Deadline Publishing

Good morning!

Where to Catch Up With Dave

If you're tired of reading the old stuff here just go to our updated site, Fighting The Suburbs.

A Tale of Two Auto Blog Posts

Autoblog from yesterday on the left, KickingTires from Monday on the right.

CNN Let's You Interactively Kidnap, Brainwash and Kill Kids

My headline is a bit of a joke, but this is a great example of when web technology (here a CNN interactive map) and a horrible news story collide into something…more. Just click on the image to enlarge. Have a nice day.  

VW Plans Hybrid Touareg, Not Jetta

Corporate shakeups don't usually change the products we see at local dealerships, but a recent change at Volkswagen has shifted the company's plans for the introduction of a hybrid vehicle. The new head honchos in Germany felt that putting a hybrid engine — at an additional cost of roughly $2,500 — in a Jetta wouldn't sell because of the price. Instead, VW's first hybrid power plant will be in a Touareg SUV.

We think a hybrid Jetta not only would sell, but is more in line with what the Volkswagen brand has been all about since it landed in the U.S. What would you rather see on lots? A hybrid Jetta or a hybrid Touareg?

[Volkswagen Revises Hybrid Plans, Focuses on Touareg, MotorTrend]

Word 2007 Test

Testing out Word 2007 publishing straight to a blog.

Ruining Auto Show Season

I know I rarely post on this blog, but since it is the place for my media musings I figured it was appropriate. It used to be the auto show season was a fun time of year, when everyone saw new cars for the first time. From the media’s standpoint it was always a drag because it was so hectic to cover everything in such a limited time frame. To help them out the automakers provided information and photos in advance and put an embargo on the information so no publication could get a leg-up on a competitor.

The concept of the embargo has gone the way of the dodo and so has much of the fun and mystery surrounding the car shows themselves. First, let me say I’m not writing this rant as sour grapes because the competition has “beaten” us on stories. Kicking Tires and Cars.com isn’t about the enthusiast reader. It is about the car shopper, the people that are actually viewing the car shows to plan a future purchase, and yes they like concept cars too. The Cars.com auto show pages are some of the most heavily trafficked all year so it really doesn’t matter if we have the Chevy Malibu up the same day as a big enthusiast web site. This post also should not be seen as an official Cars.com stance, I’m writing it as a media professional who has some background in covering car shows on the web,.

That said, for the enthusiast I would think this trend of one leak after another days and even weeks before the auto shows is a bit annoying. Davey over at Jalopnik hit the nail on the head with his embargo leak parody. I think there is embargo leak overdosing going on. I’m going to absolve Jalopnik, Autoblog and even Left Lane News of most of the wrongdoing because they’re following the tide. Most of the blame rests on the AutoWeeks, Edmunds InsideLine and WindingRoads of the web world and all the buff books minus Automobile, who I guess is so far behind the times they don’t even have an issue on stands yet. The other major faulty party is the automaker who hasn’t adapted to the web either, even though they’re starting to spend a lot more money advertising money there.

The automakers are setting these embargo dates, often at ridiculous times like Christmas Eve, and expecting the publications to bend over backwards to promote their products. That’s mistake number one. The other big mistake is they give the magazines an advance on the information so they can sell more issues on the newsstand, theoretically trumping the interwebs. Well, fans of Jalopnik probably aren’t surfing Caranddriver.com all day long. They have their Jalopnik feed and when Jalopnik sees an AutoWeek or C&D break an embargo they follow and the reader gets it on Jalopnik (or Autoblog) often with better web presentations, so the magazine is still losing out.

The reader is also suffering from a lack of anticipation, excitement and is probably disoriented about how much is left out there to see and when he or she should expect to see it.

Unlike others I have a solution to this problem.

New Blog, Site Updates

We’ve launched and are just growing Fighting The Suburbs, our Chicago centric blog. We’ll mostly be talking food and culture in the city but expect some other stuff and even event coverage from time to time. Maybe, even politics (heaven forbid).

On Fire Jeff Zucker I just updated our home theater installation. It’s getting there.

Updating My iPod

I’m really not neglecting the blog its just far down on my list of blogs to update. One thing I can relay to everyone is that I’ve been stuck wit the same 100 songs in my iPod phone for the past month without access to my home PC. I had to download iTunes to my work laptop and burn all the CDs I’ve been slowly bringing into the office and finally got an update to my cell.

What’s playing now?

Audioslave, Revelations: Here’s a revelation, this album sucks. I’ll still listen because the last two Audioslave albums grew on me. Let’s hope there’s something I want to grow on me here.

Thom Yorke, Eraser: Not a good “walking to work in downtown Chicago” album because only a few tracks are upbeat and loud enough to cover the din of city life. Still a great album though.
Strike Anywhere, Dead FM: Not as good as their last disc but still good, hard punk rock. This time it’s more melodic and I think that actually damages the group’s sound. The last track, a real slow one, is painfully off course for them. Most of it is pretty rocking though. 

The Mars Volta, Amputechture: I hated The Mars Volta’s (is that like The Ohio State University?) first record. Perhaps I was too pissed off at the end of At The Drive-In, but I just never got into it. Luckily $9 price tags at Best Buy keeps me buying their discs and after their live album I’m more of a fan. Now the group has finally put together that break through disc that shows the proper balance of psychedelic guitars and hard charging rhythm. Highly recommended.

Dirty Pretty Things, Waterloo to Anywhere: They’re British. I got the disc free. It’s pretty good.  Mostly it’s just filler between everything else.

Old stuff also on there: Pearl Jam, Greatest Hits; Nebula, Apollo.

Brilliant New York Times Online Ad

My second favorite automotive site is running a New York Times ad that is simple, brilliant and may actually get people to subscribe in one click. Shown here it says “Think outside the screen” and shows a spiffy business guy reading a newspaper outside! After dozens of commercials telling me how easily I can take my laptop anywhere I want with a web connection I prefer the thought of being outside and NOT being near e-mail, web, work etc. Good job NYT!