Fifty Years of Kerouac's "On The Road"

Fourteen years before the United States mandated exit numbers on Dwight Eisenhower's brainchild of a road system, a Lowell, Mass native of French-Canadian extraction named Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac published a novel that would change countless lives; a mash note to an already-dead America living under the weight of what Igor Kurchatov and J. Robert Oppenheimer had wrought. More »

Robert E. Petersen Dead at 80

After a short battle with cancer Robert E. Petersen has passed away. If not for Petersen and his crazy idea for a magazine full of gow jobs called Hot Rod we wouldn't have beans for jobs. More »

Question(s) of the Day: Who Will Buy Primedia's Car Titles; Which Will be Cut?

Ho, snap. Just a day after content giant, Primedia announced it was buying car-niche competitor VerticalScope Inc.'s Modified, Modified Luxury and Exotics titles, the company announced it's looking to sell off its remaining enthusiast titles. Primedia has been on a cash-raising binge, of late, for example, shedding its crafts pubs late last year for around $132 million and its hunting, fishing and outdoor titles to private equity firm InterMedia Partners for $170 million in cash. The publisher of such Jalopnik reads like Automobile, Motor Trend, Hot Rod, Corvette Fever and Arabian Horse World (what?) says it's retained investment banking firms Goldman Sachs and Lehman to find a suitable media juggernaut company to snap up the list. According to Crain's, the company's stock price spiked today on the news. It's another big move in an effort to pay down a boatload of debt from big buys like that of emap usa (formerly Petersen Publishing) from EMAP in 2000 for just over a half billion. The question now is, who will buy the catalog, and how many of the titles will be cut? Consider those the question(s) of the day. Go. More »

Primedia Swallows Modified Magazines

Back when SEMA held its International Auto Salon show at the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Modified Magazine parties at the nearby Hotel Figueroa were the stuff of legends. Editors wearing white fur coats and smoking cigars with a model on each arm kind of stuff. These guys were serious about performance, but kept a peering eye open into what made people screw around with otherwise perfectly OK cars in the first place. It therefore comes as great shock that Modified as we knew it is no more. Media empire Primedia has acquired Toronto based VerticalScope Inc., publisher of Modified, Modified Luxury and Exotics, and Modified Mustangs Magazines. The press release supplies the usual vague corporo-speak for the reasons behind the buyout. As we have already seen Primedia gobble up competing titles only to eliminate them shortly thereafter, we fear this cannot be good news. – Mike Bumbeck More »

Exercises in Pluggage: New Issue of Gearhead Out Now

Bumbeck and myself can both count Gearhead as a cornerstone in our auto-writing careers. Mike's contributed to it for years, and I edited a few issues, a task that nearly drove me straight to the booby hatch and ultimately led me to Jalopnik's door. Also of note, Gearhead founder Mike LaVella bestowed the nickname "Johnny Uptown" upon Wert. So if you want to do yourself a favor, check out the longest-running (if rather sporadically issued) punk rock car mag in history. The new issue's out now and features all manner of rad stuff, from the Burbank Choppers car club to the New York Dolls. Get with the program, fools. – Davey G. Johnson More »

Crank it or Spank It? The Winding Road 'Vette Debate Rages On

Over at Dubspeed, spy photog and minion of Priddy Chris Doane weighs in on his side of the Winding Road faux-Blue Devil prank. Kasey Kagawa follows Doane's piece up with a counterpunch of his own, stating that stunts like this are precisely what American autojournalism needs to shake it out of its own self-absorbed torpor. Thoughts? Ideas? Questions? Darts of pleasure? Valiants of lust? Comment away. – Davey G. Johnson More »

Sound of a New World Being Born? 0-60 In 184 Days

The kids over at Harris Publications, undaunted by the demise of periodicals such as Custom Rodder, are launching a new book focusing on the world of sporting motorcars. Their teaser site's up now, and they dropped the preview issue at SEMA. Although it has no El Caminos to speak of, there is a certain white Starion in there. And with that kind of vision and premium paper stock, we might be compelled to say the mag, which drops in March May, has SUPER POTENTIAL! – Davey G. Johnson More »

Now Sweet Peet is Fighting With Karl Brauer

A couple of days ago, His Magnificent Sweetness took Karl Brauer of Edmunds to task over the site's "Most Wanted" vehicles list only including two slabs of Detroit iron. Peter's rationale? "[I]s it any wonder that the new go-to guy for auto-biz quotage for that beacon of anti-Detroit objectivity, The New York Times, happens to be none other than Karl Brauer, editor in chief of Edmunds.com?" And while I have heard people talk smack about Karl and his industry connections, I've gotta give the win to Karl's response in this matter. Click through for Brauer's smackdown of Peter and a bit of analysis. More »

Sweet Peet D. On Motor Trend's Car of the Year, Again

We write many items in the space of a week. We know what burnout is like. We know how easy it is to fall back on time-tested gems like "notgonnahappen.com" and "the answer to the question that absolutely nobody is asking." Or alternately crap about Detroit that nobody but Detroiters would care about, like the Ham Center. (Which, to be fair, is actually in Warren.) And well, we feel like the Autoextremist has fallen into retread mode: once again, he's bashing Motor Trend's Car/Truck/SUV/Skateboard/Unicycle of the Year award. That said, his deconstruction is good, and we're very much opposed to the sorts of synergies the Sweeter Peter is on about here. More »

Popular Hot Rodding Puts Another Chink in Primedia's Styrofoam Chinese Wall

Back when Cameron Evans helmed Popular Hot Rodding, the mag had a real spark to it and some pretty solid momentum going. Once he bailed, it rapidly slid downhill. So somewhat unexpectedly, Johnny Hunkins recently exposed the enthusiast-media game for what it is (basically parts payola) with an evocative quote:

"We go to Year One's super fling every year. During the month or two leading up to it, we're pretending hardship in our publisher's office, begging for airfare back East. The conversation usually goes something like this: 'We're dangerously low on car features, plus we can talk to a bunch of our advertisers at the same time.' (Publishers love to hear this stuff from editors.)"

Brief analysis after the jump. More »

The Truth About Advertising on the Truth About Cars

Frank Williams weighs in on Farago's decision to accept advertising on TTAC, discussing the impact it's had on other publications' Chinese Wall. As for our own two cents, Farago's never had much of a problem telling folks to go screw themselves, so we think it'll be an interesting experiment. At the same time, Williams' assertions about the leaks in the dike, from our experience, are pretty true, especially on the enthusiast-oriented end of things. More »

Brock Yates on His Car and Driver Departure

Brock Yates is one of the more divisive figures in automotive journalism. In fact, we feel like a redundant dunce in even saying that, but whatever. Still, we were really shocked when Sweet Peet D. mentioned that Csaba Csere had let Yates go. To us, being thirtysomethings, Yates is more an icon of Car and Driver than David E. ever was. He was the magazine's mascot; he was one of the primary reasons we got into automotive writing. We didn't always agree with the cut of his jib, but we almost always found his words chewing on. His retort to Csere's May, 2006 C/D column posted on the One Lap site wasn't something we noticed 'til today, but we thought it was worth reposting. Check it after the jump. More »

And Now For Something Completely Different: 'King Dork' Blog Book Tour

We almost balked at this, and then decided to go ahead with it, since Andrew Krucoff's at the NY Auto Show and once attempted to be a Mopar hipster, at which he failed miserably. To be fair, that's easier to do than most hipsters think. Nevertheless, our man A.K. managed to get an interview with Frank Portman published on Gawker regarding his new novel King Dork. Frank, of course, is the longtime frontman for the Mr. T Experience. Plus, the first time we ever wanted to kiss our ex-fianc was during a performance of "Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba" at the miniature golf course where we put a ring on her finger two years after the initial meeting. More »

Black Tuesday: AMI Shutters MPH

Crap. Crap and fucking crap. David Pecker, we're so never talking to you again it's not even funny. According to our media-gossipy brother and sister over at Gawker, reported by AdAge and confirmed by sources within the mag itself, American Media has given mph the axe. Alterman, Thomas, Austin, and Wendler were to varying degrees pals and/or great sources, and there was definitely a lot of mutual admiration between our site and their mag. All of us over here at Jalopnik are deeply saddened by the news. No shit, we're like emo about it. More »

Ad Sales Slump Makes Print Types Unhappy

Blamed on a couple of factors namely the ascendancy of the Internet and the doldrums the American auto industry's facing magazine publishers lost $100 mil in ad sales last year. D'oh and d'oh. Sales staffs have been trimmed pretty much across the board, with a few exceptions. (Which sorta makes us happy, perversely, because ad salesmen made out life hell in a previous life.) Dear magazines: here's a trick spend your remaining dollars on making your publications better. Magazines are still cool. We love them. If you're gonna lose money anyway, lose money by being good. It's in nobody's interest to lose money while sucking. That just makes y'all look like chumps. More »

How to be a Blogger, Courtesy the Print Dorks Over at MPH

One D. Merline over at the mph takes a potshot at us instantaneous-types, laying out a template that allows one, in full Mad Lib-fashion, to create a post as quickly as humanly possible. Watch as we try it out. More »

Austin Rebuts! More on the MPH Ram Mega Cab Debate!

Oh, why the hell not? If it's important enough for Mike Austin to throw his editor a comeback insulting his lack of operable follicles, it's enough for us to report on. Austin's posted a response to his ed's takedown of his love of the Ram Mega Cab, acquiescing somewhat. And while you're over there, ex-Necro and death conquistidor Andy Wendler's got a good 'un on the excellent Boseishness of the Saab 9-7X. Yes, shit's gettin' all trucktastic at mph, and we sorta get the feeling that there's lingering guilt over there because of it. More »

Internecine Strife at MPH, or What Happens When Your Editor Vehemently Disagrees with You

Mike Austin and Eddie Alterman, we adore you both. Y'all know that. And we like the way you've started usiing your blog; beating each other 'bout the head and whatnot. Backstory? Austin posted a bit on the Dodge Ram Mega Cab, relating it to a Merc Pullman. Alterman decried this as silly, busting out with "Perhaps chemicals from your Maxim-brand "Bleach Blonde" hair-coloring system have leeched into your melon. There is simply no way that Mega Cab you spoke of in such deliriously subjective terms the other day is worth the $54,540 Dodge is asking." (Which is even better if you imagine Alterman speaking in the dulcet tones of one Buford T. Justice.) Yeah, y'know, we're siding with Eddie on this one. Better luck next time, Austin. More »

Lame, Easy Headline of the Day: Cops in 'Dukes' Cars

While we went with the relatively simple and straightforward, other media outlets went straight for the "Dukes of Hazzard" reference. We've re-thought our decision since then and would like to change it to "NYPD to Drive Cars Once Tuned by Carroll Shelby," because, you know, like, a Charger's a Charger, right? More »

Hoho! The Embargo Thingy Takes on a New Dimension

So earlier today, we took note of Sweet Peet D.'s rant on the state of auto publishing and how fools like is wreckin' it for the Hachettes and Primedias of the world and their long-standing traditions. We checked out this article on media-vs-consumer buzz at CNN, and it turns out that some of the manufacturers are leaking tagged images so they can track where the files go and what the response is, while they pay lip service to the embargo game with the monthlies. Does the thick plotten? Yes, we do believe it plottens. More »

Autoextremist on the Impending Doom of Car Mags

Sweet Peet D. is predicting doom and gloom on on a grand scale for the auto publishing industry as we know it. Why? Because feebs like ourselves are taking away their newsy lifeblood via our patented Just-In-Time delivery system, while the corporate bechweemuths that control them are pressing for more and more profits, leading to cut salaries and writer attrition on a grand scale. Indeed, more and more good journalists seem to be bailing on the traditional game. More »

Tony Swan Sends Us to School Regarding Car and Driver Changes

We just heard from Tony Swan over at C/D regarding the reduction of his role at the mag, which we reported on a couple of days back, mentioning that per Autoextremist, he was being pushed into early retirement. Swan replies: More »

Big Changes Afoot at Car and Driver

We'll admit that over the last couple of years, we haven't enjoyed Car and Driver or Automobile as much as we once did. With their young talent pools having been cherry-picked by David Pecker and his posse to put together mph and Dan Neil having filled his plate in Los Angeles, there's a certain spark that's missing. And while Primedia's cost-cutting measures are legendary (we recently heard an anecdote that a low-level editorial position at Hot Rod pays $15,000 a year less than it did two decades ago), Hachette, according to Sweet Peet D. is putting the screws to Csaba Csere to trim costs. What does this mean? It means, bye, Brock! More »

More on the Primedia Ad-For-Edit Thing

We wrote a couple of days ago about Primedia's apparent edict that to have a product reviewed, companies had to sign a multi-ad contract, which we heard from a reliable source who once worked for the company. Now we hear from a writer whose work we respect, saying that to his knowledge, it isn't so: More »

Buy Some Ads, And We'll Review Your Product: Primedia Totally Whores Out

We did 4 1/2 years in the "enthusiast" publishing bidness i.e., mags for people who like to hop up their vehicles. And while we encountered a lot of pressure from ad sales guys to get their clients into stories (which ultimately became so oppressive that we basically quit writing feature stories because we felt like we were doing a disservice to our readers including 25 advertisers we weren't allowed to say a bad word about in a 4,000-word story on engine building became an exercise in packaging, rather than crafting an engaging and informative read). And now we just heard from a reliable source who once toiled within Primedia's walls that the edict just came down that as far as their enthusiast pubs go, one must sign a multi-ad contract to have a product reviewed. More »

New 'Jane' Editor a Drag Racer. In New Jersey.

We were rather distraught when Jane Pratt announced that she was stepping down from the helm of her eponymously titled women's magazine. No, seriously. We were down with Sassy in the day, and even went to the Jane party at SXSW in hopes of meeting her. Our sister site Gawker reports that her just-announced replacement, Brandon Holley, has worked at a bunch of magazines we don't read and plays the drums, but the thing that caught our eye is that she owns and bracket-races a '66 Charger. Plus, her last name is Holley, which is pretty darn automotive in and of itself. Brandon, call us, babe. We'll do a Pabst brunch. [Thanks to CTE for the tip] More »

50 Years of Car and Driver

Along with Hustler, Time, early Details, Kerrang!, Mad and Gearhead, Car and Driver stands as one of the magazines that not only influenced our worldview, but our writing as well. Goring sacred cows is fun, but the fact remains that C/D is #1 for a reason. The writing is consisently top-notch, they give credit where credit's due and make fun with little-to-no mercy when it's warranted. Plus, sometimes they do really, really dumb shit. It's all here in this oft-hilarious historical timeline of the mag, penned by the redoubtable John Phillips. Oh, and their 50th Anniversary shindig is this weekend in Indy. Fans of autocross, Larry Webster and Mark Farner are totally in luck. More »