autowriters.com june 2010 newsletter

“Thanks to the Internet, people probably read more good journalism than before,” writes Andrew Rice in his May 16 New York Times piece on, Putting A Price On Words. “In fact,” he continues, that’s precisely the problem: the sheer volume of words overwhelmed a business model that was based on scarcity and limited choice.”

Google’s chief economist, Hal Varian, sees the  problem more as a consequence of “unbundling.” Quoted in an extensive article on Google by James Fallows in the June Atlantic Monthly, Varian says, “Newspapers never made money on news...What paid for newspapers were the automotive sections, real-estate, home-and-garden, travel, or technology, where advertisers could target their ads. The Internet has been one giant system for stripping away such cross-subsidies.”

In either case the solution offered is in monetizing the web. Rice describes a number of attempts to do so, most of them “content farms.” Instead of journalists deciding what their audiences should or might be interested in, they now respond to what their audience tells them to write about. Farm operations scour the Internet to find out what topics are hot and then assign writers to produce articles on those topics. Income comes from ads that are paid for on the basis of page clicks and the writer gets a percentage. So far, Rice indicates, it is not much, with a few exceptions. As the founder of one such operation, Choire Sicha is quoted by Rice, “I don’t think anybody has any idea of what anybody should be paid for a piece.” A danger in this approach, as some note, is catering to the lowest common denominator. For example, one serious start up’s most popular post was, “Megan Fox Has Wacky Hot Chick Syndrome.” Or, from the advertiser’s standpoint, the value of pages that generate clicks but no relevance to their marketing message.

Google, which has been accused of being a chief cause of newspapers’ economic distress, sees a more long-term solution, including pay walls, which it considers no longer a question. The paywalls will be justified by quality content.

According to Fallows, Google foresees that as more people go online for news and information, the value of online advertising will go up. And, precisely because they will be “unbundled” page views will become more valuable. Online readers will select the content that interests them and that, in turn, will enable online advertisers to better target their message.

What do you think? Comments: Time To Monetize The Web?

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Randi Payton

If Frank Sinatra were alive to introduce Urban Wheels Awards host Randi Payton he might well sing, “a pauper, a poet, a musician, a boxer, a writer, a prince and a king.” Maybe not royalty but he is founder and head of On Wheels Media recently morphed into Decisive Media whose publications reach 5 million readers.

Born in the Camden, N.J. projects where he had to fight to survive, Payton was headed for the Olympic boxing trials when a life-threatening illness suffered in Vietnam axed that ambition. But he kept on fighting, first to be a poet, then a music impresario (he started several rap bands) and to be the first in his family to go to college. While in school he interned at a black newspaper and radio station. That gave him enough confidence to slip around security at the Washington Post and pitch story ideas until the paper finally gave him some freelance work that turned into weekly assignments while he was still in school.

Payton went on to become an editor for the Afro-American Newspapers, recognized at the time as the best of the nation’s black newspapers. He noted the absence of auto coverage in the paper and not coincidently, the paucity of car maker advertising. He attacked the first problem by starting a weekly auto column that he soon syndicated for free to 200 other minority publications. The other problem, advertising, was more complex. For years, auto advertising to minorities consisted of a person of color in a print ad that ran in a few selected publications. But, as one car company advertising director found out at the cost of his job, it did not include Harry Belafonte holding Petula Clark’s hand on national television. And, that singer Lou Rawls was deemed too black to be an auto spokesman.

There was a lot of work to be done. Payton’s task as he saw it was threefold: One was to help the car companies see not a demographic but a culture that needed to be engaged on its own terms, to replace stereotypes with facts not only about the black community’s growing affluence and new car buying power but with appreciation for the history and role automobiles played in that culture. Second was to attract and hold an audience that would merit car company advertising Although blacks bought them in impressive numbers, no luxury autos were being advertised in minority media at that time. Third, he committed to fostering diversity in the auto industry’s workforce, advertising, communications, and philanthropy.

His On Wheels Media Company took on all three missions and became the first national media company dedicated to educating ethnic minorities about the auto industry, as well as its products and services. With the help of BMW, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Chevrolet and GMC, he launched the first issue of African-American On Wheels 15 years ago, distributing 500,000 copies in newspapers across the U.S., including the Detroit Free Press, Detroit News and Washington Post. At the same time he launched what is now www.onwheelsinc.com, the first web site by an auto magazine. Since then he has added Latinos On Wheels, Asians On Wheels and a digital edition of On Wheels. His editorial formula for these publications is culturally relevant content and reliable information to help minorities make informed vehicle purchase decisions.

To keep his message and market before the industry, Payton, introduced the annual Urban Wheels Awards four years ago. It is held in conjunction with the North American international Auto Show to honor industry diversity initiatives as well as the Urban Car and Urban Truck of the year. A festive gala attracting stars, celebrities and industry luminaries, it has been dubbed the “Oscars” of the automotive industry, In addition, he founded the nonprofit Edward Davis Education Foundation named for the first African-American to receive a new car franchise in the United States. Since 1999, EDEF has trained and mentored more than 350 interns and awarded more than $400,000 in scholarships to young people pursuing careers in communications and the auto industry.

Still jabbing away at strengthening minority media, Payton recently introduced Decisive Media to extend his successful editorial formula and help minorities make smart purchase decisions in a range of consumer goods. His new Decisive Magazine covers multiple other markets as well as autos.

Permalinks/Comments: Randi Payton - Autowriters Spotlight

Autowriters.com invites readers to submit their own Clog (Online Column).  Your reward: a byline and an audience of your peers.  All submissions are acknowledged, queued and used at the editor’s discretion. 

Doug Stokes has been a practicing automotive PR type since "way back when." His work has taken him from running the IKF (Go-Karts) to promoting Sprint Cars at Perris Auto Speedway, and from an early environmental auto assignment (Geo Tree Program) to NASCAR as the communications director for Toyota Speedway in Irwindale. Along the way he ran an automotive-oriented bookstore, worked the media for Mickey Thompson, and handled corporate communications for Gale Banks Engineering.

Print Isn't Dead It's Overpriced

Over the weekend I was in Las Vegas doing PR for the Lucas Oil Off Road Series and needed to buy a Sunday paper to see what kind of coverage we were getting for the show. I put the paper on the counter in the hotel gift shop and the young lady said, "Three dollars, please, do you want a bag?" No, bag thanks. Thinking that I was paying a "normal" kicked-up resort price, I peeled off the three bucks and left.

Doug Stokes

When I got back to my room I looked at the front page and there found the "street" price - an astonishing $3.00, who's going to have that many quarters (even in Las Vegas!) to pump a news rack with 12 quarters? Who's going to pay that much to end up with a 80-20 split of adverts and editorial content?

For that matter, while we're at it, who's paying $4.95, 5.95, 6.95 and more for monthly magazines that are rationed out just about as above, when you can get similar material (all capsule-ized and easy to bite off and chew) on your computer (or phone) for "free".

Of course we all know that free is by no means free, that there's always a catch somewhere, and that even the best journalism has a price, it's just that now there's really no established place to go to get it  - regardless of what one is willing to "pay".

The press, the "MEDIA", has been Balkanized so widely and so thoroughly that I'm often amazed that my neighbor and I get the same two newspapers delivered on our respective driveways each morning.

In the latter days of this epoch newspapers and magazines have cut staff so severely that getting any sort of attention now seems to require a "friggin' bombshell" instead of a (I was going to say "bon mot" but I won't) good story. Solid equates to stolid for desk people and some malcontent's (or bad actor's) grousing, carousing, confessing, a sex schmozzel, a murder (or a combination of all of the above) always trumps what's left of the headlines. Blowing out great straight stories about people, products, things.

My small company specializes in motorsports PR*, mainly because that's been my interest as well as a source of rent money for about 40 years now. I work personally with a number of clients to try mightily to get media recognition of their work product, be it events, hardware, or services.

In the past few years the ranks of my potential targets have seemed to dwindle pretty drastically. In actuality the string was pulled on the costume and hundreds of tiny targets spilled out all over the place, each proclaiming that they were the equal of the one big guy that was once there. (Website wonders? bloggers? points of light?)

When I'm watching a TV show and I'm directed to effectively shut the TV off (or at least not watch the next offering) go to my computer for "more" of the show that I was watching -  I have to wonder how that works. And it's exactly the same for the news programs: turn us off, go to your computer and see more about this story squib that we teased you with - I start to feel that the media itself is systematically shedding and drinking its own blood, kind of like that snake eating its own tail.

Again, please tell me how that works in real life.

* PR (and automotive PR in particular) is most likely another one of brother (Jack) Baruth's least favored professions. If he thinks that all automotive writers should be shot, I shudder to think of what kind of a grisly fate he'd have in store for us car and car event PR flacks. . . .  And what makes his little, dried-up, cake-white butt so pure and holy anyway?

Comments: Print Isn't Dead It's Over Priced

 Tom-Tom rants, raves, rambles and ruminations are volunteered and express the opinions of the writer.

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Nabila Tanvir reports in Premium Web Content Magazine: “Found this on www.JournalismJobs.com on November 6. At the www.consumersearch.com jobs website it says they never pay less than $350 per review. They do make you write up a trial review, but it’s a fake one — they send you fake background materials that they seed with incorrect information so they can tell if you picked out the right kinds of facts for your sample. ConsumerSearch.com is part of The New York Times family of companies. Launched in 1999, ConsumerSearch.com is designed to be the best starting place for any consumer aiming to research purchase decisions” - including cars.

Erik Sass, writing for the Social Graf, “A shocking 21% of young adults said they would turn down a job if it didn't allow them to access social network sites or their personal email during work hours, according to a new global survey of workplace attitudes and behaviors by Clearswift, a software security company. . . . Alex Taylor III, Sr. Editor Automotive, Fortune Magazine in his book Sixty To Zero: on GM’s fall: “No crimes were committed in GM's fall. There were no great scandals involving phony accounting, exploding derivatives, or elaborate Ponzi schemes. The seeds of its decline were planted long ago and for years covered up by its huge profitability, its dominant market share, and the ineptness of its domestic competitors. GM's collapse was caused, pure and simple, by bad management combined with ego and conceit. Successful for so long, GM executives couldn't conceive of a world in which the "GM way" wouldn't allow them to prosper indefinitely."

Photo By: Randall Bohl Tim McGuire

“The Future of Journalism” was the subject of a lively discussion at a recent meeting of the Phoenix Automotive Media Association (PAPA) that featured comments by Arizona State University professor Tim McGuire, who holds the Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications. Chris Poole reports, “McGuire spoke informally about the historic changes now affecting journalists and the profession, automotive and otherwise. These included “creative destruction” in today’s media businesses; the shift in the informational power model from “push” (from institutions) to “pull” (by consumers); the need for journalists to collaborate, add value and solve problems; and the importance of social networking outlets such as Facebook and Twitter. He noted that because the Internet has so commoditized news, information and opinion, an individual journalist’s influence—and maybe livelihood—increasingly depends on becoming “famous” and “followed,” which requires developing a “personal brand” through being published on the Web, blogging, and social networking activity. As part of that, Mr. McGuire advises journalists to following the advice of author Jeff Jarvis: “Do what you do best and link to the rest.” His remarks touched off a lengthy and lively discussion.” Before joining ASU Mr. McGuire was editor and senior vice-president of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and the nationally syndicated columnist of “More Than Work,” which focused on workplace ethics, spirituality and values.

Permalink/Comments: Passing Scene

Once again, young Americans’ romance with cars is being questioned. This time by Jack Neff in an Advertising Age piece titled: “Is digital revolution driving decline in U.S. car culture?” He points to the considerable decrease in licensed 16 and 17-year-old drivers. Once nearly 50% and 75%, respectively, of their age group were licensed. The percentages are down to 31% and 49%. And the amount of driving by the under-30 age group has diminished as well. While a number of reasons are advanced for this decline in car interest, a good number are related to the Internet. Neff cites William Draves' belief that, “the digital age is reshaping the U.S. and world early in this century, much like the automobile reshaped American life early in the last century. Draves is president of Lern, a consulting firm that focuses mainly on higher education, and co-author of "Nine Shift." Draves’ theory is that almost everything about digital media and technology makes cars less desirable or useful and public transportation a lot more relevant. . . . . That may not be all bad, as teenagers multitasking with computers, IPads and other digital devices could tend to function without focus and not really be there even when present, like behind the wheel of a car. It is not a phenomenon limited to youth according to a recent New York Times article by Matt Richel, titled, “Hooked On Gadgets and Paying A Mental Price.” He says, “...scientists are discovering that even after the multitasking ends, fractured thinking and lack of focus persist. In other words, this is also your brain off computers.”

On a happier note, AOL is planning to hire as many as 500 writers and editors in the next year. Quoted by Michael Learmonth on Ad Age.com, David Eun, president of AOL’s Media and Studio Division, "We are going to be the largest net hirer of journalists in the world next year.” In addition, Learmonth reports, “Mr. Eun wants to quickly ramp up the number of freelancers contributing to AOL. Currently there are about 40,000 freelancers contributing to AOL, its SEED content production arm and Studio One. Mr. Eun said the company is still working on a system that measures the value of a piece of content based on the number of people that click, how long they stay, and the amount of ad revenue associated with it.” The company’s chances of building profitable subscription bases for its various content divisions are rated better than average among paywall startups. The reasoning being that building subscriptions requires direct marketing know how and AOL has spent 15 years doing that for their services.

Permalink/Comments: Road Signs

Google is experimenting with Google News to enable its readers to better self-select the kind of news they will receive and how often. Online Media Daily’s Laurie Sullivan says the purpose is to enable marketers to better target their ads. No mention of readers "cocooning" with what makes them feel good.  . . . www.just-Auto.com offers relief from that parochial feeling. Published in England, it claims to be “the auto-industry’s leading online resource” with a stable of well-known writers in the U.K. and the Continent publishing 200 plus stories a day and circulating to 89,000 paid industry subscribers. . . .The Wooden Horse News reports that Forbes will acquire True/Slant, a new “content farmer.”   . . . Larry Edsall, in a special to the Detroit News tells of a firm in Germany offering a billboard for your garage door. Found at www.style-your-garage.com, there are 200 photo murals to choose from and sized for single, two-car or multi-door garages. Included are head-on views of cars, the entrance to a car wash and a wine cellar.  . . . Other auto murals, not for garage doors but office walls are being offered now by Legacy Diecast at www.automotive-art.com and by Car Art, Inc. www.carart.us, where murals can be commissioned with the addition of two large art specialists, John Gable and Barry Malone .  . . . Autoline Detroit has made www.missmotormouth.com Michelle Naranjo’s “Open Line” a regular Monday night feature starting at 8 PM Eastern/5 PM Pacific time. Callers set the agenda for the freewheeling auto talk show.  . . .Colin Wilson writes that his all-inclusive Race Tech magazine has gone digital at www.racetechmag.com and free digital versions of last month’s Race Tech and Moto Tech magazines are available there. There’s also a 24-hour news feed covering all aspects of motorsport, a calendar of motorsport events worldwide and other features.

Permalink/Comments: http://www.autowriters.com/blog/new-roads-google-experiments-with-self-selected-news

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“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth is a” - caustic colleague. When Toronto’s Globe and Mail auto writer Peter Cheney recounted in 2300 words and 10 photos how a $180,000 Porsche 970 Turbo test car burst through the garage door at his home with his 14-year-old son behind the wheel, he probably thought he had squelched the journo gossip mill and did all he could to make amends with Porsche. But, he didn’t count on The Truth About Cars’ Jack Baruth. He found misstatements in the story that made him question Cheney’s auto writing credentials, his truthfulness and once again sound TTAC’s alarm about the cozy relationship of car makers with mainstream auto journalists. According to Cheney, when he offered to pay the $10,000 deductible on Porsche’s insurance, the company’s press fleet manager, said, “Stuff happens” and that Porsche would absorb the cost.

Good thing it wasn’t the 1936 Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic that allegedly sold recently for $40,000,000 and will be displayed at the Mullin Automotive Museum in Oxnard, Calif., according to Peter Aylett of Car Art, Inc. It was being driven cross-country to the museum despite the findings of a recent GMAC survey reported by Tanya Irwin in Marketing Daily that, if tested today, 38 million or 20% of U.S. drivers would not pass a written driver’s exam. 

In case you missed it, James Saulsbury of the National Transportation Research Center released a list of the top ten misconceptions about fuel economy as determined by the EPA at www.fueleconomy.gov. Among them “... modern computer-controlled, fuel-injected engines regulate the air-fuel mixture so well that a dirty air filter does not decrease fuel economy and using premium fuels improves your economy.” Saulsbury also released two lists (EPA and Real-World) of the top ten fuel sippers www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/topten.jsp. . . .Another list, this one from Google’s AdPlanner reveals that no U.S, automotive site is among the globe’s top 1,000 web sites, as measured by unique users. China has the top five in the category, starting at 205 overall. All five have around 10,000,000 unique visitors.

On his 94th birthday George Spaulding, noting that he was closing in on 1200 columns, offered Charleston Post and Courier readers a retrospect of important auto events since he resumed his journalism career 23 years ago after retiring from General Motors with 35 years of service. . . Speaking of old, a complete compendium of Throttle, the “earliest hot rod magazine published,” begun in 1941 and ended by the start of WW II, 12 issues in all, is being offered by The Rodder’s Journal for $32.00.  . . .Stretching not that far back is Miller Time, a new 304-page book with about 200 photos that recounts the memoirs of Roger Penske’s “long time prime associate in auto racing,” Don Miller. Author Jim Donnelly of Hemmings describes Miller as, “the founder of Penske Racing South, and the guy who discovered both Rusty Wallace and Ryan Newman before making them both into stars. It's way beyond the typical racing bio. Don is a very ethical guy with enormous empathy for others and some very specific ideas on how to motivate and manage them, which to me, at least, is the foundation of the book.” Price is $29.95; all proceeds go toward the prevention of child abuse through SCAN of Iredell County, North Carolina. Order from www.coastal181.com or the North Carolina Auto Racing Hall of Fame, www.ncarhof.com.

There’s still time to enter Kelley Blue Book’s video car review contest that closes June 15. Top prize is $10,000. Rules are at www.KBB.com/contest.  . . .And, you can celebrate “Collector Car Appreciation Day” on July 9 as designated by the U.S. Senate thanks to the efforts of SEMA.  . . .For Father’s Day and beyond, David Bull will absorb the shipping cost of The Ferrari Phenomenon written by Matt Stone and Luca Del Monte. With lots of new material and photos, you can see and hear Jay Leno reviewing it with Stone at: www.jaylenosgarage.com/extras/book-club/jays-book-club-the-ferrari-phenomenon 9’ x11’, 160 pages, hardcover, 159 photos. $39.95, www.bullpublishing.com

Permalink/Comments: http://www.autowriters.com/blog/pit-notes-stuff-happens

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Aaron Gold has been named a consulting producer for the upcoming TopGear/USA which premiers this fall on The History Channel. He will continue as About.com’s guide to cars.  . . .Jeff Johnston, long-time RV and trailer-towing guru, is now associate producer and co-host of Rollin On TV, www.rollinontv.com a new cable-distribution TV show about RVs and the RV lifestyle. . . . Kevin Clemens has penned (keyed?) his last column for European Car. After studies at the University of Michigan and Hamline University he writes, “As a car guy, engineer, writer, publisher, and journalist, I feel a responsibility to find a way to communicate with future generations, and by learning how teachers teach, I'm hoping to learn to be a more effective writer and a publisher of works that will help mold young minds.”

Chad Heard has been appointed Public Relations Manager for Hyundai Auto Canada, cheard@hyundaicanada.com. . . KIA PR gal Beverly Braga has relocated to the company’s D.C. offices. Email remains the same. . . .Wooden Horse reports Corvette Fever magazine will merge with Vette magazine, according to Keith Cornett of www.corvetteblogger.com. October will be Corvette Fever's last stand-alone issue.  . . .Tom Campbell has retired as Business Editor at WJR radio in Detroit. New contact is Dick Haefner, dick.haefner@citcomm.com.

Roland Klose is the new business editor at the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Klose@commercialappeal.com .  . . .Steve Gooch now handles the auto page at Salt Lake City’s Newspaper Agency Corp, sgooch@mediaoneutah.com .  . . .Bob Kelly is the new general assignment guy for automotive at The St. Louis Dispatch, RKelly@post-dispatch.com . . . .Amit Bloom is the new contact for Adventura in Hallandale, Fla., amit@sternbloom.com .  . . .Dick Messer is retiring as Executive Director of the Petersen Automotive Museum and Buddy Pepp will succeed him June 15.

Permalink/Comments: http://www.autowriters.com/blog/lane-changes-june-2010

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Glenn

Glenn F. Campbell
Principal
autowriters.com

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TOC

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.

Newsweek for sale? TIME a quarter of an inch thick because of the same problem: no ads. Meanwhile, the likes of COSMOPOLITAN (otherwise known as Orgasm Monthly, I sure wouldn't want my teenagers reading it) are among the relatively few magazines with robust ad pages.

I spent years as a journalist and it is hard to admit, but perhaps like printers and typesetters, it's a dying art. Unlike those, however, I'd like to think that the need for good reporting and writing will ultimately prevail. And that news organizations (including car magazines!) will be able to charge online readers for their product. Let's hope Rupert Murdoch's efforts in this regard are successful. That, my friends, is at least one way that a need for quality reporters and editors will continue in the marketplace.

Gordon Wangers
gordon@scgh.com

Cannonball 79 was the best time of my life. The after party at the Portofino Inn (Redondo Beach) was worth the trip over. We did come last but to this day I cherish the trophy I've received from Brock: "Last but not lost!"

Andrew Frankl
ezremes@aol.com

Praise

This is a great issue, Glenn....

Purdy, McCandless, West, Keyes, et al. It made for a very nice read for me. You're doing much appreciated things with this. Steve is absolutely full of energy, and he and Gary make a great team. Thanks for finding me.....

Bob
Bob Stockton
stocktonbj@wctel.ne

Glenn: This note is long overdue: I enjoy the heck out of your work.

Ken Zino, Editor in Chief, TheDetroitBureau.com, World Auto Report

 

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• new roads
• pit notes
• lane changes

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• subscription info
• calendar
• motoring press organizations
• talk back

Glenn Campbell, Publisher       Lysa McCarroll, Managing Editor