Today's Important News, Tomorrow
It was Monday, June 3rd, 8 PM Detroit time, 5 PM on the West Coast, midnight in London and the beginning of the next workday in Tokyo, Seoul, and Taipei, when this major automotive news story broke:
Ford is pulling out of Wingcast, its telematics joint venture, and Qualcomm says it will fold the venture!
Whoa! A Monumental event just took place in the blink of an eye. Oh how quickly and silently the sword fell!
Wingcast had been the prime player in the telematics space. In fact, as recently as two weeks ago its very visible CEO and President, Harel Kodesh, gave the Keynote Presentation at the Telematics Detroit 2002 conference held in Cobo Hall, and Lars Kreul, President of Wingcast Europe, is still advertised as a Keynoter at the Telematics Systems 2002 conference to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden later this month.
Wingcast had become the poster child for the future of telematics by virtue of the massive economic support and corporate endorsement of this potential new business by real heavyweights like Ford and Qualcomm.
The Wingcast name was everywhere: in magazines, at conferences, and at tradeshows. Its executives were interviewed on radio, TV, and in virtually every automotive trade publication. To borrow from another era, Wingcast was the cats meow!
In plain language, the demise of Wingcast was Bulletin, Extra! Extra! and Bold Headline worthy. It was a story that deserved to be published as soon as it was technically possible.
The daily newspapers did the best they could do; they published the story the next day.
The radio and television stations in Detroit did the best they could do; they broadcast the story later that evening.
The weekly magazines will do the best they can and will publish in their next issue.
The monthly magazines will do the best they can do and publish the story (with color pictures and in-depth sidebars of course) within a couple of months.
But one Internet publication, just one, did the best they could do and IMMEDIATELY published the story on their front page so auto executives around the world would have fresh information to use in their decision making. That Internet publication was, of course, THE AUTO CHANNEL.
Out of all of the on-line automotive publications, it seems that only THE AUTO CHANNELGets it and utilizes the technical capabilities and world reach that the Internet offers publishers.
Within minutes after the news was released, it was published on THE AUTO CHANNEL. Our coverage included the Qualcomm release, an attributed Reuters' story, an attributed AP release, and a first hand commentary by TACH's co-publisher.
Internet Publishers WHO DON'T GET IT!
On Monday Night:
AutomotiveNews.com did not have the story up.
Auto.com, the Knight-Ridder website, did not have the story up on its front page. It was buried in the Reuters automated index.
Ford.com did not have the story up - and still doesn't.
AftermarketBusiness.com did not have the story up.
AftermarketNews.com did not have the story up.
CarandDriver.com did not have the story up.
Roadandtrack.com did not have the story up.
Detroit News Auto Insider did not have the story up.
MSN CarPoint still doesn't have the story up.
USAutonews.com did not have the story up.
Autoweek.com did not have the story up.
Roadandtrack.com finally published the story June 5.
thecarconnection.com published the story a day later.
Wardsauto.com did not and still does not have the story.
and unfortunately many other pretenders to interactive electronic publishing did not do the best they technically could.
The Wingcast incident illustrates the vast differences in internet publishing philosophies between those of us who come out of broadcasting and understand the absolute necessity for immediacy, and those who carry their old fashioned print publishing methodologies to this new electronic medium.
I would like to be able to say to the automotive industry that as soon as everything that can affect the auto industry occurs, you will be able to read/hear/see the story right here on the front page of The Auto Channel,but we can't - not quite yet. Why? It'not a lack of understanding or commitment or enthusiastic personnel or even technological know-how, it is purely and simply the lack of budget.
But what's the excuse of the so-called publications of record for the auto industry?
Auto.com apparently did not have an editor working who recognized the importance of the story and move it to their front page.
Automotive News did not publish this story until the next morning when it finally appeared as the top headline.
This incident just reinforces what I have been saying for years; thatPrint Folks” just can't seem to make the transition to an electronic medium. If they could have, they would have, and today there would be a Saturday Evening Post TV Network, a Colliers TV Network, a Life TV Network, a New York Times TV Network, and a Readers Digest TV Network. Moreover, USA Today wouldn't have lost tens of millions of dollars trying to create a USA Today morning TV show.
Some of you may think that all this is self-serving, it is. Hopefully this incident will help us create an understanding breakthrough.
Over the past 6 years, most of the senior automotive advertising people we have talked to about The Auto Channel and The Internet just didn't appreciate or fully understand the amazing potential that this new medium offers their business and community.
Most automotive company executives with maturity and ad budget responsibility have become the roadblock to progress by withholding the support, encouragement and most importantly, the appropriate advertising and promotional budgets from those who do get it,just ask.
The Internet can become the primary medium to globally deliver niche news and information on a timely basis, but the advertising budget keepers remain behind the times by continuing to support the online efforts of traditional print publishers who are using the Internet as a promotional tool to help support their magazines or papers or sell newsletters.
THE AUTO CHANNEL's owners and managers believe that if you are going to be on an electronic medium, you have to behave like one. That means coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and a commitment of the resources to provide timely publication of important stories: news which should not have to wait until the morning.
Auto industry communications executives have a chance to help their companies and the industry by moving a portion of their advertising budget to those entities that are breaking new ground, and raising the bar on the way we will communicate now and in the future.
Bob Gordon President and Co-Publisher THE AUTO CHANNEL
