The Auto Channel
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
The Largest Independent Automotive Research Resource
Official Website of the New Car Buyer

The Auto Channel
Automotive Focused Content Channel
Media Kit January 2015


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The Auto Channel LLC:

Who visits this site?

Audience Demographics
The audience demographics data comes from voluntary demographics information submitted by people in our global traffic panel. The data is for the past 12 months, updated monthly.

The demographics data consists of:

Audience Demographics

How similar is this site's audience to the general internet population?

Gender

Internet Average

Male
    The audience for this site among Males is similar to the general internet population.

Confidence: medium
Female
    The audience for this site among Females is similar to the general internet population.

Confidence: medium
Below Above

Age

Internet Average
18-24
    Relative to the general internet population, 18-24 year olds are under-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
25-34
    Relative to the general internet population, 25-34 year olds are over-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
35-44
    Relative to the general internet population, 35-44 year olds are greatly under-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
45-54
    Relative to the general internet population, 45-54 year olds are over-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
55-64
    Relative to the general internet population, 55-64 year olds are over-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
65+
    No data available for people over 65 years old
Below Above

Education

Internet Average
No College
    Relative to the general internet population, people who did not go to college are under-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
Some College
    Relative to the general internet population, people with some college education are over-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
Graduate School
    Relative to the general internet population, people who went to graduate school are under-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
College
    Relative to the general internet population, people who went to college are over-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
Below Above

Income

Internet Average
$0 - $30K
    Relative to the general internet population, people with income less than $30,000 a year are under-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
$30K - $60K
    The audience for this site among people with income from $30,000 to $60,000 a year is similar to the general internet population.

Confidence: medium
$60K - $100K
    Relative to the general internet population, people with income from $60,000 to $100,000 a year are over-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
$100K+
    The audience for this site among people with income more than $100,000 a year is similar to the general internet population.

Confidence: medium
Below Above

Browsing Location

Internet Average
Home
    Relative to the general internet population, people browsing from home are greatly under-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
School
    Relative to the general internet population, people browsing from school are under-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
Work
    Relative to the general internet population, people browsing from work are greatly over-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
Below Above

Has Children

Internet Average
Yes
    Relative to the general internet population, people with children are under-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
No
    Relative to the general internet population, people without children are over-represented at this site.

Confidence: medium
Below Above

http://www.theautochannel.com, www.perfectnewcarmatch.com
http://www.newcarbuyersguide.com, plus 45 Single Brand Buyers Guides

The Auto Channel – A “Focused Content Channel” Provides Web Users and Web Advertisers A Safe Efficient Place To Accomplish Their Tasks

The Auto Channel offers automotive advertisers a 100% Relevant and Safe Environment for their brands advertising, and offers web surfers the means to eliminate information glare and search fatigue. For more than 17 years The Auto Channel’s mission statement has not changed, our vision then is our vision now;

“People want and need auto information and The Auto Channel will provide them with instant access to a massive editorially unbiased on-line multi-media library of automotive information and entertainment. And will provide a flexible and independent media platform for automotive segment advertisers to communicate their relevant promotional opportunities to The Auto Channel’s automotive centric audience.”

In fact what we did then is even more relevant today, and will be more relevant in the future.

The Auto Channel has always been more than a typical auto website, it can be thought of as the main library, but focused on a single subject , filled with news, articles, opinion, data, video and audio dedicated to a single albeit enormous subject area, the automotive universe.

Over the past 18 years, 240 million online in-market auto researchers, automotive enthusiasts and auto industry participants were directed by the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing to the automotive information that they were looking for, and many found it within The Auto Channel’s million pages of editorial content.

But unlike “those good old days”, the recent exponential growth of web publishing, blog publishing, and SEO scammers is generating massive amounts of content that is being force-fed into the “cloud”…engorging it and causing it to grow into an unsearchable and unmanageable configuration, resulting in user search fatigue and “Information Glare”. Making it virtually impossible for web searchers to be assured that they are being shown links to the “very best content” which in the past was displayed on the first or second search result pages, but today too many relevant and editorially superior automotive articles are being “back paged” replaced by links to mediocre or non-relevant search query returns.

Search Fatigue and Information Glare are also responsible for reducing the ROI of web advertisers, whose interactive ad campaigns have traditionally relied on paid search as their primary on-line campaigns to drive traffic and actions. But unlike traditional media, search page exposure is devoid of any branding benefit.

Today, search results are providing researchers with fewer top line answers to their queries, because of the elevation of information shown on non- relevant web sites that “know how to play the SEO game” to first page placement.

So to try to counter inaccuracies, Search Engines have added new tests and “Bubble filters” to try to once again return acceptable results from “cloud wide search results”.

But instead of dimming “information glare” Google Search has polarized its results and has become a new media gatekeeper. With robotic decision makers attempting value judgments that accurately determine every web site’s “authority” and “relevance” and determining qualitative value a web site’s editorial content, impossible.

We have all seen blatant examples of search inaccuracy in the high page rankings given to thin second and third rate web sites; scrapper sites that are one headline deep; habitual copyright lawbreakers; and MFA (Made for AdSense) sites, so today searching for and finding relevant information using a full web search has become no better than an Easter Egg Hunt.

Search fatigue along with the growing importance of “top of mind” organically grown social media sites like Facebook and LinkedIn are heralding the decline of “web cloud search” as the Internet’s primary method to find relevant and useful information. This reduction in importance is also diminishing search advertising as the primary online advertising and marketing technique for advertisers trying to reach a specific focused audience.

Although we understand and sympathize with the impossible task that search engines have; indexing, deciphering, digesting, ranking and relevant-ising all of the content found in the unending data cloud, and we agree with the necessity of eliminating all non-relevant, inaccurate or misleading citations from first or second page search results, we have a simple back to the future solution.

Changing “Searching the Content Cloud” to “Searching Focused Content Channels”

We believe that this change will result in a more helpful Internet search norm in which consumers and advertisers can eliminate the chaos of information glare by finding requested knowledge not in a cloud, but within editorially curated “Focused Content Channels”, single subject multi-platform media entities that deliver 100% relevant content while concurrently providing a 100% targeted audience for advertisers to communicate with.

The history of advertiser supported media has shown that success follows a traditional, tried and true path, no matter the technology or medium. Once the tipping point of “top of mind” awareness of an entity was reached, like a perpetual motion machine it continued to grow and benefit from that asset.

From Poor Richards Almanac to Life Magazine to TV Guide to today’s CNN and The Weather Channel, the public knows and goes, and does not need to stop at a search engine to help them get there.

The future’s “Focused Content Channels” that offer relevance will continually reinforce their top of mind awareness and maintain commercial success through a highly ranked audience position.

Successful entities will continue to expand their audience by offering more of what society wants and need, while maintaining their critical mass of “top of mind awareness” through hyper-generating a mass societal understanding and awareness of what they are and what they do. A ubiquitous public understanding that can power the entity’s audience growth and earn it advertising and/or subscription revenue with which to support continuing content production, operations and distribution.

Similar to the great “Focused Content Channels” entities of yesterday, but with some major differences…tomorrow’s successful Focused Content Channel will contain infinite quantities of single subject content made accessible forever as text, images, video, audio and/or whatever comes next.

The web version of a “Focused Content Channel” must be translatable and monetized on every digital distribution platform; whether mobile, in-home, out of home… everywhere an information appliance is located so must be the “Focused Content Channel”.

The Auto Channel, the Automotive “Focused Content Channel”

In 1986 The Auto Channel founders recognized, invested in and financed the first step in the development of an automotive media vertical that would offer original and curated content within a totally automotive centric network that would be distributed via traditional and every future technology. Automotive focused information presented in a way that had the potential to dominate the segment and attract visitors from the “car crazy” society, it was a good idea in 1986 and it is a better idea today.

Over the past 25 years The Auto Channel has positioned itself to become the Automotive “Focused Content Channel” and to capitalize on the enormous financial benefits of “owning” the brand name information channel in the automotive vertical.

Focused Content Channel search offers several obvious benefits over general search engines: Greater precision due to limited scope; Leverage domain knowledge including taxonomies and ontologies; Supports specific unique user tasks and assumptions. John Battelle describes this in his book, The Search. He writes;

“Domain-specific search solutions focus on one area of knowledge, creating customized search experiences that because of the domain's limited corpus and clear relationships between concepts provide extremely relevant results for searchers.”

Not only will Focused Content Channel searches quickly become valuable to users but will also present automotive advertisers with a Safe Environment for their brand’s advertising, and in tomorrow on-line social and SEO dominated world it will be comforting and profitable to find.

The Auto Channel audience welcomes relevant automotive contextual advertising and information, because it is delivered to them within 100% automotive content.

The Auto Channel offers advertisers banner ad positions, native advertising platforms, video placement and custom crafted advertorial sub-section, within relevant editorial in the web’s largest independent automotive content library.

On-line since January 1996, TACH's content and unique presentation attracts a competitively sized on-line audience of “old name” automotive magazines. The Auto Channel is a requested resource for on-line editorial automotive information and opinion for consumers, enthusiasts, auto industry executives, in-market buyers, “car uncle’s”, auto influentials, and auto enthusiastics.

What Makes The Auto Channel Different from the Other Leading Automotive Web sites?

The same attributes that separate CBS, NBC, ABC, FOX, CNN, ESPN, and the other full service television networks, from the multitude of Shopping Channels, make The Auto Channel a one-of-a-kind.

Unlike the popular one trick pony auto sites like KBB, Auto Trader, Edmunds, and Cars.com, which are attract an audience who are satisfied with basic vehicle research; like new car specs and reviews, auto dealer inventory and some past model data, The Auto Channel puts vehicle research in context.

Over the past 20 years the owners of The Auto Channel have consciously and rigorously built the largest independent automotive web site, offering viewers access to a matrix of in-depth, in-context easy to find automotive information and data. Over the past 18 years more than 200 million serious auto researchers have dug down into our more than 1 million pages of automotive news, opinion, reviews, and predictions…to get the information they needed to help make them a smarter buyer or facilitator.

The Auto Channel content includes not just competitive in-depth new and used car data, but provides the web’s original and “invented here” vehicle research tools like; TACH’s 4-car com-par-a-graph, TACH’s Rank By Spec (over 150), TACH’s New Vs. Used Car Comparison’s; TACH’s Total Cost Of Ownership Comparisons, along with 45 Brand Specific Buyers Guides, research tools that provide a meaningful context for the data.

Also included on The Auto Channel is “News For Every Brand” (1996-present), Professional opinions and vehicle reviews (no owner or amateur reviews here), in-depth information and opinions about alt fuels, Press Pass Coverage of the world’s major car shows (1997-Present), which includes a video library of hundreds of press events held at those shows as full and complete VIDEO no matter whether 5 minutes or 40 minutes…not just a 1 minute edited version found on the many shopping versions of automotive websites.

Since its inception in 1996 The Auto Channel has been, and continues to be committed to this feature, we were the first, and continue to be the only, auto site to archive video of these events, and to make it easy for viewers to see video of virtually every new car unveiled over the past 17 years.

Like at “real TV networks”, The Auto Channel producers’ editors and writers compose and publish relevant automotive or energy news stories from around the world, edit and refine and publish every relevant automotive news release provided by the world’s automotive associated companies, and publish original features, reviews and opinion from The Auto Channel writers with datelines from North America, Europe and Asia, information that allows our viewers to weigh the auto companies along with their products.

There is no other single automotive web site that provides everything that a car buyer or buff may want to see, none like The Auto Channel.

In-market auto researchers who are satisfied with basic new vehicle research go to a home shopping channel type automotive web site, but those seeking the in-depth source for serious vehicle research, and for those trying to find unbiased information about alt fuel options, or those seeking auto industry news (1996-Present), and for those needing a hard to find auto part, there is only one channel on the web that can call itself The Auto Channel and that’s us.

The Auto Channel Audience

The Auto Channel’s million plus pages of auto content attracts a large, motivated audience organically directed to The Auto Channel by the major search engines to find the auto information they are looking for, whether current model or past model (1993-2014) auto specs, reviews, comparisons, up to the minute auto industry news and information, buzz, opinion, analysis all updated always.

The digital technology assets of TACH, when combined with the editorial knowledge and professional experience of our editors delivers sought out information quickly and effectively to an audience of about 1 million unique visitors each month from over 100 countries with 80% of its viewers from North America.

The Auto Channel: DISPLAY ADVERTISING

The Auto Channel has been designed to provide the most impact for standard banner sizes: 728x90; 300x250; 160x600; 300x600; ad banners on The Auto Channel increase brand awareness and can drive traffic to the advertiser’s site, banner ad positions include top, bottom and sides of each page, all directly adjacent to editorial content. Custom, unique banner ad sizes are also available. Road blocking and advertiser exclusivity available.

The Auto Channel: NATIVE ADVERTISING PLATFORM

The Auto Channel offers automotive product marketers the perfect platform on which to place their Native Advertising Content, because the TACH audience is here to find automotive information, a well written relevant article will be welcomed by The Auto Channel audience.

The Auto Channel: RICH MEDIA ADVERTISING

Rich media formats engage site visitors with audio, video, animation, and unique ad formats that are ideal for branding, promotion, lead generation and driving sales.

The Auto Channel: SECTION SPONSORSHIPS

Available for various sections and/or pages on our site, these sponsorships give marketers a way to align their message with specific content. By using a “Sponsored By” logo, text link or banner ad that reinforces the brand name, advertisers can “own” a special area of a site. These partnerships generally work best on a long-term basis, giving users the chance to build association between the sponsor and section.

The Auto Channel: SPECIAL EVENT AND WEBCAST SPONSORSHIPS

TV-on-the-Web coverage of: Auto Shows, Trade Events; Motor Sports; Press Events. Each covered event remains on line forever. Sponsorship includes company logo and/or a text message on each content page.

The Auto Channel: INTEGRATED CAMPAIGNS

The Auto Channel: Integrating print and online and broadcasting advertising into a single campaign can get you to your goal faster and more efficiently. An integrated campaign allows you to promote your products and services to a much wider audience and reinforce your message.

The Auto Channel: ADVERTORIALS

The Auto Channel will report on corporate events as TV-on-the-Web and create a content feature which will be placed within an appropriate editorial section on TACH. This special advertorial coverage will be promoted within TACH and its affiliated broadcast, print and web affiliates.

2014 Rate Card

The Auto Channel TV Network Promotional Video (2014)



The Auto Channel TV Network Promotional Video (1991)