While Bill and I did the best we could (equipped to be self-publishing with a camera, laptop, note pad, cell phone, battery chargers) the sheer volume of Autobloggers and Jalopniks really drove the point home: new media ruled this event.

Yes, and Fast Lane Daily delivered the Auto Show to me daily through a season’s pass on my Tivo. How cool is that?

jpc0067 :

I think that as long as people need to defecate, there will always be a home for the print media.

I used to think that too. Then I bought an ipod Touch. My car magazines are now pretty lonely sitting there as I surf digg, TTAC, e-mail and youtube with this amazing little device.

The auto show coverage has always been one of the least interesting parts of the print mags to me. As you point out, it’s 2 months too late and I was more interested in the strengths of the magazines: in depth reviews and comparisons.

The decline of print media is well documented if you follow business news. Various reports put the annual sales declines in the 5%-10% per year range for printed newspapers and magazines.

The situation is very similar to that of the photography business which has been in a painful transition from silver based (film) imaging to digital imagining. That shift has already put a number of once proud companies like Konica, Minolta, and others completely out of the business and has decimated employment and profits at once huge companies like Kodak.

Here you can see Kodak bldg 65 blown up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMyaKnh5_K8

Then there was building 9:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBadx7kZZXk

And yet another Kodak building coming down:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZq1ZlmZEtU

What really makes me sad is that the crowd cheers every one of these implosions.

This is what happens when an old way crumbles under the onslaught of the digital age. There is absolutely zero evidence print media will escape a similar fate. Luckily the offices of Car & Driver likely are easier to put to another useful purpose than were the highly specialized Kodak production facilities.

G8: It may drive like a dream and be subsidized to death…but it’s bland in person. A major disappointment.

Astra: It’s hard to imagine how they think customers will overlook the inscrutable radio/dash controls to drive a cramped, listless box. Another disappointment.

The Koreans.

The only thing worse than launching a horrible knockoff of every luxury car (Hyundai) had to be launching an ugly BOF V8 (Kia) when the rest of the industry is running away from the segment.

The sun has set on these guys, IMO.

The brain trust at Chrysler somehow forgot to plug in the power for the seat mechanisms in the majority of the display vehicles….meaning, unless it was a base unit with manual adjustments, opinion generators and potential customers were treated to seats stuck in whatever position the car jockeys left them in.

My colleagues and I were so dumbfounded that we eventually tracked down a Chrysler rep to politely ask them…”WTF?”

To which we were told: “I’ll be sure to put this in my report.”

Genius.

Great coverage here of the show.

Mr. Chedda was at NAIAS as a TV reporter not as a print journalist, so I don’t think he was looking to me or TTAC for guidance. Sajeev and I roamed about with pen and pad in hand and laptops at the ready to blog and editorialize. Meanwhile, Chubba prepared for and taped video segments.

Chubba knows as well as we do that by the time his magazine goes to press with NAIAS coverage, the event will be ancient history. So his presence at the show was as a TV commentator, not a magazine editor.

Put another way, increasingly the public is looking toward Internet outlets for current content regarding automobiles. On the other hand, people reach for an auto rag to facilitate a good bowel movement.

But that doesn’t mean the print media necessarily should roll up and die. They do three things rather well, at least sometimes:

1. car comparisons — most websites don’t have the pull or budget to bring together 3-8 competing vehicles for real testing, and frankly, this is worth a lot more to readers than the usual new car “review,” which in most places (not here) is mostly a re-worded press release.

2. editorials by respected writers who have something deep rather than new to say. (NOTE: this is by no means meant as a veiled criticism of TTAC)

3. finally, one thing I like is that one of the magazines (I forget which) will print a full page picture of a new vehicle, and then point out all the styling success and weaknesses. For people who view cars as (potential) artforms, this is very cool.

Could online sites do these things? Sure, and then you go back to jpc0067’s point, at least until tablet PC’s and web-enabled PDA’s become prevalent.

Anyhow, kudos to William on an insightful summary. Personally, I can’t wait to see the CTS coupe in the flesh.

Telsa’s no show might be to their credit. If the auto industry trade shows are anything like my industry’s (medical devices), its mostly pissing contest and chest beating. To paraphrase someone, 90% of all advertising is wasted. We just don’t know which 90%.

Nice thought. Only they’re going to the Montreal show.

John

The security people told me that the Alfa is valued between $15 and $20 million. If you can afford that, you’re Mazarati rich.

Too bad they parked its stunning black body in a completely black display.

Mazda Furai? Very nicely done…Corvette ZR1? Very well executed, very capable. As exciting as these and other ‘new’ cars were at the show, the one car that had me coming back again and again, wishing I could start it up and take it home was 70 years old-the 1938 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B Spider body by Touring in the Louis Vuitton Classic display. No other car at the show even came close to capturing my imagination or exuded so much artistry in all of it’s design and engineering.

Good work guys. I’m going to an autoshow soon too, but only because my friends are dragging me. I appreciate the endurance this must have taken.

Huh! Looks more like a Dodge Viper with every iteration.

Why would anyone buy a CTS or G8 over any other vehicle made by a car company NOT heading for the big B?

While Bill and I did the best we could (equipped to be self-publishing with a camera, laptop, note pad, cell phone, battery chargers) the sheer volume of Autobloggers and Jalopniks really drove the point home: new media ruled this event.