Jalopnik gets better — but for how long?

(EXPANDED FROM 9/18/2020)

A few years ago I starting reading Jalopnik again after a long lapse because its content appeared to have improved. However, I still don’t check out the website daily because there’s too much clickbait. And while Jalopnik’s still fairly new corporate overlord does not appear to have tampered too much with this pioneering automotive blog, I wonder what will happen once a recession hits.

We’ll talk about the private-equity firm that acquired Jalopnik in a moment. But first, about that clickbait. To be fair, all 24/7 auto buff websites have a fair amount of it (as discussed here, this is driven by economics). I just don’t find many of Jalopnik’s party tricks all that interesting.

That said, Jalopnik’s news coverage is decent for a car buff site — although its analysis is usually rather “lite.”

When I last updated this review in 2020 I gave two examples. David Tracy’s (2020) take on the 2021 Grand Wagoneer offered a useful critique of the concept car’s bland styling but didn’t get what made the original Wagoneer so iconic from a functional standpoint, such as its much nimbler size than a Chevrolet Suburban or International Travelall.

Meanwhile, Jalopnik’s coverage of an infamous Elon Musk interview where he smoked pot was amusing but vapid. Jason Torchinsky (2018a) presented a caption-writing contest for photos of Musk toking (go here for our take).

Things don’t appear to have improved over the last three years. For example, today’s front page has a clickity story on an upcoming Gran Turismo movie and another one asks about readers’ favorite car rap songs.

Once in a while Jalopnik can get admirably serious

To its credit, Jalopnik sprinkles serious journalism amidst all the clickbait. As a case in point, Andy Kalmowitz (2023) explored why younger car owners are falling behind in car loans. And Erin Marquis (2020) criticized the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for not doing enough to combat rising pedestrian fatalities.

Two of my favorite Jalopnik stories in recent years have been from the now-departed Torchinsky (2012, 2018b), who repeatedly lamented the lack of real bumpers on contemporary cars. This is an important topic in light of rising repair costs (go here for further discussion).

Also see ‘Mike Spinelli: How Jalopnik got its name’

In addition, Jalopnik’s comment threads tend to be more erudite and entertaining than the “best and brightest” of The Truth About Cars or the cranky backbenchers who usually dominated Automotive News’ website-based comment threads before they were discontinued in 2021 (go here for further discussion).

I also appreciate Jalopnik’s posted ethics policies. For example, staff are barred from accepting gifts of $50 or more and a “wall exists between the business side of the company and the editorial side” (Jalopnik, 2023). I wish other auto media would follow suit.

Jalopnik started strong but went corporate

Jalopnik was created by Gawker Media in 2004. I began reading it a few years later, when it was still run by founding editor Mike Spinelli. At that point it was a terrific automotive blog.

Am I viewing Jalopnik through rose-tinted glasses when saying that it once possessed the irreverence and literary flair of Car and Driver in its glory days? Perhaps, but I still think it is fair to argue that Jalopnik was a leader in the rise of web-based auto buff media outlets. This wave helped to shake at least some of the complacency from print-based magazines — all of whom had grown terribly stale by the dawn of the 21st Century.

Mike Spinelli on the origins of Jalopnik video
Jalopnik founding editor Mike Spinelli recalled that a key goal was to turn “hanging out with your friends” into an automotive blog. Click on image to view a Spinelli interview (Hernandez, 2015).

But then Spinelli left and Jalopnik got more “corporate.” For example, comment moderation became high schoolish and too much emphasis was placed on filler stories imported from sister websites. That’s when I drifted away.

At some point Jalopnik adopted the slogan, “Drive Free or Die.” It epitomized how the auto buff media can treat cars like adolescent toys that must be defended in knee-jerk fashion against evil parental regulators. The slogan was more recently changed to “the cult of cars, racing and everything that moves you.” That’s an improvement, but why would I want to be part of a cult? Oh, right — that’s what advertisers want.

Will private-equity firm eventually gut the website?

When Gawker went bankrupt in 2016, most of its media properties were sold to Univision Communications Inc. Then, in 2019, the private-equity firm Great Hills Partners took control (Fuller, 2019).

In general, private-equity firms have had a tendency to squeeze media outlets of their assets and then discard them. Susan Kalaf (2020), a former managing editor of a sister website of Jalopnik, wrote a story in the Columbia Journalism Review that raised questions about GHP’s initial management moves.

But at least for now, Jalopnik continues to continue. Along the way the website has produced some of the best serious journalism in the car buff media. Alas, the endless clickbait and “cult” schtick suggest that Jalopnik is conflicted — a part of it wants to grow up and another part of it doesn’t. Which side will prevail?

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RE:SOURCES

This review was originally posted on January 12, 2018 and expanded on Sept. 18, 2020 and on July 13, 2023.

7 Comments

  1. “However, he didn’t seem to get what made the original Wagoneer so iconic from a functional standpoint.”

    I’ve owned two Grand Wagoneers and also a J10 and Cherokee Chief — all four vehicles built on that SJ platform.

    I’m not saying my article was perfect, but believe me, I get it. 🙂

    -DT

  2. Jalopnik is a turd swirling around the bowl. Writing is worse, the site mechanics are atrocious, and what little of enjoyable content that remains us hard to find.

    I’ve blocked it from my news feed and can’t remember the last time I bothered to go there.

    • Definitely rose colored glasses. The sites media journalists have no knowledge of cars they write high school boy toilet humor, questioning their often committed errors leads to banishment. And originally I celebrated Dave Tracysnd Torchinsky leaving to create a new car sight but they seldom write they hauled the Jalopnik children over to the new site and while the journalism is spot on the site begs for members and ad revenue so much it looks like a poker machine where you can’t click ona story or read it before it phases to an ad or click bait join us.

      • If one’s goal is productive critique then I think we have to consider how a media outlet pays its bills. Entities that rely heavily on advertising revenue will invariably suffer from clickbait. So if we don’t like that, then the money needs to come from somewhere else, such as subscriptions. However, as you point out, then readers must endure constant fundraising pitches.

        Of course, one can point to a few deviations from the norm, such as Driven to Write, an ad-free European website that is solely funded by its publishers. I think that they do decent-quality work, but it will last only as long as folks continue to donate their time and money.

  3. Well IMHO Jalopnik lost all their decent writers but Tracy and Torchinsky. These guys started a new site the Autopian and became managers. Now they hired the retched refuse that remained at Jalopnik. Each hire makes Jalopnik better and Autopian worse. The only quality writers are stuck as poor administrators and the writers from Jalopnik are convinced it wasn’t them that ruined Jalonik. So the Autopian is Jalopnik without any quality writers and with poor administrators. They haven’t made the transition to political trolls like they did at Jalopnik but it’s only a matter of months.

  4. Their black lives matters crusade in 2020 (black lives don’t matter before and after 2020?) and an attitude against cars like Clarkson’s Top Gear was enough for me. Both are not car people, but entertainers; someone has to pay the bills (big or meager) right?
    What a coincidence, Tory Clarkson and liberal Jalopnik don’t bother being at a minimum level serious about cars?

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