november/december 2010 newsletter

New surveys reported in Media Post Publications and one from Auto Pacific provide a snapshot of where Internet communications appear to be heading. Erik Sass reports in The Social Graf that new findings by Forrester Research, suggest that “while the number of people using social media still may be growing the number of people who are actually creating original content has leveled off in the last few years.”

Forrester classifies only 23% of the U.S. online audience as online creators. The research notes that 15 of the top 20 most-watched videos on You Tube are professionally produced. Sass opines that contrary to early expectations for a flood of user-generated content, the actual number of people who want to be online creators is limited, noting that "the vast majority of blogs are abandoned after a few updates, while 90% of Twitter users are ‘lurkers’ who just like to read what other people post.”

Karlene Lukovitz, reports in Marketing Daily that Gen Y consumers (age 18 to 34) are less likely than consumers age 35 and older to base their actual purchasing decisions on issues they deem important. Instead, according to research by Resonate Networks, they are most likely to buy products that reflect and convey their personal achievement and success to others. According to a national Gen Y survey by Auto Pacific, that means they favor Toyota, Honda, Ford, Chevrolet, Nissan, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Kia, Dodge and Subaru in that order, with newcomers Hyundai and Kia, replacing Mazda and Jeep.

For an even younger generation, participants in Media Magazine’s “Future of Media Forum” focused, for a period according to Joe Mandese, writing for Media Daily, “on the addictive nature with which children consume media, and increasingly, pay for it via premium online distribution platforms.” Mandese reports, the media honchos attending the Forum “all seemed to agree that Millennials do differ from previous generations in that they expect to get their media content on-demand, when and where they want it, and that in many cases, they would pay for it.”

Speaking of paid content, The London Times has lost 4 million readers since going behind a paywall but it is making more money from subscriptions than it did from online advertising when it was free.

Click here to comment online: Road Ahead

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The Associated Press has dropped the “writer” from its byline because, according to a staff memo by AP Standards editor Tom Kent: “These days, the byline on an AP story may rightfully belong to a text reporter, a photographer, a videographer or a radio reporter...some of our staffers have extensive multimedia skills and work with several platforms every day. Saying simply "Associated Press" focuses on the important thing: that the material is from an Associated Press journalist.”

Advertising Age rates Ford as the year’s best marketer among automakers although its many successful ad campaigns were probably topped by simply saying “No” to the government’s TARP funds. Ford marketing chief Jim Farley told the trade magazine turning down the loan was worth “more than $1 billion in coverage and consumer interest.” . . . Not likely to reach those proportions but Toyota’s new corporate campaign, reported in Marketing Daily, cleverly combats negative recall residue without bringing it up. Called “Ideas for Good” it talks about how the company repurposes automotive technology it has developed to benefit society. And it encourages positive awareness by spotlighting five of its technologies where prizes will be awarded to consumers who come up with the best ideas for re-purposing them in non-automotive uses.

A reason why more car bloggers should attend BlogWorld as Tom Kelley urges or enter Keith Griffin’s Blogger of The Year Awards, is this quote of the week relayed from England by Media Digest: “A lot of bloggers seem to be socially inadequate, pimpled, single, slightly seedy, bald, cauliflower- nosed young men sitting in their mother’s basements and ranting.”

GARAGE "FINDS"

1929 Bugatti

1937 Ford House Car

Click here to comment online: Passing Scene

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Not AWCOM’S forte but this car found buried in the November Amsterdam Journal is new to us. “Urbee Hybrid – the first car to have entire body 3D printed.” It is manufactured by Stratasy headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minn. and Kor Ecologic, Winnipeg, Canada. According to the Journal "All exterior components - including the glass panel prototypes - were created using Dimension 3D Printers and Fortus 3D Production Systems." The electric-fuel hybrid claims more than 200-mpg highway and 100 mpg in U.S. gallons. Also, “The car is charged overnight for pennies from any standard electrical outlet. Alternately, it can be charged by renewable energy from a windmill or a solar panel array small enough to fit on top of a single car garage.”

The Detroit Bureau reports research by Ford and MIT counters some concerns about in-car technology contributing to driver distraction. The study found automatic parallel parking and Cross-Traffic Alert, can relieve driver stress and improve overall driver safety and wellbeing. . . . MediaPost Raw News reports that the online editor for the U.K.’s Sun Newspaper, Peter Picton, is joining News Corp’s Daily Planet Project, to develop a mass-market national U.S. title on tablets . . . . Wooden Horse News reports US News & World Reports’ December issue will be its last in print. The company’s popular guides will be printed for newsstand and targeted distribution along with four other special editions. Otherwise, it will be a digital publisher.

Women now prefer web sites to word-of-mouth for gathering information about products and services with automobiles at the top, a Research Brief from the Center for Media Research reports. But, based on the Harbinger Women & Word of Mouth Study, females still prefer to share opinions by word of mouth and they are most likely to share them about automobiles, restaurants and entertainment . . . . Possibly good news for auto writers is a report by MediaPost writer Max Kalehoff that new software under development erases advertising on the Internet – even in videos. The alternative being, presumably, learning about products from articles.

AutoTrader.com’s acquisition of Kelley Blue Book adds 900 sales reps to KBB’s limited national crew and enables the combined services to guide consumers from model and market price to the dealer lot nearest them. Edmuds.com is on the verge of re-launching its site with multi new features, including dealer ratings. Marketing Daily’s Karl Greenburg quotes Edmund’s CEO Jeremy Anwyl's explanation for the overhaul five-years in the making, "If we don't solve problems for consumers, we have no relevance. Most of our traffic is people who came to us from Google or Bing with a real need," he says. "If we can't solve that, we have failed.". . . From Steve Goldstein's MIN Online interview with David Zinczenko, SVP/editor-in-chief of Men's Health and editorial director of Women's Health: “My recommendation for people who want to be in the media now is to be a voracious consumer of information technologies, so that you have a full appreciation of all the ways it is possible to reach an audience. The old-school media are not going to go away, but they have been and will be joined by increasing numbers of outlets that up the ante and the immediacy of the work we are producing. Why settle for being in somebody's briefcase when you can flow in through their eyes and ears and inhabit their heads? That's the skill today's editors need to have.”

Click here to comment online: Road Signs

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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. 

Tom Kelley is a freelance auto journalist specializing in trucks. He is founder of the Southeast Automotive Media Organization and Executive Director of the Truck Writers of North America. Reach him at: tom.kelley@deadlinefactory.com

Back From The Edge

Blogger Convention Moving Mainstream

Tom Kelley

As little as one year ago, BlogWorld, the trade show of the blogging industry (yes, industry), could have been viewed as being out there on the “edge” of media and communications. My report from last year’s event (see the November ’09 edition of AW.com at http://autowriters.com/blog/the-tom-tom-a-view-from-the-edge/ ) emphasized that through its title, “A View From The Edge.” This year, both the show and the industry are moving in from the edge and becoming a mainstream facet of mass-market communications.

The 2010 edition of “Blog World & New Media Expo” marks my fourth visit to the show. I continue to recommend attending the show to anybody who is serious about still being in the journalism business beyond the next few years. Yes, for a freelancer like myself, it is an out-of-pocket expense, rather than an auto manufacturer funded junket, but what I learn on a “free” junket will only help me write a few stories, while what I learn at BlogWorld will help me create and distribute content for the rest of my career.

Although the official attendance statistics remain elusive as of this just-before-deadline submission, early reports place the 2010 attendance at more than 3,000, up more than 35% from the 2009 event, which is impressive given the current state of the economy.

What continues to perplex, however, is the absence of autowriters at the event.

This is not to say that the auto industry was absent from the event. Ford was again a top-level sponsor, with an expanded presence on both the show floor and test-drive fleet outside. Had Ford been at the event to reach current and future auto-centric bloggers, they would have been just as disappointed as I was by the absence of mainstream automotive journalists.

Ford’s key reason for supporting and attending the show was to reach “vertical” market bloggers, those who write about multiple topics for a specific audience segment, with “mommy-bloggers” being a key example.

While saying this may qualify as heresy among dedicated autowriters, there are great numbers of car buyers out there who care nothing about how quickly a car can make it through an autocross course, or the difference between pushrod and OHC engine, or least of all, whether the writer has their own helmet, fire suit and SCCA license.

“Moms” are the sole decision makers for a significant percentage of car purchases, and are highly influential in the decisions for another large percentage of purchases, yet the autowriting fraternity has vastly underserved them. Only a handful of “traditional” autowriters have ever pursued this audience. Is it any wonder that Ford is reaching out to a growing cadre of mommy-bloggers and their hyper-loyal audiences?

Beyond the audience demographics lesson, there were many informative sessions to attend, 120 sessions featuring 300 speakers over 3 days, as a matter of fact. As a gear-head, I would have preferred a few more “nuts & bolts” technology sessions, rather than business or strategy sessions, but the split was well balanced for the wider audience.

The most important take-away from the event, however, wasn’t something that could be learned from a sponsor or during a session, but rather, was a lesson that was best learned from a 30,000-foot view of the entire event. That lesson, sorely under-learned by many in the traditional media, is the example set by the collegial atmosphere at BlogWorld, and in the blogging industry at large.

At many auto press events, there are dozens of less-than-collegial behavior examples, from hiding keys, to deliberately trashing vehicles, or my favorite example, those at auto shows who just have to go that last four to eight inches of obnoxiousness by flipping their camera flash units to the bounce-flash position to shoot a subject who is 80 feet away, and who is already lit to melanoma-inducing levels with about ten bazillion watts of HMI lights. Excuse me Mr. Ansel Adams-Wannabe, your four AA flash batteries are of no consequence to the photo you’ll never use, but you’ve effectively screwed the sightline and/or potential shots of anybody behind you.

Conversely, if one sets aside the occasional right/left political humor jibes that get tossed around, mostly in good fun, it would be tougher to find a more collegial gathering than BlogWorld. The blogging community has many “stars” in the truest sense of the word, and virtually all of these stars attend BlogWorld, sharing what they know by leading the sessions, helping the show managers with organizing session tracks, and networking with even the newest of bloggers.

While being there is the only way to really learn the lesson of collegiality, the show organizers have gone to the effort to make much of the show’s content available to those who could not attend, but still want to learn more about blogging. Most of the keynote speeches can be viewed for free at http://www.ustream.tv/BlogWorld, and recordings of most sessions can be accessed for a fee far lower than the cost of attending the event.

Borrowing the spirit of BlogWorld, there are efforts underway to re-start the “conference” side of the International Automotive Media Awards. What would you like to learn there? What subjects could you teach there? Would you attend such an event even if there is a small cost involved? Please let us know.

Send your comments to: tom.kelley@deadlinefactory.com

Click here to comment online: Tom-Tom

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BCT Publishing announced the re-launch of Automotive Traveler magazine with a 100-page November 2010 issue. The online-only monthly publication targets automotive and travel enthusiasts seeking the next great road trip. It uses a proprietary technology to produce a viewer that works with any browser, on any device and is fast and expandable as new technologies emerge. After publishing four award-winning, quarterly issues, three years ago, parent company BCT Publishing LLC of Scottsdale, Arizona, decided the magazine was just a bit ahead of its time. Now, editorial director Richard Truesdale says, “Some estimates say more than 20 million tablet PCs will be sold in the next 12 months - and with our versatile platform, we plan to be participants."

Writers searching for new outlets may want to check out the burgeoning auto magazine market in Singapore. Cheryl Tay lists more than a dozen English language outlets (three added this year) in her Updated: Automotive Journalism Scene in Singapore. Click here for her listing with descriptions and contact information. . . . Denise McCluggage will launch her new www.denisemccluggage.com around Thanksgiving. The Tuesday Car Table site planned with her New Mexico car cronies she regularly lunches with when in town never got beyond the menu. So as usual, she is striking out on her own to share her thoughtful take on the intertwining of her life and autos.

Dr. Robin Segal, a self-described automobile non-enthusiast, was recently appointed new cars editor at www.bellaonline.com, a website by and for women. According to the announcement, “Segal joins the ranks of automotive journalism with her weekly articles for people who need, but do not love, cars.” . . . Real Times Media and Who’s Who Publishing are producing “DRIVEN: A Tribute To African American Achievement in the Automotive Industry.” Award-winning auto journalist Warren Brown will pen the introduction.

A post in The NewsCloud Blog, which is sponsored by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and provides social media software solutions for Facebook, posts: “With Facebook's native applications for photos, email, events and groups already in place, a built-in news application is inevitable. Such an application would help Facebook take on Google News and further broaden its walled garden of content. Unfortunately, a Facebook News application will not bode well for media companies. Suddenly, Facebook will funnel news to you from a variety of sources based on data it already knows about you and your friends. Whereas Google News (theoretically) knows little about you until you personalize it, Facebook knows your demographic, your interests, stories and pages you've liked, your friends and news they've read, liked and commented on. Readers won't realize they're consuming news from an echo chamber designed by Facebook's feed algorithm. The role of editors to curate important stories will be diminished.” Some ways news organizations can prepare for this future are offered in this same post.

Sam Moses has recast his www.newcarsnark.com to be short on copy and long on photos when available. Those from his Land Rover Colorado Adventure, shot by truly intrepid photog Gunnar Conrad are enough to thrill flatlanders without inflicting the chills of trekking high mountain trails.

Click here to comment online: New Roads

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The Southern Auto Media Association (SAMA) named the Chevrolet Volt and the Nissan Leaf as the best vehicles at the recent Miami Auto Show. The fourth annual “Star of The Show” trophy went to the Volt after SAMA members decided it was the single vehicle on display at the show that South Floridians most wanted to see. The Leaf was picked as the “Best Green Technology Vehicle” and Jeep’s Lower Forty was named the show’s “Best Concept Vehicle."

The Motor Press Guild (MPG) has announced three finalists in four categories of MPG Best of The Year Awards. The Dean Batchelor Award will be presented to the category winner judged to have produced the single piece of work which best represents the professional standards and excellence demanded by Dean Batchelor during his life as an editor, writer, and chronicler of the automotive industry. The Dean Batchelor Awards Dinner will be held at the Petersen Automotive Museum on December 7. A Lifetime Achievement Award is also presented from time to time at the discretion of the MPG Board of Directors.

Click here to comment online: Regional Automotive News

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The auto racing community is being asked to reach out and help one of its many, many unheralded workers pay to restore the face and future of his granddaughter who survived a crash that took the life of her mother and left her in need of major reconstructive surgery. The full, horrific story and address where donations can be sent is at www.samanthashope.com. As “Lugnut” responded to the plea, “I donated. If everyone who reads this donated even just $1, we could easily raise the $100,000 they need. It only takes a minute to change this little girl's life forever ... for the better.”

Frank Stephenson, design director of McLaren, provides an impressive “walk around" of the new MP4-12C McLaren super car on Cruise Control’s You Tube site: http://www.youtube.com/user/CruiseControlVideo. In two segments he articulates how the esthetic appeal of the mid-engine beauty accommodates the car’s engineering priorities, many of them established on the race track. Form following function. Stephenson will join design professionals from Pixar Animation Studios and others at the 2011 AutoWeek Design Forum during the North American International Auto Show (Jan.10 –14)

Worth noting if missed, the original James Bond Aston Martin DB5 seen in “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball” then sold in 1969 for $12,000 went for $4.6 million (including fees) at auction recently. The Detroit Bureau reports Harry Yeaggy of the Buckeye state was the winning bidder. . . . Official Gunther Raupp 2011 Ferrari Calendars (Myth and Rosso Corsa) are available at www.BullPublishing.com while they last. Also, Raupp’s large-format book, Ferrari:25 Years of Calendar Images. . . . Jeff Mohr is on a crusade to get people with ball mounts on their vehicles to remove them when they get done towing. He says there is a 22% higher risk of a whiplash injury when a car with a ball mount in the receiver gets rear-ended. He explains it at: superbumper@qwestoffice.net . . . . In a piece for GQ, “Bentleys in Bahrain & Other Mundane Moments," veteran auto journalist Jamie Kitman offers the “Kitman-Floss Special Sauce Five Stages of Automotive Journalism." He advises, “Remember them well, car fans, as everything you ever read or will read in the world of road-test literature can be viewed through this prism: elation, enthusiasm, bargaining, depression, nostalgia/retirement.”

Click here to comment onlien: Pit Notes

Jeremy Gilbert and Jan Leach covered a Next Ethics Workshop hosted recently by Kent State University and The Poynter Institute. Among the workshop “take-aways” the pair reported in their “Everyday Ethics” piece for Poynter Online: “...the task of seeking truth from so many different viewpoints is more difficult than ever. The line between facts and opinions is also blurring. When presenting large data sets, a combination of transparency and editorial judgment is critical. Online comments on news stories can expand, narrow or expose the community. Transparency becomes even less apparent as the relationship between PR folks and the media changes. In today's fast-paced online news environment, PR and journalism depend on each other more than ever, but with that dependence comes a need for transparency about who generates stories and how they are published."

Closer to home, the Auto Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC) wants its members to be perceived as “credible and trustworthy.” Towards that end, it is soliciting AJAC members’ comments on a new draft of ethical guidelines for the organization. Click here to read them.

Click here to comment online: Rules Of The Road

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Deepa Seetharaman has transferred from Reuters’ New York bureau to its Detroit Bureau to helpcover the auto industry: dseetharaman@thomsonfreuters.com  . . .Tony Heugel who compiles back country travel guides from his Idaho digs has a new email: tahuegel@gmail.com . . . So does Bruno Bornino, a long time auto writer for the Cleveland Sun Newspapers: bornino581@roadrunner.com  . . . Diane Tierney replaced Michael Goetz. as World of Wheels editor in Oakville, Ontario. She can be reached at: Dtierney@metroland.com 

David Cohen’s new email address is: david@pinkmagazine . . . Lima, Ohio’s “Mr. Wheels” talk show host at 1150 a.m. radio, Tom Grothous, can be emailed at: trgotat@unoh.edu . . . Phil Howell, editor-in-chief of 4Wheel Drive and Sport Utility has moved back to Utah’s Dixie region. His emails remain the same but his phone is new: 435-635-5335. . . . . Car technology is in the sizeable portfolio handed Jeff Jones upon his return to Penton Media IT Group as an industry news analyst. He has the same task for all Penton publications.

Click here to comment online: Lane Changes

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Christine Laidlaw the first editor of IMPACT (originally the IMPA IMP) and wife of Angus, a founding member and former officer of IMPA. A memorial service will be held 2-5 p.m. Saturday, December 11, at the Montclair Women’s Club, 82 Union Street, Montclair, NJ. Click here to send a note to the family.

Jim Hunter – NASCAR vice president of corporate communications who, from both within and without organization contributed mightily for more than 40 years to the growth and character of the sanctioning body and to auto racing.

Pontiac - GM has officially ended production.

0-60 Magazine - blogs report it will cease production in December.

Click here to comment online: Across The Finish Line

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Much as we enjoy producing the Autowriters.com Newsletter and the occasional beers and kudos that come our way, we truly enjoy spending as much of the Holidays as we can with our sizeable family, unencumbered by deadlines and digging for data.

We hope that you, too, can celebrate freely and joyfully and enter the New Year refreshed and grateful for what it promises.

Glenn F. Campbell
Principal
autowriters.com

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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.

It is the “Awards and Honors” time of the year. Here are a few that have come across AWCom’s computer screen:

Honoring excellence in vehicle design the 2010 Mothers® Shine Award was presented at SEMA to this 1970 Ford Mustang Mach 1 "Dragon"

Additionally Mothers® presented 12 Choice Awards. One of our favorites - this 1961 Mercedes 190 SL "Merecedes Bent":

Click here for all the winners and pictures.

Jaguar Land Rover Canada recently presented Mark Richardson of the Toronto Star with the Automotive Journalist Association of Canada (AJAC)’s 2010 Automotive Journalist of the Year award. A panel of judges praised him for his "Good imagination, clear writing and well-rounded choice of topics." The award was established by Land Rover in 1984.

Ford Motor Company’s Tony K. Brown will receive the Executive of the Year award during the 15th Annual Urban Wheel Awards event on Jan. 9, at Detroit’s Motor City Casino Hotel. Brown, Group Vice President of Global Purchasing is being honored for his proven success in management, dedication to furthering diversity in the auto industry, and commitment to advancing his company's multicultural goals.

Also slated to be honored at the event is Max Siegel, a groundbreaker for African Americans in the motorsports. As NASCAR'S highest-ranking African-American executive, Siegel oversaw the entire DEI organization including competition, marketing, sales, sponsorships and distribution for all DEI's properties including motorsports teams, licensing, promotion, business development and the Dale Earnhardt Foundation.

Subaru of Indiana Automotive, Honda Motor Company, Ltd., Nissan Motor Company, Ltd., and Toyota Motor Corporation have been named by Decisive Media as “The Greenest Auto Companies In America” and will be honored at the Urban Wheels event, as well.

 Finalists for the 2011 Green Car of the Year®, award to be announced Nov. 18 at the L.A. Auto Show are the 2011 Chevrolet Volt, 2011 Ford Fiesta, 2011 Hyundai Sonata Hybrid, 2011 Lincoln MKZ Hybrid and the 2011 Nissan Leaf.

The Chevrolet Camaro, Ford F-Series and Jeep Wrangler were named winners in their respective classes of SEMA’s first annual “Hottest Awards” The awards identify the most accessory-friendly new models displayed at the annual SEMA show in Las Vegas. Named “Best New Product” at the show was Continental Tire’s Pro Contact (tm) for its innovative low-rolling resistance and fuel-saving features.

Instead of vehicles classes, Auto Pacific and IntelliChoice combined their skills to research and establish 15 driver classes according to their lifestyle and then match the premium and popular auto brands favored by each. For example: Youthful: Dodge Challenger and Lexus IS, Kid Friendly: Toyota Sequoia and Mercedes-Benz GL. Click here for the complete list of Motorist Choice Awards.

Re: “Gen X, Gen Y Gen Buy”

"Generation Y is accustomed to multi-tasking, processing information five times faster than do their parents."

I don't buy it. So-called "multi-tasking" has been shown to be a myth. As for processing information "five times faster," that would require a development in human physiology that hasn't happened.

I give this kind of un-scientific consultant claim as much credence as cold fusion.

Bob Beamesderfer
mx5bob@att.net

Re: "Automotive Bloggers Need To Come Together To Move Forward"

Comment

You bring up a number of excellent points Keith.

A few years ago at IMPA Test Days, one manufacturer's PR guy asked me how he could validate a blogger or new media outlet. I explained some of the various metrics tools that exist but admitted that there is still a touch of personal contact that needs to be accomplished. It is one thing to develop readership, but quite another to be responsible with a free press car.

When it comes to organization, I agree that a new media association would be a good thing. That said, many (not all) traditional media organizations have become more accepting of those who work in new media over the past few years. Others still seem to doubt the legitimacy of the medium, especially when the publication is independently owned.

Having been part of the automotive blogging community since the early days, I can tell you that most bloggers or new media types are more than happy to work with each other, even if it is not organized. In fact, those who have been around for years understand that properties feeding off each other is a large portion of what makes search engines function. Like it or not, search engines are the primary source of readers.

As a member of IMPA and ARPA, I would be more than happy to be involved with an organization that sets the standards for new  media auto publications.

Gary Grant

Correction: 10.2010 Autowriters.com Newsletter

Greetings!

I appreciate the mention in your newsletter, but the publications listed were incorrect. I am the group technical editor for the Advanstar automotive group, but the books that make up this group are Motor Age, Auto Body Repair News or ABRN, and Aftermarket Business World. All three are recognized leaders in the B2B community and Motor Age is the oldest automotive trade publication in the country.

The Advanstar auto group consists of not only these three print publications, but several digital media outlets including our online community site, the AutoPro Workshop at www.motorage.com ...open to anyone and everyone associated with the automotive service industry. We are also active in a variety of social media in order to provide our Generation Y audience with up to the minute information.

I, myself, came from a career as an ASE Master Auto Technician with over 35 years experience. I started contributing to the magazine five years ago and began helping editorially two years ago before coming on full time.

I appreciate the mention in your newsletter, and look forward to learning from its pages.

Peter F. Meier
Technical Editor, Advanstar Automotive Group
pmeier@advanstar.com

Re: 10.2010 Autowriters.com Newsletter

Hi Glenn --

Thanks for another fine issue of Autowriters. I liked everything except the lead piece excerpting Paul Bradshaw's "Brave News Worlds."

In his obsession with data, I believe he is confusing journalism with mathematics. I would hate to see the result if he were assigned to write an article about motor racing. The level of reader interest would probably be minus twelve. If you don't have reader interest you don't have readers and you can't sell advertising.

In spite of a certain amount of splitting up, the mass market is still a powerful force. And, please, let's retire the old bromide "Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted: the trouble is I don't know which half." That statement was made in 1936 by the head of Lazar's Department Store.

You and I both know how much more accurate advertising research has become since then. We know from serving in the vineyards of the Kenyon & Eckhardt agency as it worked toward saving Chrysler Corporation in the Loan Guarantee Era.

All the best,

Carl Goodwin

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Main

• the road ahead
• passing scene
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• tom-tom
• new roads
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• pit notes
• rules of the road
• lane changes
• across the finish line

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

Glenn Campbell, Publisher       Lysa McCarroll, Managing Editor