Richard A. Johnson (2019) recently offered wry reflections about his 35 years at Automotive News. It’s a fitting coda for a longtime reporter and editor of a trade journal that covers such a powerful and unpredictable industry.
Johnson delicately discussed a few dust-ups in his reporting career. In visualizing what it would have been like to be dressed down by an automotive executive, the main thing I would have worried about was whether my bosses had my back. Johnson rose to the level of print editor despite gaining a reputation as a journalistic “hard case.” That speaks well to Automotive News’ journalistic independence. Then again, this trade journal hasn’t been an aggressive champion of accountability journalism, particularly on social responsibility issues such as climate change.
With self-deprecating humor Johnson itemized a number of times when his sage judgment didn’t pan out. For example, “In another one of my razor-sharp calculations, I felt pretty sure Jeep would from then on exist in the shadow of Hummer.” This points to the relative unpredictability of the auto industry. However, there’s a deeper challenge here.
In the United States, beat reporting is not a magnet for society’s deeper thinkers. They tend to gravitate toward the likes of think tanks and academia. I don’t say this to minimize the skills needed in the news media but to acknowledge that it takes a certain kind of person to be successful in it. Landing scoops on breaking news is typically prized far more than analytical depth. That seems to be especially true at Automotive News, where breaking news is king and longtime Editor-in-Chief Keith Crain has not set the bar very high with his own punditry (go here for further discussion).
Johnson concluded his essay by discussing a Geneva auto show interview early in his career. The interview began “with a waiter popping open a bottle of champagne. I recall thinking, ‘Remember this.’ I knew then I had the perfect job in a pretty amazing industry.'”
That anecdote reminded me of a comment by automotive writer Dan Neil about the challenges of maintaining journalistic independence:
“The entire environment is incestuous. They introduce new cars. They fly journalists in and put them up at really nice hotels and, you know, treat them to experiences that they would never possibly in a million years — they wouldn’t even be allowed in these hotels ordinarily. You know, and that’s not supposed to affect their judgment.” (Neil, 2005)
Johnson spent a lengthy career in this gilded but high-pressure environment. If the tone of his essay is any indication, a key way he survived was by displaying an elegant sense of humor to defuse difficult situations — and a healthy tentativeness about what he knows. That’s a particularly useful skill set when you are not the most powerful person in the room.
Fourteen years ago Johnson’s book, Six Men Who Built the Modern Auto Industry (2005), was published. My sense is that he painted the achievements of his subjects in overly-heroic colors and addressed their weaknesses with a measure of gingerness. Might this be the best that one could expect of a practicing automotive journalist — particularly who worked for a trade journal of a fairly hidebound industry? I suspect so.
Johnson’s goodbye essay was a fun read. I also found myself wondering how much he self censored. Someone with his senior-level of journalistic experience and advanced historical knowledge could have weighed in on any number of topics. Instead, he gave us a soft-shoe routine. One more for the road?
Now that Johnson is retired, I hope he finds new ways to make use of his auto industry knowledge. Why “go gently into that good night” (Thomas, 1953)?
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RE:SOURCES
- Johnson, Richard A.; 2005. Six Men Who Built the Modern Automobile Industry. Motorbooks, St. Paul, MN.
- ——; 2019. “My excellent adventure with the auto industry.” Automotive News. Posted March 3; accessed March 5.
- Neil, Dan; 2005. “Interview with Brooke Gladstone & Dan Neil: A Perfect Vehicle for Criticism.” Onthemedia.org, April 15.
- Thomas, Dylan; 1953. “Do not go gentle into that good night.” Poets.org. Accessed March 5, 2019.
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