Ever wanted to run a car magazine? Ever wondered what it’s like and what it takes? Now’s your chance to ask the guy running Autoweek, Rory Carroll, anything you want. He’s here in the office and happy to answer your questions.
If you’ve ever had some sort of hare brained car scheme, Rory’s probably done it, but I’ll let him explain himself:
If anyone is interested in my bio, I am 34 and originally from Northern Michigan. I now live in Detroit. I have half of a ‘48 Willys CJ2A, a Lada and an old 911 that I bought before they got pricy. I’ve been at Autoweek for almost 5 years. I love it.I’ve been reading Jalopnik pretty much since it started, though I’m not as obsessive about it as I used to be. At the peak of my obsession, I let Jonny Lieberman and Murilee Martin talk me into building and racing the now-Soviet-liveried Lada mentioned above in LeMons. We won the Index of Effluency.
I’m here today because I’m interested in hearing what Jalops think about where Autoweek is now and where it’s headed.
Historically, I think Autoweek has been very broadly engaged in writing about “car culture.” So, that’s racing at all levels, “news and reviews,” and the whole universe that revolves around old cars. That’s obviously a little nebulous, but that’s one of the things that I love about working here.When we decide what to write about, the primary consideration is whether or not we think readers will be into it. We recently ran a huge feature on Bristol next to eight pages of illustrations done at the N24. In the same issue. Nobody else is doing anything like that as far as I know. Definitely not in print. I don’t see any reason to change that formula or change what we write about. I do see a need to assess how we write about car culture and how we represent it.As far as a plan or outlook, I’d say that as the industry evolves we’re going to be doubling down on car culture as opposed to reporting on the commuting or “mobility” industry—except as it relates to car culture. Mobility is how you get to work. Nobody has ever been excited to read about that. Nobody wants to be a part of commuter culture.The steamship didn’t kill sailing and people still ride horses for some reason. I sincerely believe that there’s a bright future for cars and car culture, that there’s a path forward. But for me and Autoweek that starts with an honest examination of why in a lot of cases, automotive media has failed to articulate what’s so great about them, what we get out of our weird obsession. This AMA is part of that process.
So please, ask Rory anything you want. He’s right here in the cave thirty stories underneath Penn Station that functions as Jalopnik’s HQ, and he’s happy to answer your Qs.