Karl on Cars
Internet vs. Print Publishing
July 2, 2008
Well, maybe not new everything, but In case you missed it we just updated the blog format to allow for larger photos and easier access to tools like Digg It! and StumbleUpon. This puts more pressure on me, because bigger photos require better photos with fewer flaws -- scary! But hopefully it enhances the reading experience for you. Happy to hear feedback on everything from what you think of the new format to how many flaws you can now spot in my larger photos (but not this one of the Vibe; I pulled this image from the top of the new "Test Drive" page).
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- Karl Brauer July 2, 2008, 6:00 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
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- Road Test, Test Drive
January 7, 2008
Edmunds.com just launched its latest product and it's worth a look, especially if you've got an automotive question you need answered. It's called "Edmunds' Answers" and it makes finding -- and providing -- auto-related answers extremely easy.
My first time cruising through Edmunds' Answers I saw that someone had asked about the sliding editors' rating for the Chevrolet Equinox. The user noted that the rating was relatively high in 2005 but has fallen every year since. It took me about 100 seconds to type in a response (basically "all-new vehicles typically perform well against the competition when new, but fall as the product cycle continues and newer competitors are introduced in the segment") and post it live. You can see the full answer here.
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- Karl Brauer January 7, 2008, 7:00 AM
- Categories:
- Mazda, Subaru
September 18, 2007
There's a series of ad inserts that Conde Nast has been running in Automotive News. The compaign's theme is "The point of passion" and between the insert's size and the paper stock used it must be costing Conde Nast a good chunk of change. The photos on each page show various famous folks (this one has Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Vera Wang and Eva Longoria) gazing through various Conde Nast print publications in picturesque settings. Eva, for instance, is sitting in a red, late 1960s Mercedes-Benz SL with the copy, "Eva Longoria. Actress, desperate housewife, reader." Vera Wang is described as, "Designer, lifestyle mogul, reader." In fact, the word "reader" appears at the end of every description.
The ad copy on the back of the insert says, "A more engaged reader. A connection that drives culture. And the most effective media choice." Of course none of these folks are looking at a computer screen, though if you check out the online version of this ad campaign you will, logically, see famous folks looking at computer screens for Conde Nast's online publications like brides.com and flip.com, but online titles still make up a small minority of the company's offerings.
The "point" of this campaign seems to be, "If you want to have real influence with the 'right' kind of people you'll buy an ad in one of our many print publications." I can't begrudge a media company for spending ad revenue to try and create more ad revenue, but the idea that only print readers are truly "passionate" or "committed" or "engaged" makes me laugh. And suggesting it's "the most effective media choice" is, frankly, ludicrous.
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- Karl Brauer September 18, 2007, 6:00 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing, Talk Back Tuesday
June 15, 2007
If you've received your latest copy of AutoWeek you may have checked out the BWTM page (I know it's the first thing I look at every week). One of the items on this week's BWTM page had a familiar ring to it. I think because it mentioned my name and a quote of mine. In their ongoing "Captain Obvious" series they used a quote that appeared in The Detroit News story about the Toyota Tundra's engine failure. I've always hated the term "out of context" because it's such a standard-issue response when someone doesn't like a quote that's attributed to them. Instead, I'll just repeat the conversation with the reporter of this story.
To the best of my knowledge (yet another great phrase), the conversation went something like this:
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- Karl Brauer June 15, 2007, 3:00 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
May 15, 2007
I need several "Talk Back Tuesdays" to cover the current state of the automotive world, but I'll try to touch on the three most important points in just one blog post:
Issue Number One -- Mercedes-Benz sells Chrysler, and loses approximately $30,000,000,000 in the process. The new owner, Cerberus Capital Management L.P., is a private equity firm. This essentially means Chrysler can now focus on...BUILDING BETTER PRODUCT!! Oh, you may think the company has been focused on this for years, but in reality Chrysler (like all automakers) has been focused on quarterly reports and stockholder happiness. With that B.S. out of the way, the company just might build some killer cars and trucks in the coming years. Yeah, they've got legacy health care costs and UAW folks to wrestle with, but Cerberus is flush with cash so they can throw money at this problem like no traditional automaker ever could. This is a huge (and in my opinion hugely positive) development. I expect drastic and rapid changes for the company. What do you expect?
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- Karl Brauer May 15, 2007, 6:00 AM
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- Domestic Manufacturers Problems/Challenges, Internet vs. Print Publishing, Talk Back Tuesday
March 6, 2007
In
last week's Talk Back Tuesday I admitted to throwing away my old Car and Driver issues because I simply couldn't justify keeping them around any longer. That post sparked some interesting comments, among them several opinions of why certain buff books are better, or worse, than other enthusiast publications (along with how they stack up against Edmunds/Inside Line). Those comments gave me an idea, so today I'm going to conduct a completely non-scientific, non-certifiable survey about what each of the major buff books has to offer and what each one could do to improve themselves. To get the ball rolling, and show you the format I'd like to see used for your responses, I'll start with my own assessment of the major dead-tree rags:
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- Karl Brauer March 6, 2007, 7:07 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
February 27, 2007
That title is a little misleading. I don't mean to say I've thrown away the publication completely -- just the printed versions of it. Like plenty of automotive enthusiasts I've been saving Car & Driver magazines for many, many years. I liked having them as a possible reference point for everything from bench racing discussions with my friends ("So, what was the Corvette's 0-60 time in 1992?") to article research when discussing how vehicles have changed over the past 30 years. But there are two problems with this system - first, it takes up too much space to store decades of magazines and second, it's too hard to find the information. Sure, you can dedicate huge swaths of shelf space to help organize the books, but that means taking up even more space (I've simply been using boxes in a closet), and you'll likely still have to leaf through multiple issues to answer that question about the '92 Corvette.
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- Karl Brauer February 27, 2007, 7:08 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing, Talk Back Tuesday
February 9, 2007
If you've always had a hankerin' to drive exotic cars for a living, and the folks at Ferrari's test facility aren't returning your calls, you might be in luck. Well...there is one caveat -- it will take a good chunk of change. But if you have the funds you could be the proud owner of Motor Trend magazine (along with a gaggle of other Primedia titles like Hot Rod, Car Craft, Automobile, and - my former employer - Super Street). 
You can read the corporate spin here, but the real story is simple: Big-wig executives invest more time/energy in cutting wages and overworking employees than they do in the future of publishing. Meanwhile, Internet offers whole new way to reach readers while more effectively serving advertisers...
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- Karl Brauer February 9, 2007, 1:24 PM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
In case you missed it, we launched a new web site this week: www.AutoObserver.com. This one is headed up by industry icon and highly capable journalist, Michelle Krebs. She will be producing both feature stories and regular blog entries that provide unique and poignant commentary on this crazy universe we call the automotive industry. Michelle is easily one of the most connected individuals covering our industry, and I'm stoked to have her resources and talent living in our blogosphere...
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- Karl Brauer February 9, 2007, 11:49 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
February 7, 2007
It's really more like switching apartments on the same floor of the same building, but my blog will officially be re-locating to Edmunds.com. When we launched this blog (along with Straightline) it was simpler to produce them both on Inside Line. Since that time we've expanded the blog capabilities and offerings of both Edmunds.com and Inside Line, and with me technically being the editor of Edmunds.com it makes sense for my blog to reside there.
This should have minimal impact on you, the reader...
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- Karl Brauer February 7, 2007, 12:07 PM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
February 6, 2007
Recently I had a very interesting discussion with an automotive industry veteran. Between his high-level background and his current position suffice to say he knows from which he speaks regarding where things are going. I won't provide any additional detail because it's respecting these people's anonymity that gets me this information in the first place. So instead of obsessing over exactly who it was just enjoy the type of information he provided:
1. Predictions of 17 million new cars sales in 2007 are optimistic to say the least. Think 16.5, or less, and with the domestics cutting fleet sales plan on massive market share drops for at least two of them.
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- Karl Brauer February 6, 2007, 7:06 AM
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- Domestic Manufacturers Problems/Challenges, Fuel Efficiency, Hybrid Vehicles, Internet vs. Print Publishing, Talk Back Tuesday
December 20, 2006
We've recently upgraded the Edmunds vehicle page structure to a system that provides far greater - and more convenient - information on individual models. Where previously our model information was split between new, used, future and "Generations" content (Generations was basically a full model history of a specific vehicle) we've now brought all this vehicle content together into a single, easily-navigated structure. Finding the content is easy because whenever you navigate to a single pricing page for a new or used vehicle you can use the breadcrumbs link at the top of the page to locate the other pages.
Here's an example...
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- Karl Brauer December 20, 2006, 10:21 AM
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- BMW, Ford, Honda, Internet vs. Print Publishing
October 13, 2006
A few years back, our company president, Jeremy Anwyl, used the term "Information Transparency" to describe how the Internet had changed the car-buying process. For decades, a car buyer had to go to the dealership with little more than a car's MSRP and his or her best negotiating skills. Today, with sites like Edmunds.com, consumers know everything a car dealer does about how a vehicle is priced (MSRP, invoice, incentive activity, and even holdback information). The deal is now transparent -- as long as a buyer is willing to do their homework before going to the showroom.
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- Karl Brauer October 13, 2006, 9:55 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
September 13, 2006
...I was one of the three original staffers on a strange new magazine called Super Street. This was a book launched by then Petersen Publishing (now Primedia) to target the next generation of hot rodders. It was theorized that maybe, just maybe, kids born after 1980 wouldn't want to read about pushrods and carburetors. Being a young Mopar muscle car freak myself, I found the idea quite preposterous...
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- Karl Brauer September 13, 2006, 8:02 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
August 4, 2006
In case you haven't noticed yet, we just added a Search box to the Inside Line global header at the top the page (okay, it's not at the top of this page, but it is on just about every other Inside Line page). You can now input a term and get both article and video results for Inside Line. We'll be expanding the results area to include photos at a near-term date, and you can expect to see this system further upgraded and refined in the coming months.
Go ahead, give it a try and let me know what you think...
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- Karl Brauer August 4, 2006, 3:30 PM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
May 31, 2006
The beauty of today's automotive journalism universe is that it covers a pretty broad spectrum of tastes. Import fan? Die-hard domestic supporter? Luxury cars? SUVs? Sports cars? You can find a publication that focuses on any of these areas, and the really good ones (I'm biased, but I think Edmunds/Inside Line are both stellars examples) do an excellent job of coveraing all of those areas, thus satisfying all but the most rabid, narrowly focused enthusiasts. But one dark side to the "new media" is that anyone with an Internet address can badge themselves an "automotive authority" and subsequently expect the industry (and consumers) to take notice. After eight years at Edmunds I have a keen perspective on how hard it can be to convince the world you aren't just a punk kid with servers in your basement and a desire to get free test drives in new cars. In my case I was a punk kid with LOTS of servers and a desire to get free test drives...but I also wanted to provide accurate consumer information regarding those test drives to over one million visitors a month. That was in 1998, and our monthly visitor numbers are exponentially higher, as is the respect/cooperation we get from the manufacturers.
It wasn't always an easy journey, and I can relate to those publications still trying to achieve legitimacy in this ever-growing space. But I am also annoyed by those publications that break some basic rules of automotive journalism:
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- Karl Brauer May 31, 2006, 5:20 PM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
March 31, 2006
A recent story in Ad Age paints a tough picture for print magazines that depend on automotive advertising dollars. The opening paragragh states, "Auto advertising in magazines suffered a meltdown in 2005, with publishers losing almost $100 million in revenue. Worse news for publishers: The new year in print ads for cars has dawned a lot like last year ended -- dead." The same story also notes, "While the TNS data suggest print still gets a lot more automotive money than the Internet, there is no doubt the money is flowing from print and into the Web." When I left Petersen Publishing (now part of Primedia) back in 1998 there were still people asking "What's an Internet?" And nobody I knew saw electronic media as even the slightest of threats to print publishing. I still hear lots of people saying "Yes, print media doesn't have the corner on the market like it used to, but I still don't see it going away...
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- Karl Brauer March 31, 2006, 11:23 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
February 9, 2006
According to Mr. DeLorenzo, "The traditional monthly car magazines are dead - they just don't know it yet. " That's the message in his latest column at AutoExtremist.com. Peter knows from which he speaks, as he's been in the automotive journalist business long enough to have seen its highs (long ago, according to him) and lows (right now, also according to him)...
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- Karl Brauer February 9, 2006, 11:24 AM
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- Internet vs. Print Publishing
