QOTD: Is the Auto Show Media Preview Truly Dead This Time?

by Tim Healey

Published: August 19th, 2022

qotd is the auto show media preview truly dead this time

Next year's Geneva Motor Show is canceled, moving instead to Qatar. The media-preview day for the upcoming North American International Auto Show in Detroit is down to half a day -- it wasn't long ago that the festivities started Sunday night and carried through Tuesday or Wednesday.

This year's LA Auto Show media day will be just one day. Not even a day and a half.

Is the media-preview day dead? Killed by a combination of off-site unveilings, remote presentations, COVID concerns, and industry-specific problems (supply-chain troubles, et cetera)?

Or is this just a down time?

Please note that I don't believe the consumer auto show is in trouble. I think the consumer days will continue to do quite well. It's one more thing for people to do, and it allows car shoppers to browse with almost zero pressure from salespeople.

But, as we've written before, media-preview days seem to be in decline and were before the COVID pandemic hit. Is it a trend, or the way things will be permanently?

You know the drill. Sound off.

[Image: NAIAS]

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Tim Healey

Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.

More by Tim Healey

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7 of 9 comments

ToolGuy on Aug 19, 2022

Jump ahead to the table labeled "The 20 U.S. newspapers with the highest circulation in 2000, with 2022 print circulation": https://www.niemanlab.org/2022/06/for-print-newspapers-one-florida-retirement-community-is-a-better-market-than-atlanta-st-louis-or-portland/

Like Reply
- Dukeisduke on Aug 19, 2022
  
  Oh I believe it. The NYT and WSJ seem to be doing better than others. The quality of writing and editing has fallen off - I see plenty of grammatical errors, or the wrong words used, in online newspapers. Is the quality just as bad in the print editions?
  When I was a kid, I threw papers (the long-defunct Dallas Times Herald, an afternoon paper except on Sundays, when it was a morning paper), and never a route of than more than 80 papers. These days, you'd have to ride a long way to throw 80 papers. When I did it, I threw to about 80-90 percent of homes on a given block. That was when you had a coupon book, and had to collect payment in person every month. A lot of work for a kid.
  
  Like
Ajla on Aug 19, 2022

Are the sausage platter catering companies going to survive?

1 Reply
- See 1 previous
- Tim Healey on Aug 19, 2022
  
  BUT WHAT ABOUT THE SHRIMP?!
  
  1
- Theflyersfan on Aug 24, 2022
  
  I think the crudités lobbyists will keep their industry afloat during these challenging and trying times. Every auto show needs raw asparagus dipped in salsa with a tequila chaser.
  
  Like
Dukeisduke on Aug 19, 2022

Only a half day? Wow! It's definitely changed. For the better? I don't know.

Like Reply
Sgeffe on Aug 19, 2022

From everything I’ve heard, this stuff was circling the drain before 2020, and the WuFlu was the fatal hit to the jugular!

As has been noted, what will all of the purveyors of canapés, shrimp cocktail, and rent-a-bartenders ever do?

And can someone please explain why the only place I can put a paragraph break in this commenting system is in the top comment, and not a reply? (At least on an iPhone.) I think that’s why the comments on here are way down!

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