announcements |
Enough readers have told us the Autowriters.com Newsletter is worthwhile
that our undermanned and zero-paid staff is providing an opportunity for readers so inclined to offer monetary encouragement.
Nothing will happen if you do not, you will still get the
Autowriters.com Newsletter as long as it is published and you do not
take yourself off the distribution list.
If you do contribute, our confidence that this niche of journalism
deserves a voice and our pleasure in attempting to provide it will be
strengthened. We do not anticipate any donations large enough to
weigh on our editorial considerations but we welcome the challenge.

We've set up a Paypal Account
to make this possible. All donations are
welcome - regardless of size! 
We will be taking an August Hiatus so this
month's issue is a little longer than usual to carry you
over until we return in September! Our email lines will
continue to be open so you can send us your rants, raves and
news.
|
the road ahead |
Surprise! Wooden Horse reports a study a paid for by digital publisher
Zinio found that 35% of digital magazine subscribers pay more attention to
the ads than they do when reading physical magazines. It also suggests readers
put a high value on ads that let them connect directly with advertisers. (Car
And Driver has introduced inventory feature searches, shopping tools, photos
and bar codes scannable by mobile phone cameras.) Top reasons for subscribing to
a digital magazine rather than its print version included immediate delivery and
access to content, the ability to store issues on one's computer, and the
perception that digital subscriptions are less harmful to the environment . . .
. Yet, WIRED magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson, when
asked in a Charlie Rose interview, "Do you have to be a print
publication?” answered:
"What we're learning is that in an era where people have choices, the job of
every print publication is to add value to the web. If you're a newspaper, and I
say this as someone who loves newspapers, arguably you're a value-subtract
medium -- the same product, but 18 hours late and it leaves smudgy ink on your
fingers. If you're a monthly magazine, you are doing something the web doesn't
do. It is long form, 8,000 words, photography, design, lavish spreads on high
stock. I believe in these kinds of magazines in the same way I believe in books.
A book is a superior product to reading the same material as text on a
screen...I think a book has a place in the 21st century and I think a magazine
[does] things that don't work on the web. And that is a good place to be for the
magazine industry in the future."
Not necessarily for attracting the demographics that most advertisers shoot
for.
An Associated Press survey of 18 to 24-year-old online readers in six
cities around the world, revealed that most of them preferred skimming headlines
to reading in-depth analysis of complex issues. They get their “news” when they
open their E Mail and describe looking up information on the web as “work.” . .
. U.S.News & World Report, is endeavoring to answer this “too much data,
too little time” dilemma with its
www.RankingsAndReviews.com, a growing online resource that simplifies
sorting through conflicting purchasing information for a number of products. The
site launched "Best Cars & Trucks" in fall 2007 to capture and analyze
validated data and expert opinions from many leading sources of automotive
information in one place, providing consumers with an augmented "review of
reviews." (See TrueDelta.com in Pit Notes).
TOC |
advertisement
 |
the
tom-tom |
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.
Eric
H. Killorin is a web and publishing consultant living in
Middlebury, Vermont.
His blog
www.carpubinsider.com
chronicles the “The Future of Automotive Magazines”
and includes a database of 240 vehicle publications with
selected circulation figures. Eric has spent 28 years in
publishing in both consumer and business audiences, has won
the Folio award for direct response, was founder and
publisher of Mobilia Magazine, and launched the first
automotive specialty website in 1995. He collects and
restores vintage cars and judges at national concours.
Can Automotive Magazines Survive
the Online Tsunami?
Publishers’ stress levels are off the charts thanks to
sharply reduced ad revenues, higher fulfillment costs, and a
mass exodus of readers to online blogs, forums, and shopping
services. The iPod generation of car buyers and enthusiasts
favor pixels over print, and tree huggers have set their
wrath on newsstand waste. Sounds like a perfect storm.
Over 240 domestically-produced titles aimed at car, truck,
and motorcycle readers are in the midst of dramatic change. Let’s look at the trends shaping this new information age. First, a few
"stats". Between 2002 and 2006,
The Fab Four
were down a collective 9.2% in paid circ. From 2002 to 2007,
AutoWeek was off by a whopping 26% or 93,000 paid subs,
91,000 in one year alone. According to eMarketer, nearly 32%
of consumers in the market for a vehicle go online and, get
this, check out non-vehicle maker websites. Magazines rank
5th, or 7%, among car buyers. How many new magazine launches
have you heard about lately?
Many publishers have adopted a print-centric model for their
online channel that, by its nature, forces the consumer to
adapt rather than accomplish a simple task. A good example
is titles that have taken on a second life as digital
magazines, or “eZines,” where print pages are repurposed for
the web. A win-win, you might say? Not so fast, eZines had
their place during the web’s formative nineties when
publishers struggled to identify ways to develop an online
presence. Today, content-rich blogs, niche forums,
e-commerce, and ubiquitous broadband service have
outstripped the ability of an inherently restrictive eZine
to be a compelling online resource. Simply put, an eZine is
a Web Edsel.
Hemmings Motor News, Trader Publications, Old Cars Weekly,
along with “The Fab Four” comprising Car & Driver,
Road &
Track, Motor Trend, and Automobile, have devoted much time
and many dollars to maintaining two overlapping channels with
their respective versions of eZines or similar. As a result,
their effectiveness in adapting to new opportunities is
reduced, and both efforts are likely to take a beating.
Veterans of ink and paper are still making the key decisions
at the publisher level and are consequently heavily invested
in sustaining what they know.
Harsh stuff, you might say? Look no further than the music
industry’s ill-conceived response to digital audio. A
cheaper “shuffle” world has replaced album structures and
physical media like compact discs, resulting in rampant
industry downsizing. Magazines, like albums, have a start,
middle, an end, but the web is continuous without “chapters”
and folios. If my 17-year old is any indication, he’ll buy
his next vehicle through Facebook or a Podcast.
Readers have an unprecedented new power on the web nearly
equal to writer and publisher. Influential blogs are shaping
product launches and online auctions sites allow buyers and
sellers to make deals just minutes after a car or part hits
the screen. On any given day, eBay Motors has 40,000
vehicles for sale and their re-launched Winding Road web
magazine has shifted from high-profile writers to no-buck
reader contributions.
Yup, a perfect storm. Yet from the receding tide comes a
wealth of new opportunities. Think of the cost savings
without paper, ink, and postage, not to mention costly
direct marketing and catalogs. That’s not to say publishers
can stop the presses and overnight be profitable online.
It
takes sticky content delivered in a compelling format in
order to monetize reader and advertiser traffic. Nothing new
here. As with digital audio, demand for music has not
abated; in fact, the web has expanded artists’ reach and
consumer appetite. So to with words about automobiles and
everything associated with automotive culture.
Writers enjoy the inalienable right to communicate. Good
copy will always find an audience. Readers need to make
informed decisions, be entertained, or sold a product or
service. It’s not the need for information that’s changed,
it’s the format in which the information is delivered. With
greater sources for news and commerce, comes the expectation
of increased depth of content. Upcoming generations of car
buyers will seek out your wisdom and advice--provided they
are able to find it.
Tom-Tom rants, raves, rambles and ruminations are
volunteered
and express the opinions of the writer.
TOC |
road
signs |
Wooden Horse News reports Car And Driver publisher
Hachette Filipacchi Media is revamping all their websites,
beginning with the biggest,
www.womansday.com.
Mediaweek
reported that "a source familiar with the strategy said the
emphasis seemed to be on creating community features and
aggregating content from elsewhere rather than original
journalism. 'They're trying to figure out what the sites
will look like, but they're not expecting a ton of original
content,' this person said."
Tameka Kee, writing in Online Media Daily (Searching For
A New Car, You Tube Style) reports a recent study
commissioned by Google revealed, “Consumers are increasingly
finding out about new makes and models through online video.
Nearly half (49%) of all in-market shoppers and about a
third (31%) of recent buyers surveyed had been exposed to
new vehicle choices for the first time through online video
. . .” That is good news for journalists who are able
to generate online buzz about cars because a Nielsen CGM/Homescan
Buzzfacts study revealed that more than half of consumer
generated media (CGM) is posted because of product
experience or response to material posted on a site.
While a good deal of the media research results tends to
favor its sponsor’s interests (see Google above) it is still
worth noting that newspapers are reportedly enjoying a
three-to-one lead over other local market advertising
competition according to a specialist in local market
advertising, Borrell Associates. . . Karl Greenberg, writing
for Media Post, says a study by research firm
Synovate
shows that most consumers don’t get how hybrids work and the
differences between them. Once they do, the study
revealed, consumer interest in hybrids doubled while
interest in flex-fuel cars dropped considerably. Also
noted in the research, consumers placed Toyota and Honda
well ahead of other manufacturers in the field of hybrid and
alternative fuels.
A provocative quote from a study report by PR firm
Fleishman Hillard, “journalists and bloggers are
increasingly one and the same.” . . . In a letter to the
New
York Times, American Copy Editors Society president
Chris Wienandt averred that despite the Newseum’s failure to
document the place of copy editing in journalism, “copy
editing is not going away.” But it may be going far
away. The Associated Press reported Mindworks Global
Media, which is based outside of New Delhi, India will take
over copy editing duties for some Orange County (Calif.)
Register stories and handle page layout for a Register
community newspaper for one month.
eBay Motors has launched a division for marketing
certified pre-owned (CPO) vehicles, CPO cars and trucks. The
new property will be exclusively sponsored by Lexus, but
initially also carries General Motors and Chrysler vehicles.
TOC |
autowriters spotlight |
At the risk of enjoying it too much, or being caught in a
Little Orphan Annie Mug kind of infinite regression with
Ezra Dyer writing about Ezra Dyer
writing about Ezra Dyer, ad infinitum, he gave AWCom the facts to do with as we
might.
Salient
among them is his uncommon coupling of humor and auto journalism that began
because he loves cars (he says he was bombing around Maine woods in a 1982
Subaru wagon at age 11 and still has a stack of car magazines from the ‘80s) and
because he began his writing career as a humor columnist and feature writer for
The Improper Bostonian. It is an 85,000 circulation glossy biweekly offering a
calendar of Greater Boston events plus numerous features and columns. Dyer has
been in every issue since starting there in 1999. The absence of an insistent
ego, a bemused look at his world and of course, his nimble use of words has made
the marriage of genres work. It started with a query that brought a counter
proposal that led to what he calls, “probably the most important 300 words I
ever wrote,” a spec article for Automobile Magazine on his experience as an
IROC
owner, titled, "For Those About to 'ROC, I Salute You." The editors liked it and
paid him for it. Emboldened by that success, Dyer committed to becoming an auto
writer and co-opted one of his Improper columns to prove with a review of the
Corvette Z06 that a car review would be read by people who don’t care about cars
- if it was funny. Sending a clip of that column to his Automobile Magazine
contact, former editor Mark Gillis, brought a meeting and acceptance of his
feature story idea: “They Shoot Cars, Don’t They?” It involved buying a $350
Cadillac Eldorado and driving it to Maine to be used as a target at the
Hiram
Maxim Machine-Gun Shoot.
To strengthen his “creds” as an auto writer, he joined
the New England Motor Press Association, began test driving cars and writing
reviews for Automobile Online. Those led to print assignments for the magazine’s
Driven section. That began what he calls “a snowball effect.” His Automobile
reviews were read by an Esquire editor who proposed Dyer write some reviews for
that publication. Those prompted editors at the New York Times to invite him to
contribute articles and then his former online editor at Automobile, Greg
Anderson, relocated to The Robb Report and invited him to contribute there as
well. Dyer still does a humor column for Improper and in the last year added a
regular column for Automobile: Dyer Consequences. It allows his agile mind and
light touch to wander somewhat at will in autodom. Recent columns have included
one on “Stripper Cars.” Not the kind of high school fantasy but a nostalgic
recall of cars with side vents for air conditioning and a cigarette lighter as
an amenity. Another column opined that a car’s billing influences its owner’s
behavior. Not necessarily unmarried driving a family car, but drivers conforming
to a car’s miles-per-gallon estimates. Hard to the floor with a Porsche and
light on the pedal with a Prius. With Dyer it is soft on censure and strong on
affection for our car culture. TOC
|
pit notes |
Coventry University in England offers an MA in Automotive
Journalism. Is there anything similar in the U.S? Or a
scholarship like the 1500 pounds, trophy and internship
presented annually by that country’s Guild of Motoring
Writers?
The Consumer Federation of America contends
there are serious specific and analytical errors in the
recently mandated new fuel economy standards. Contact:
Jack Gillis, CFA, 202-737-0766 or
jack@jagillis.com. . . .
J.D. Power’s 2008 Manufacturer’s Web Site Evaluation survey
of consumers put Kia ahead of BMW, Lexus and
Ford. . . .
Bridgestone Firestone is taking its “Drive and Learn
Classroom Behind The Wheel” to 15 markets this summer. Contact
Susan Sizemore for a complete schedule and
information at
sizemoresusa@bfusa.com.
The Trader Media
Group in England is re-launching its Top Marques magazine
and website this month. . . . VAuto is helping car dealers
keep pace with the rapidly changing auto market by providing
continual updates on how days supply and gasoline prices
affect the market price of new cars on their lots. For more
information contact:
jcabadas@usautocom.com.
Writing in the Fort
Worth Star-Telegram, Ed Wallace notes that the widely
reported departure of 10 million cars from our roads when
gasoline hits $7.00 a gallon does not predict what this drop
in users and a concomitant price motivated reduction in use
by those cars that remain on the road will mean for the per
barrel price of oil.
Michael Karesh’s
www.TrueDelta.com web
site provides three very handy measures for buyers in the
market for a car or truck or journalists impatient with
screen or press kit hopping: an easy to use side-by side,
feature-by-feature cost comparison of models, actual user
experience with respect to repairs and their miles per
gallon. The last two depend on the reports of the steadily
growing number of TrueDelta site members. Check the
www.truedelta.com
website or contact:
michael@truedelta.com.
Source Interlink has
combined its Modified Mustangs and
Mustang and Ford magazines in a new monthly titled:
Modified
Mustangs and Fords with Mark Houlahan as editor.
. . . Mazda’s SCCA Pro Racing Playboy Mazda MX-5 Cup
Series will
have all eight races broadcast in an expanded 60-minute
package by DIRECTV and DISH Network. They also will be seen
on regional outlets.
A check on Michael Hollander’s
progress since AWCom’s report of the serious ailment he
contracted a few decades ago while in the U.S, Navy brought
this encouraging report: “I'm still on long-term disability,
battling the mesothelioma. The good news is that we
have the fluid under control. ...The bad news is that I'm
still quite tired. I'm happy to chat with anyone and the
pain is under control.” He can be reached at:
racing@motorsportsforum.com.
TOC |
advertisement
 
|
lane
changes |
Keith Naughton has been named Midwest Bureau Chief for
Newsweek Magazine, adding responsibility for the
publication’s Chicago Bureau as well as its Detroit bureau
where he has been bureau chief since 1999. . . . Steve Levy
and Jonny Lieberman, erstwhile Jalopnik commentator, have
launched a new website:
www.AutoFiends.com. Lieberman continues
as West Coast Bureau Chief for The Truth About Cars. . . .
Rick Cotta has been promoted from Senior Editor to Managing
Editor for Consumer Guide’s automotive staff. . . .
Brian Chee, formerly an AutobyTel editor, has launched a website
about life with cars:
www.DriveThruLife.com. He can be reached at
brian_chee@yahoo.com.
. . . Bob Beamesderfer, another recent alum of AutobyTel, is
freelancing and can be reached at
rsb95@earthlink.net.
. . . Tony Barthel very definitely plans to continue his
Curbside Auto column and website and in fact, has added a
small newspaper chain to its self-syndicated distribution
since acquiring the unique Featherbed Railroad Bed and
Breakfast Resort on scenic Clear Lake in northern
California. . . . Nguyet Le Thomas writes that she is
settling in as editor
of the new combination of Styling & Performance and
Off-Road
Business Magazines at Advanstar Publications. Former
Styling & Performance editor, the peripatetic Mike Anson,
will continue as a contributing writer. . . . The late Ray Plumly, has been replaced as auto editor at
Safety and
Research by editor president Sean Kane. . . . Greg Rager,
long-time Mopar writer for Amos Publications and its
predecessors, is now freelancing and can be reached at
gregrager@aol.com.
Although retired, Jim Meachen continues to serve the
Goldsboro News Argus as contributing auto writer. . . .
Ari
Natter has succeeded Earle Eldridge covering trucking and
government regulations for Traffic World. . . . James Amos
has replaced John Norton at the Pueblo Chieftain. . . .
Dan Passe is now Director of Communications and Marketing
for Penske Racing in Mooresville, NC. . . . Jennifer
Capasso
departed
Ketchum Public Relations to manage PR at Mazda Raceway,
Laguna Seca, CA. . . . VINTAGE RACECAR JOURNAL named
veteran writer/editor John Zimmermann as an associate
editor. TOC |
added starter |
Jeff Mohr, CEO of
Mohr Mfg. submitted a clog that was a cogent
assembly of facts on the most expensive SUVs to fix after a
rear-end collision. It made good reading but amounted to a pitch
for his product. However, he tells us he welcomes journalists
quoting from it with proper credit or from the 50 others under
“White Papers” on his web site,
www.superbumper.com. Among them are:
-
Why Pickup Truck Bumpers Will Never Get Better
-
Only An Absolute Fool Would Buy Another Receiver Hitch Toy If
They Read This
-
Why Women Almost Always Get Injured In A Rear End Collision
-
The Two Most Frequent Vehicle Accidents
-
Three Reasons To Throw Away Your Spare Tire
-
Don't Let Naked Drivers 'Lay You Up'
-
Why Auto Body Repair Shops 'Hate Our Guts'
-
How A Bumper Can Save More Lives Than A Backup Alarm Or Camera
-
Five Fairy Tales Of Automobile Bumpers
-
Four Myths of Whiplash
-
Protecting Your Rear From Weirdo's, Losers and Lunatics
-
The Most Common Trailer Hitch Mistake - You're Probably Making
It Right Now
TOC |
- 30- |
See you in September!
Glenn
Glenn F. Campbell
Principal
autowriters.com |
|
table of contents |
|
subscription info |
Did someone forward you a copy of our newsletter? Sign up for your own
subscription
here. If you want to
stop receiving this newsletter, please send an e-mail to
unsubscribe@autowriters.com
|
vehicle awards list |
CONSENSUS AWARDS ANNOUNCED
Americans love a winner and for those who bought a 2008 new car,
there is a good chance they have one. Autowriters.com
has identified 274 possible winners crowned by 26 different
press groups, print or digital magazines, web sites, research
firms or independent panels.
Of course, it may be “mud buster of the year” cold weather
champ” or “cup holder sweepstakes winner” or another unique
distinction, but a win is a win, right?
Many models share their award with one or more other “winners.”
And, there may be disagreement about the relative significance
of one award versus another.
The awards are not weighted. All are treated equally and in the
case of ties all are counted as a winner. In the bragging game,
however, who cares about details. Forget that it was one of 10
new models similarly honored or that your car shares its accolade
with three other cars in one of 78 classes. It’s a winner!
Compiling the proliferation of distinctions is not meant to
suggest that awards do not have benefit beyond the added
awareness or increased circulation/ readership of their
sponsors.
GM took top manufacturer honors with Buick, Cadillac.
Chevrolet, GMC and Pontiac compiling 51 awards between them.
Toyota followed with Lexus, Scion and Toyota models garnering
38. Then Ford with 19 plus Mercury, 5 and Lincoln, 7, totaling
31. Audi had a surprising 14 accolades.
If you discover an award that is not listed, too late for this
report. But let AWCom know in case we decide to undertake this
exercise for 2009 models – which, incidentally, already has two
winners.
A complete breakout of the various awards and winners can be had
in either a PDF or Word format - gratis! Click on the link:
CONSENSUS AWARDS FOR 2008
|
awards,honors&events |
Ann Proffit received first prize in the AARWBA writing contest in the
technical
writing, magazine category for her June 2007 article in Race Engine
Technology magazine, "Milk and Alcohol". Detroit’s
24 Hours of LeMons,
Entries due for Sep. 13-14 race.
|
|
TOC |
CALENDAR |
JULY |
10-11 |
NEMPA Rag Top
Ramble, Boston to Kennebunkport, ME |
11-13 |
Goodwood Festival of Speed, Lola's 50th Anniversary |
15 |
APA, Luncheon,
Toyota, Detroit Athletic Club, Detroit, MI |
15-17 |
NWAPA, Summer Run
Event, Portland, OR |
21 |
SAMA, Luncheon,
Audi, TBD |
26 |
Automotive Hall of
Fame Classic, "The GM Century", Dearborn, MI |
AUGUST |
5 |
MPG, Luncheon,
Subaru, Los Angeles, CA |
11-15 |
CAR Management
Briefing, "Transcending Turbulence", Traverse City, MI |
21 |
SAMA, Luncheon STBD, FL, Nissan |
28 |
Motorsports
Industry Association, Cleaner Racing, Detroit, MI |
September |
1 |
Entry Deadline, MPG Dean Batchelor Award |
2 |
MPG, Luncheon, Proud Bird, L.A., Chrysler |
10 |
APA/Convergence,
Luncheon, Detroit |
10-11 |
IMPA Test Days. Pocono Raceway |
October |
16-19 |
TAWA, Truck Rodeo, Gaylord Texan Resort, Lake Grapevine, TX |
|
TOC |
|
motoring press
organizations |
The 14 regional automotive press associations provide
information and background not easily found elsewhere.
If
they are too distant to attend their meetings, belonging usually
gives you access to transcripts or reports of these events and
other benefits.
APA
|
Automotive Press Association, Detroit - Katie Kerwin
|
IMPA |
International Motor Press Association, NYC, Fred Chieco, President -
info@impa.org,
www.impa.org
|
MAMA |
Midwest Automotive Media Association, Chicago -
www.mamaonline.org |
MPG |
Motor Press Guild, Los Angeles -
www.motorpressguild.org
|
NEMPA |
New England Motor Press Association, Boston -
www.nempa.org |
NWAPA |
Northwest
Automotive Press Association, Port Orchard, WA-
www.nwapa.org
|
PAPA |
Phoenix Automotive Press Association, Phoenix, Cathy Droz, President-
drozadgal@aol.com |
RMAP
|
Rocky Mountain Automotive Press, Denver -
vince@theweekenddrive.com |
SAMA |
Southern Automotive Media Association, Miami FL, Ron Beasley, President,
ronbeasley@bellsouth.net |
SEAMO
|
Southeast
Automotive Media Organization, Charlotte, NC
www.southeastautomedia.org
|
TAWA
|
Texas Auto Writers Association
http://www.TexasAutoWriters.org, Harold Gunn,
hgunn@gunstuff.com |
TWNA |
Truck
Writers of North America,
www.twna.org Tom Kelley,
Executive Director,
tom.kelley@deadlinefactory.com
|
WAJ |
Western Automotive Journalists, San Francisco -
www.waj.org, Ron Harrison
rharr70210@aol.com |
WAPA |
Washington Automotive Press Association, D.C., Kimatni Rawlins,
President -
www.washautopress.org
|
|
talk back |
Hi there,
I just wanted to drop you a line to say how much I enjoy
receiving your newsletter. I am a member of the Automobile
Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC), and also a member
of the IMPA. I’m basically freelance, but predominately, I
pen new car reviews and automotive news articles for
www.auto123.com. I also
contribute to www.cartest.ca,
together with a couple of local Toronto lifestyle magazines.
Naturally, I keep abreast of what’s happening within the
journo scene in Canada. However, as I’ve made several good
friends on my annual trips to the IMPA Test Days, and met
some wonderful American scribes on press trips that I’ve
made to the U.S., I enjoy following the industry news south
of the border.
So keep up the good work, I for one, very much appreciate
it.
Regards,
Kevin “Crash” Corrigan
The boys at Microsoft
would like nothing better for all
media to be sent electronically. They truly wish to control
everything electronic but I think Balmy (excuse me, I meant
Mr. Balmer {sp?}) has it wrong saying that within 10 years
ALL media would be electronic. For one thing, receiving
electronic media in a readable format -- and I don't mean
miniscule cell phone screens -- means carrying around a
battery-powered laptop or book reader. In a decade, I am
sure these devices will be offering better technology but
any kind of screened device is difficult to read at the
beach, in the bath, etc. Plus, you can't roll up a notebook
and stick it in your pocket and you daren't lay down your
electronic reader for a moment since it will get stolen.
Lose a magazine and you are out $5. Electronic devices are
considerably more pricey. Besides, how would be able to read
the new media reliably on Microsoft-"engineered" software.
I've been using their products since 1981 and while they now
offer lots of bells and whistles, there hasn't been much
quality improvement.
When the TV debuted in the 1940s it was said that it would
displace, radio, the movies and the printed publication.
Guess what, we still have all three! And if I remember
correctly, back in 1981, when the first Kaypro and Compac
computers came out, a lot of people said that we would be in
a printless world within 10 years. Not only did that not
happen, we now have more paper than ever! True daily
newspapers are hurting, but there are more books and
magazines being published than ever before. Peter D. duPre
Editor, MC2 Magazine
http://www.autoword.net
duPre adds: Living in the Seattle area, as I do, it is
important to understand that it is like living with an
elephant in the garden (Microsoft). They are huge and there
isn't much you can do about them!
Hi Glenn --
I enjoyed the April autowriters.com, with its many
interesting items. I wonder if the death of newspapers isn't
that they are so far out of touch with the population. They
are all for immigration, legal and illegal, but the man on
Main Street has to pay the hospital bills of those people.
They are in favor of ever bigger government, while the
population wants it smaller, etc.
Thanks for printing the thing on the
John Fitch oil tank
problem. I've been doing a bit of work on that myself.
People are getting behind him and I hope it turns out OK.
The item on the Alcan Rally highlights the problem in
journalism of thinking that participation in a field
eliminates objectivity. It's the made-up rationale of
getting too close to people and events being covered. Of
course nothing could be further from the truth. This is
ignorance masquerading as objectivity. In fact it is the
elevation of ignorance to cult status.
Finally, your mention of
Tom Bryant's retirement prompted me
to send him a note. I worked with him recently on an article
for an MG magazine - it included a profile of Henry Manney.
More later
Carl (Goodwin)
TOC |
talk to us |
We’re always looking for better ways to put out a newsletter
people want to read and advertisers want to use - - so
talk to us! What do you like or dislike about this
newsletter? What topics or information would you like to
see covered? Have a question you'd like posed to the
autowriters.com readership? How can we make this
newsletter more useful to you? Talk to us!
Send your rants, raves, questions and suggestions to:
talktous@autowriters.com
|
advertisement

|
automotive
journalists |
Help us make sure you continue to get
the information you want
the way you want it.
Keep your autowriters.com profile current.
Fill out the
form online.
Thank you!
|
automotive bloggers |
AWcom is compiling a directory of automotive blogs. This is a
guide to people who
only write an automotive related blog. If that's you
- - then
sign up!
|
services & rate card |
PR, Marketing and Media
Relations Pros, autowriters.com can work
with you to get the right info
to the right people who write
about cars!
Contact us for your next release.
releaseit@autowriters.com
or phone 435.656.1040.
Our Ad Rate Card
is available online at
www.autowriters.com
or by request.
|
table of contents |
|
donate |
Monetary encouragement is appreciated!
 |
|