show publications and SEMA eNews and will serve as a voice for SEMA-member companies. He can be reached at: 909-978-6710 or johns@sema.org.

Click here to comment online: Lane Changes

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Tom Keane – Founder of Motor Matters and passionate author of the "Keane on Wheels" column.

Karl Ritzler – Retired Atlanta Journal–Constitution auto editor and founding member of the Greater Atlanta Automotive Media Association (GAAMA).

Chuck Jordan – Retired GM design chief whose work inspired a generation of vehicle designers.

Mercury - A car line loved by too few to stay alive.

Click here to comment online: Across The Finish Line

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Glenn F. Campbell
Principal
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The 15 regional automotive press associations provide information and background not easily found elsewhere. If they are too distant for you to attend their meetings, belonging usually gives you access to transcripts or reports of these events and other benefits.

Carroll Shelby will be presented The Automotive News Lifetime Achievement Award
by the paper’s editor-in-chief, Keith Crain at a dinner marking the close of Public Policy Day at the Washington Auto Show, January 27. Shelby joins Congressman John Dingell and Ralph Nader as the only persons so honored by the paper.

North American Car and Truck of The Year
As voted by a select jury of journalists from the U.S. and Canada.

Chevrolet Volt
Ford Explorer

Ford Motor Company won the R.L. Polk Automotive Loyalty Award presented to OEMs that "demonstrate a manufacturer's ability to retain owners over repeat buying cycles."

The 2011 Green Car Summit at The Washington Auto Show January 26 features a forum of automotive luminaries headed by Jim O’Donnell, president of BMW North America.

The Internet Car and Truck of The Year web site announced its winners at The New England Auto Show. The 2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee was named Internet Truck of the Year in consumer and press voting. In COTY voting, consumers favored the 2011 Ford Mustang GT, while the pros went for the 2011 Cadillac CTS. The late Jerry Flint was named the site’s "Internet Automotive Journalist of the Year"

Automotive News won a Digital Azbee Award, for a January video segment about Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally, called "Detroit's Superstar CEO." The paper's Leslie Allen, Jennifer Vuong, Lance Graves, Tom Worobec and Dave Versical, were involved in the segment. The award was presented by the American Society of Business Publication Editors.

Speed Shop Founder and Hot Rod Icon Alex Xydias has been named Chairman of the Board of the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum presented by Automobile Club of Southern California. (That name wouldn't make it in most papers) The museum is located on edge of the Los Angeles County Fairplex in Pomona.

20th International Automotive Media Competition

For works aired between January 1 - December 31, 2010. Books, Graphics, Internet Magazines, Multimedia, Newsletters, Newspapers, Public Relations, Radio, Video. Submission deadline:
March 2, 2011
Click here for IAMS Entry Forms

Dear Glenn:

Print Dead?  Not around here ... This is two days worth of Holiday catalogs (about a pound and a half of "print" in fact).

Have a great season and keep up the good work.

The LA Auto Show in one sentence: The air is rife with hybrid hype out west; all must electrify or die.

THANKS!

stokes
Skype: stokes5000
stokes28@earthlink.net

PS: Are you still a lineman for the county?

Glenn, Lysa, thanks for another great issue! :)

Josh Max
www.AutoGigolo.com

Re: "Internet Communications: User Generated or Professional Content?"

It's not surprising that the younger set listed Ford, Chevy, and Dodge, as among their brand favorites.

When I am road testing Camaros, Challengers, and Mustangs, the number of young people who come up and ask questions about this trio is sometimes overwhelming. Many young guys (and some gals) who pump gas at service stations (New Jersey won't let us pump our own) focus in on what I am driving and want to know all about the cars and give me their individual opinions.

Even when driving slow down a city street, young folks wave and give a thumbs up to the trio. Even some older drivers will stop me and tell me about Mustangs, Camaros, and Challengers that they have owned.

I am also not surprised by Hyundai and Kia making the list. As an auto writer, I have seen them climb the mountain, and they are going to climb even higher.

That Toyota is still at the top of the heap, despite all the battering the company has taken the past two years, is a tribute to the loyal customer base that they have built up primarily due to quality. I have road tested just about every Toyota, Lexus, and Scion model, and have never experienced any of the problems reported in the mass media.

As an automotive journalist, I have always been impressed by Toyota's willingness to share information with the press as well answer our tough questions. As a journalist for a small newspaper, Toyota has always treated me with respect and given me the information I needed.

That contrasts with Honda, which makes great cars, but, who, in recent years has snubbed smaller newspapers.

Russ Dodge

Re: "Road Signs: 3D Printing, Parallel Parking, Web v Word Of Mouth"

The Urbee Hybrid - the first car to have its body 3D printed shows us what's wrong with modern cars. This thing looks like a cough drop, a blob of unimaginative computer-generated garbage that was imagined by some 30-something designer who has spent way too much time gaming and texting and otherwise being self-involved.

Having been in this game for over 40 years, I am probably more than a bit jaded but if this is what we will all be driving over the next 20 years, I think I will buy a horse. What ever happened to the great automotive designers? Did they all pass away into extinction like the dinosaurs did? Is there no modern Harley Earl?

I don't know about you all, but I for one am tired of cars that look like blobs, computer mouses (Prius) or are just plain, butt ugly (Nissan should be ashamed of the cube). Today, it seems that cars are about connectivity and not about style, handling, and driving fun. Why do we need a car that connects us to Facebook and Twitter while we are driving (MINI Countryman). You know, auto writing used to be fun, it is now a slog. I guess I'll keep my old Jeep, my MG, and ride my Royal Enfield. These machines weren't even close to being perfect, but they had a certain style, were fun to drive and weren't loaded with electronic geegaws that distracted one's attention from the task at hand, which was controlling the vehicle.

Sure, I appreciate the modern technical and safety conveniences that are available, even if some of them are installed to protect the "innocent" from them selves, but at least package the technology in an attractive shell. And let's get rid of Facebook and Twitter access from behind the wheel. Save that for your Blackberry, PC or better yet, ignore it entirely. As Betty White recently said, "I don't use Facebook or Twitter, it is all such a waste of time." I think she has a point. Perhaps I'll post that on my Facebook page...

Peter DuPre

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