Jalopnik: detroit news

A World Without Detroit Newspaper Auto Coverage?

Ben Wojdyla — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 15:35:00 EDT

Today's the first without home delivery of Detroit's two daily newspapers. Think you won't be getting auto news ever again? Wrong! If you haven't seen their online auto sections, maybe now's the time. [Freep, DetroitNews]

Detroit News' Danny Howes Needs To Quit Stealing Wert's Lines On Big Three "Bailout"

Andrew Stoy — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 12:00:00 EDT

The Detroit News' own most original, free-thinking business writer, Danny "Boy" Howes, has managed to say exactly what Wert said on CNBC the other day without actually saying anything about Wert. Whether Howes was inspired while watching CNBC Friday or his opinions came to him in a dream, carried forth perhaps by dragon-messenger, we'll never know, but it's now conventional wisdom to those in the know that the Detroit Three's requested governmental cash assistance is not, in fact, a bailout — but will likely be spun as such by the rest of the media landscape. So, when your blowhard relatives start screaming about "another Detroit bailout," just remember to mumble "Bear Stearns" under your breath while clearing your throat. [Detroit News; Photo Credit: Markfive]

The Detroit News Opines On Renewed Pony Car Wars

Ben Wojdyla — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 10:00:00 EDT

Our buddy Scott Burgess over at the Detroit News has taken on the rekindled problem of which ponycar now reigns supreme. With the Ford Mustang GT500 and its thousands of variations, the reborn Dodge Challenger (now in SRT8 flavor), and the recently unveiled Chevy Camaro all vying for eyes, there won't be enough Calvin-peeing-on-competitor decals to go around. Though the conclusion is left up in the air, Scott still provides an amusing simile while comparing the Ford to Chuck Norris with a Bowflex. [Detroit News]

Detroit News Picks Worst Cars For Woodward Dream Cruise

Ben Wojdyla — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 15:00:00 EDT

Automotive taste is such a subjective thing. Two decades ago nobody would have thought Mopars would be the hottest thing on the strip and street, and yet we're staring at triple-digit Chargers these days. Given the pending Woodward Dream Cruise this weekend, the Detroit News has picked out the cars they believe to be at the bottom of their desirability curve. Something is obviously wrong with us, but we think some of these are pretty neat cars, especially the '72 Ford Country Squire. Oh, and note to the News: The Coronet was a Dodge. [DetNews]

Scott Burgess of the Detroit News Wants to Have it All

bwojdyla — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 14:30:00 EST

Scott Burgess, the most cuddly of auto critics over at the Detroit News has come up with an interesting, one-man-focus-group pseudo-review of the best parts of cars this year. Deftly sidestepping the realities of engineering, Burgess asks for somebody, anybody to put parts of some of the most dissimilar cars around into a Frankenstein's monster of platform prostitution. Take the brain from Ford's Sync System and put it into an Audi R8 body, bring in a heart from GM (what?!) and eyes from Mercedes... okay that's where our body parts/car parts metaphor runs out, but it's still madness, madness we say! Mwah ha ha ha ha! We're totally loving the diabolicalness of it all.[detnews.com]

Detroit Auto Show Just Two Weeks Away, Cobo Hall Getting All Gussied-Up With New Walkway

Ray Wert — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 10:15:00 EST

The mother-of-all-auto-shows, the Detroit Auto Show, is just a couple of weeks away so it's now time to start the deluge of pre-Auto Show stories from the local Detroit press on how Cobo Hall's getting ready for the limelight. First to the plate is Bryce Hoffman of the Detroit News and his enthralling piece on Detroit's aging Convention Center's attempt at prettying itself up for the media and scores of public attendees. Bryce tries really hard, but it's hard for us to get hard up on a piece describing...

..."another aisle running the entire length of the hall" as the major change between this year and last. Maybe he should talk about some of the reveals coming or better yet, not run a rah-rah-Detroit Auto Show powder puff piece to begin with. Don't people know the true power of the Detroit Auto Show comes from the strength of the reveals and not the strength of pedestrian accessibility? Just sayin'... [Detroit News]

New York Times Takes Bill Vlasic for a Ride as New Detroit Chief

Ray Wert — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 17:01:00 EST

Looks like there'll be a new sheriff in town for the New York Times. The Old Grey Lady's gone and stolen Bill Vlasic, veteran of many a Detroit automotive battle, from the Detroit News to act as their new ~~whipping boy~~ Detroit bureau chief. If you'll remember, Vlasic penned the classic story of the famed "merger of equals" between Daimler and Chrysler dubbed "Taken for a Ride." We're told the NYT even likened it to "Barbarians at the Gate...a spellbinding tale, juicy gossip and all, of how business is really done among the world's largest companies." Yes, it was exactly like "Barbarians at the Gate" except for the part about it making a big pot of money through selling lots of copies. We kid the new Times main-man and look forward to ~~finally seeing~~ continuing to see Bill at auto press events in the near future. Full press release from Larry Ingrassia below the jump.

I'm pleased to announce that Bill Vlasic will be the Times' new Detroit bureau chief, taking over from Micki Maynard, who will be moving on to a new assignment in Washington next year.
Micki is hard to replace, with her knack for seeing around corners, and for writing smart and bright enterprise that tends to walk onto Page One. But we're confident Bill can continue the Times' tradition of first-rate coverage out of the nation's automotive capital.

With more than a dozen years' experience covering the industry, most recently for the Detroit News, Bill knows the business inside-out. Detroit is a company story, a consumer story, a labor story, an environmental story and a political story, and Bill has demonstrated an ability to approach the beat from all these angles.

He won a Loeb Award in 2005 for a series on safety problems with car roofs, and was a Loeb finalist in three other years. And he wrote a gripping series on Heinz Prechter's battle with manic depression, and how it drove the prominent auto executive to take his own life.

His book, "Taken for a Ride," about Daimler Benz's buyout of Chrysler, which he wrote with Brad Stertz, was lauded by our own Keith Bradsher in the Times' Book Review. He likened it to "Barbarians at the Gate...a spellbinding tale, juicy gossip and all, of how business is really done among the world's largest companies."

Bill is a Detroit native and the father of two sons, ages 24 and 21, and a 16-year-old daughter. Please welcome him when he arrives in New York for orientation in the next few weeks.

Congrats to the Detroit News for finally...

Ray Wert — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 09:30:00 EDT

Congrats to the Detroit News for finally bringing their web site up to date — now we'll get to see Danny Howes and the whole Auto Insiders team in something approaching current html standards. Who are we kidding — have you seen what our code looks like? [Detroit News]

Did Danny Howes just get demoted to the Ford...

Ray Wert — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 15:35:00 EDT

Did Danny Howes just get demoted to the Ford beat over at the Detroit News or something? Why's he resorting to quoting press releases? [Detroit News]

First there was quality, then there was cost...

Ray Wert — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 10:30:00 EDT

First there was quality, then there was cost cutting. Now, for Danny Howes, simplicity is apparently "job one." Only problem is — we think we read this article already on the front page of the business section of yesterday's New York Times. [Detroit News via NYT]

Detroit News Has The Key To The 2007 Labor Talks, No Longer Needs To Discuss Them

Ray Wert — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 08:15:00 EDT

Given UAW contract talks have yet to begin, we're a little bit confused by today's "2007 UAW Contract Talks" piece by Bill Vlasic in the Detroit News. It's a segment trumpeting itself as the "last in an occasional series." But we guess it makes sense with the sub-headline under the piece making it clear where things stand:

"Carmakers need cuts, union fights to preserve what it has."

Well, we guess since they've come up with the solution all by their lonesome, there's nothing more left to talk about, eh? [Detroit News]

Chrysler UAW Veep General Holliefield is...

Ray Wert — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:15:00 EDT

Chrysler UAW Veep General Holliefield is quoted as stating: "All contract talks are difficult." Detroit News reports it as news. Slow news day today, boys? [Detroit News]

Ford: Cut Labor Tab 30%

Ray Wert — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 08:00:00 EDT

Translated into UAW-speak, that headline reads "Ford: Increasing Likelihood Of Strike 30% [Detroit News]

Motor Trend Blogger Attacks Blogosphere, Hits Self

Ray Wert — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 12:57:10 EDT

Todd Lassa, the self-proclaimed "Motor City Blogman" over at Motor Trend's blog, took a moment out of his busy schedule yesterday to provide some much-needed commentary on the state of the automotive blogosphere. Lassa, who appears to consider blogging to be defined as running print articles on something he calls a "blog," takes a few quick and dirty pot-shots at the automotive blogosphere. We'll be providing further commentary shortly on some of his specific attacks — mostly because we're too busy laughing at two of his comments to do much writing. The first is that in an attempt to get to his pummeling of the blogosphere (how meta is that?) he glosses over the problem that the Mulally-Bush story was started by an icon of the mainstream media, The Detroit News. The second, is that he attacks trained journalists for "chasing bloggers' stories." Seems to us like maybe his problem's with the mainstream media and not the blogosphere — but whatevs, he's just a "Blogman" anyway, what does he know? – Ray Wert

How many bloggers does it take to plug in a president? [Motor Trend Blog]

Detroit News Tells Tall Tale On Bush, Blames Blogs

Ray Wert — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 09:51:00 EDT

There's a big reason we didn't cover the silly little anecdote told by Alan Mulally at the New York Auto Show last week — we actually were watching it unfold live on CNBC at the time, and realized his comments in New York were nothing more than an embellished joke, hardly worth of a mention. But his anecdote, that he insinuated he helped save the president from setting himself and FoMoCo's hydrogen-powered vehicle on fire, were responsible for an online conflagration of epic proportions — necessitating Keith Olbermann's piece above. Olbermann's segment, along with further attacks in the blogosphere, have necessitated that the News fire back. The only problem is that they end up blaming "blog mania" for the problem rather than taking responsibility for their own actions which were ten times more blogtastic. Because although the comments by Mulally may have been published first by our good friends at AutoBlog — they weren't responsible for blowing this particular story out of the land of reality and into the land of fiction. Autoblog was smart about how they covered the story — stating the facts, in a this-is-what-he-said account:

"One of Mulally's funniest stories revolved around the Ford HySeries Drive, a plug-in series hybrid concept with auxiliary fuel-cell power. The car has two power inputs: an electrical plug up front and a hydrogen filler plug in the rear. A photo op was scheduled with President Bush on at the White House.
"We had to make sure the President plugged the electrical cord into the electric outlet, not the hydrogen," said Mulally, who added that he literally had to "manhandle" the president to the front of the car to avoid a refueling faux pax."

It was then the mainstream media — or at least whatever you'd call The Detroit News — that blew this out of proportion. The News ran a sensationalized story "Plug it in, fire it up, Mr. President" as part of their "Business Insider" segment last week. Net folks didn't get this story from the little mention in Autoblog. It was only after the News ran it did it then get picked up by every blogger in the known universe. They wrote:

"Credit Ford Motor Co. CEO Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation.

Mulally told journalists at the New York auto show that he intervened to prevent President Bush from plugging an electrical cord into the hydrogen tank of Ford's hydrogen-electric plug-in hybrid at the White House last week. Ford wanted to give the Commander-in-Chief an actual demonstration of the innovative vehicle, so the automaker arranged for an electrical outlet to be installed on the South Lawn and ran a charging cord to the hybrid. However, as Mulally followed Bush out to the car, he noticed someone had left the cord lying at the rear of the vehicle, near the fuel tank.

"I just thought, 'Oh my goodness!' So, I started walking faster, and the President walked faster and he got to the cord before I did. I violated all the protocols. I touched the President. I grabbed his arm and I moved him up to the front," Mulally said. "I wanted the president to make sure he plugged into the electricity, not into the hydrogen This is all off the record, right?"

It would appear, from that top line — "Credit...Alan Mulally with saving the leader of the free world from self-immolation" — where the real "bloggerific" action was occuring, as it was more sensationalized than anything that appeared on Autoblog. But that hasn't stopped the News from blaming them for the uproar:

"Within hours, the anecdote was picked up by Autoblog.com.

The Detroit News ran a three-paragraph account of Mulally's comments Saturday in the Business Insider column, a weekly compilation of humorous items about the business world."

Right, like it's Autoblog's fault for publishing source material. Whatevs. Still, we've got to credit the News on their attempt at spin control — blaming the big n' bad blog for running source material first and insinuating they're basically doing nothing more than just repeating what the blog said. However, since Detroit News reporter Bryce Hoffman was there at the breakfast — he was sitting no less than three tables away from us — shouldn't they be taking responsibility for their own actions rather than running an article with a headline insinuating it's just Alan Mulally and the blogosphere's fault? How very blog-like of them. – Ray Wert

Mulally's Bush tale ignites blog mania [Detroit News]

Toyota Tundra Is The New Buick?

Ray Wert — Wed, 21 Mar 2007 10:30:00 EDT

According to the Detroit News, anyway. Come on guys, isn't this a "Hate-American-Automakers-First" kind of thing to do? I mean, can't you guys mention GM in an article without finding a way to mention Toyota? I'm just sayin'... [Hat tip to Mischa!] – Ray Wert

GM's Buick brand reaches crossroads [Detroit News]

The Detroit News Has Bases Covered On Ford Today

Ray Wert — Mon, 26 Feb 2007 17:30:00 EST

Both of these articles were published today on the Detroit News web site. I guess the way they're looking at it is they've got a 50% chance of being right. Although you've really got to wonder how someone allows an interview with any employee from a US automaker continue beyond what we can only imagine was the statement: "I use techniques to deal with suppliers I learned while at the Central Intelligence Agency." – Ray Wert

Ford heads off supplier problems [Detroit News]

The Detroit News Thinks Ford Is So Innovative, They're 30 Years Ahead Of Themselves

Ray Wert — Wed, 07 Feb 2007 10:19:33 EST

Yeah, it's amazing how boldly moving FoMoCo was back in 1956. What other auto company could bring out the 80's model of their import-fighter in the mid-1950's? Only ~~The Detroit News thinks~~ Ford's got that kind of innovative thinking — or at least they think they do based on the picture above, attached to the article linked below. [Hat tip to Michael and Pete!] – Ray Wert

Ford Taurus reborn [Detroit News]

Big Blue Oval Day: Didn't The Wall Street Journal Get The Memo?

Ray Wert — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 14:57:40 EST

Well, there's one big story on everyone in the auto industry's mind — what's up with FoMoCo's 2006 earnings? Although it was expected by all but the biggest Kool-Aid drinkers in and around the Glass House in Dearborn, one thing's true — almost everyone's sporting the blue oval on the front pages of their web sites. You already know we rock a stylized version here on the Jalop, but we thought we'd check out how other online sites were throwing down with the mortgaged-to-the-hilt logo. The Freep's got their blue oval reflecting trucks on the upper chrome band, while the Times has trucks being reflected on the lower chrome lip. Heck, even the Detroit News is doing the best they can with the web site MediaNews has given them — although no truck reflection, they've at least got the best li'l bue oval their a-href-dorable little web software can muster. But apparently the still-sees-things-in-black-n-white Wall Street Journal didn't get the memo. What happened guys, where's the blue oval? But maybe not rocking the big n' blue badge is what it's all about — let's find out what you think. – Ray Wert

Detroit News Shows Off The New Ford — What Now?

Ray Wert — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 17:27:41 EST

The Detroit News must be having the same problem we've been having trying to keep up with the fast n' furious pace of the big dance. Must be why they slipped in this pic of the newest Chrysler minivan for the story on the new Ford Focus — showing yet again why there's a need for coyrighters four thee internets. – Ray Wert

Related:
Detroit Auto Show: 2008 Ford Focus [internal]