Comments on: LA Times Kills Auto Section (Forced Relocation for Dan Neil)

By: Geotpf

Geotpf — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 08:09:39 +0000

The Highway 1 section was (at this point) just the auto dealer ads with a couple reviews. So, not too much was lost, IMHO-the auto reviews move the to business section, and the auto ads remain.

By: BKW

BKW — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:56:48 +0000

The Times said Dan Neil’s column will be in the back pages of the Friday’s Business section, along with other auto related stories.

By: BKW

BKW — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 23:53:28 +0000

The original Highway 1 section was at least 10 pages long and contained all sorts of auto related stuff including a weekly history quiz that awarded a prize for the first correct answers.

The prize was a plastic drinking mug emblazoned with the Highway 1 logo. It wasn’t too long after introduction that the Times killed off most of the features including the history quiz (my wife said they prolly killed it off because I won all the mugs (not quite true).

Sometime last year, Dan Neil in his weekly road test feature, panned the Pontiac G6 saying it wasn’t a very good car. GM retaliated by pulling all their Corporate ads from the newspaper for several months. Typical GM = ppl said GM doing that scheiss was like cutting off their nose to spite their face!

The San Gabriel Tribune has a Saturday section called Motorway which features a semi-humorous column by Click and Clack, all sorts of upcoming events, other auto related stories (one has to read thru the whole shittery to find them) and one road test of a new vehicle on page one.

Also on page one is a related story inre to the tested vehicle, shamelessly touting of one of their new car dealer advertisers and their operation. One of the dealers (a Ford store in Pasadena) just went out of business…so much for touting!

By: theflyersfan

theflyersfan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 21:42:30 +0000

As a former (and still at times, I wish current) Los Angeles resident, I can say that it was due to Highway 1 that I first found out about TTAC years ago (I think the first review I ever read was RF’s review of the original Euro-Elise and I’ve wanted one ever since.) It was during the whole LA Times vs General Motors/Pontiac G6 love-fest and it was refreshing to have someone in an ad-based industry actually call out a huge ad money maker about the junk they produced. I guess that helped the downward spiral.

The only paper newspaper car sections I’ve continued to read were Dan Neil’s columns and LA is now worse off with their papers with this happening. Fine. Let the rest of the papers continue their press release reviews and fluff junk about how the Saturn Ion was the best car to save GM and so on.

Maybe we can get Neil to write a column or two for TTAC…I think it would be a nice touch to a site where people from across the Pond, sales people, auto workers, auto fans, racers, R8 owners, and expert writers all contribute. Couldn’t resist the R8 thing…

By: austinseven

austinseven — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:39:35 +0000

Couldn’t happen to better bunch of charlatans. Apart from Dan Neil and Jim Kenzie in Canada, the rest of them can go work for Bon Appetit ASAP.

By: RedStapler

RedStapler — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:38:58 +0000

I’m surprised they are cutting the auto section.

Dan Neil was one a lone island of truth in a vast sea of company sponsored BS.

Cars and real estate ads are the two big streams of ad revenue for any paper.

By: Mullholland

Mullholland — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 18:12:37 +0000

This is sad news as I read the LA Times Automotive section every week and enjoy Dan’s writing a great deal. He also writes a very entertaining article in the back of the LA Times monthly Sunday section (cut back from a weekly Sunday special section due to previous budget slashing). And there’s that Pulitzer Prize thingy. He’s extremely talented but I fear he’ll be waisted in the Times business section. What bothers me most of all is how hard it is for a talented writer who creates exceptional content to find a home/financial support in the current media environment. My best hope is that after he’s been beaten down by realities of the imploding newspaper business, Dan’s work will start appearing regularly on TTAC for FREE! (He’ll of course have to have found something else to do in the interim to earn a living)

By: folkdancer

folkdancer — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:47:33 +0000

Lets face it. TTAC is a much better way to learn about cars and the car business than a newspaper. Especially a newspaper that doesn’t care.

TTAC quickly puts out car news and we can add history and opinions quickly. I have learned a great deal from the people who have added history to the TTAC news stories.

I stopped reading the AZ Republic many years ago because they decided to be a Sports Illustrated wannabe (without the swimsuit issue) and pretty much forgot about cars.

Cars and trucks are EXTREMELY important to LA and Phoenix so it is a mystery to me why the local newspapers ignore REAL car reviews and don’t offer pages of car business news.

By: Robert Farago

Robert Farago — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:05:12 +0000

tristanc:

Ok, what’s up with the girlie pictures these days? It’s getting so that I can’t even scroll down through the news without being slightly embarrassed at work.

TeeKay:

I have a grievance – the TTAC has becoming increasingly work-unfriendly, what’s with all the scantily dressed babes? Do you want to get me fired for unable to resist clicking on the pixs? What ever happened to a wholesome, honest car journal?

One out of two ain’t bad! Seriously, I’ll use this as the podcast intro so we can debate it. Suffice it to say we may have a solution…

By: trlstanc

trlstanc — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:03:41 +0000

Ok, what’s up with the girlie pictures these days? It’s getting so that I can’t even scroll down through the news without being slightly embarrassed at work.

By: Cicero

Cicero — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:02:15 +0000

The L.A. Times shed its credibility as a source of objective information years ago and has been hemorraghing readers for a long time. Now it’s GM in miniature, saddled with a hard-earned reputation for BAD while trying to compete against better, cheaper competitors on the net.

By: TeeKay

TeeKay — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:53:28 +0000

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:47:11 +0000

Over the last few days, TTAC appears to have hijacked this format.. why the pic of the dolly bird, exactly?

That is a cheerleader (which America employs for sideline entertainment, since we have no soccer hooligans and riots) — and the theme is the travails of cheerleading auto journalists who keep blindly rah-rahing Detroit. Or something like that.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:44:01 +0000

All them useless journalists need to,like, become nurses or — if we can somehow spot them an extra 40 IQ points apiece — Lithium Ion battery engineers.

By: Pat Holliday

Pat Holliday — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:23:50 +0000

Back in the early ’90s we used to have a sh*tty cable TV channel over here (UK) called Live TV. One daily segment was called “Tiffany’s Big City Tips” (trying saying it quickly).. in which an attractive brunette presented a summary of stock market activity while she stripped down to a bikini.

Over the last few days, TTAC appears to have hijacked this format.. why the pic of the dolly bird, exactly?

(ps – I’m not complaining. Really, I’m not..;)

By: Andy D

Andy D — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:18:48 +0000

Re the Boston Globe, I stopped reading the auto section when John White retired.

By: Gardiner Westbound

Gardiner Westbound — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:14:00 +0000

.
Though newspaper automotive advertorial sections cater to the certifiably gullible, the Toronto Star Wheels insert is apparently a cash cow. What does it know the LA Times doesn’t?

By: David Holzman

David Holzman — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:05:37 +0000

At least they are keeping Neil.

@friedclams: the Globe’s auto writer did a great job in the early ’00s. Don’t know what happened. The Globe’s auto section had been almost pure fluff lately.

By: SpacemanSpiff

SpacemanSpiff — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:31:43 +0000

Dan also did a review of the Fiat 500 this week. I spent 35 minutes configuring a 500 last night. Mmmmm Forbidden Fruit…..

By: John Horner

John Horner — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 15:14:22 +0000

Newspapers are in a death sprial. Falling readership leads to falling advertising. Falling advertising brings cost cutting. Cost cutting gets rid of things the remaining readers used to like. Readership falls more. Revenue continues to fall. More cost cuts. Lather, rinse, repeat.

I picked up a copy of our local “big” paper, the San Jose Mercury News, in the bagel shop yesterday. Having given up my subscription several years ago I was shocked by how little is left in the thing. In fifteen minutes or so I had read everything of interest that I didn’t already know about … most of that on the editorial and letters page.

Small specialty newspapers still have interesting local content, but for national and international news the paper is dead.

By: friedclams

friedclams — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:46:54 +0000

The Boston Globe let go their auto reviewers a while back, replaced with syndicated content. I don’t really miss them, since they primarily reviewed extremely expensive cars for rich folks. Maybe if the editor had been more on the ball the reviews wouldn’t have been fluff (and therefore easy to kill).

By: Guzzi

Guzzi — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:45:57 +0000

That sucks. Read Dan Neil and Susan Carpenter online every Wednesday. Guess they get to spend some time with their kids now.

By: crackers

crackers — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:34:09 +0000

Does anyone actually read the newspaper Auto sections? I thought they were there solely as a place to put car ads. It’s often difficult to tell where the articles end and the ads begin.

By: 1996MEdition

1996MEdition — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:30:17 +0000

I wish newspaper decomposed faster

By: AJ

AJ — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 14:21:23 +0000

I’m sure that their editors and writers have long hated the internal combustion engine anyway. Funny to see them realize, as a propaganda machine, that they have to make a profit.