{"id":76990,"date":"2014-05-29T19:19:56","date_gmt":"2014-05-29T23:19:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=76990"},"modified":"2014-05-29T19:35:18","modified_gmt":"2014-05-29T23:35:18","slug":"major-shake-up-at-automobile-magazine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2014\/05\/major-shake-up-at-automobile-magazine\/","title":{"rendered":"Major Shake-up at Automobile Magazine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For now, no major editorial changes are planned -- at least none being openly revealed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The publishing crunch has caught up with another major automotive magazine, the parent of Michigan-based Automobile ousting its long-time editor-in-chief and moving its headquarters to California as part of a broader shake-up in its troubled media network.<\/p>\n

Along with the hit to Automobile, generally considered one of the weaker of the mainstream monthly U.S. automotive publications, Source Interlink Media will \u201cabsorb\u201d 12 of its more specialized publications into the even 10 core brands that will survive. Fittingly, the company plans to rebrand itself as TEN: The Enthusiast Network.<\/p>\n

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Media News!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Along with Automobile, the surviving publications include Motor Trend, perhaps the most successful of the automotive publications at expanding its brand beyond its print origins, Hot Rod, Surfer, and TransWorld. Gone will be the likes of Popular Hot Rodding, Mud Life and 5.0 Mustang.<\/p>\n

“The Company\u2019s future focus will center on its iconic core brands and their connection with the consumer across all forms of media,\u201d said Scott Dickey, Chief Executive Officer, in a prepared release. \u201cWe are now putting in place the foundation to operate as a truly independent content creation and media services company, and the rebranding signals both the scale of the changes and scope of our ambitions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Officially, the media conglomerate stressed that Automobile\u2019s editorial policies won\u2019t change, a position a well-placed source within the magazine echoed. But much of its voice has, for many years, been honed by its long-time editor Jean Jennings who helped found the publication with its original editor-in-chief and industry veteran David E. Davis.<\/p>\n

(From track to street? Will this DeltaWing 4-seater make it into production? <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for more.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rumors of a shake-up have been rampant for some time, most predicting Jennings departure, some even predicting Automobile itself might not survive. It seems clear that the newly renamed TEN is hoping to cut costs by moving key elements of the publication to California from the current base in the Detroit suburb of Ann Arbor. Automobile will now share space with the bigger Motor Trend, and the two publications will have common backroom operations.<\/p>\n

A \u201cnumber\u201d of current employees, beyond Jennings, will be terminated, several sources indicating that could come to as much as 90% of the original staff, though more than a few will remain with the magazine, some in new offices in another Detroit suburb. Ironically, that facility was previously the home of Saab\u2019s American operations before the company went bankrupt several years ago.<\/p>\n

Among those remaining with Automobile will be Mike Floyd, now becoming the editor-in-chief. Joe DeMatio will remain in Michigan and in his post as deputy editor, with Todd Lassa also remaining in a Michigan editorial position.<\/p>\n

(Google plans to build 100 autonomous vehicle prototypes. <\/em>Click Here<\/span><\/a> for the full story.)<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ironically, even as Automobile moves physically closer to Motor Trend, the plan appears to focus on emphasizing the differences between the two publications.<\/p>\n

But Motor Trend\u2019s strategy of expanding as a multimedia entity, rather than a primarily print publication, could be a critical step in the rebranding process. In fact, automobilemag.com will not be dropped \u2013 and could be given additional resources.<\/p>\n

The shake-up at Automobile comes little more than a year after rival Road & Track underwent its own crisis. In that case, virtually the entire staff was ousted. And the California-based publication, under new Hearst ownership, moved East. It is now collocated with the parent company\u2019s other automotive magazine, Car & Driver.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the fifth mainstream automotive enthusiast magazine several years ago took steps that seemed counter to its masthead mandate, Auto Week now operating as a bi-weekly publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The publishing crunch has caught up with another major automotive magazine, the parent of Michigan-based Automobile ousting its long-time editor-in-chief and moving its headquarters to California as part of a broader shake-up in its troubled media network. More from TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"make":[],"post-state":[],"category_old":[151],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76990"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76990\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76992"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76990"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=76990"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=76990"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=76990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}