Editor's Note
What’s new for December
Welcome to the December edition of Indie Auto. Most of my time in the last month was spent on the lead story, “Did a rumor cause the downsized 1962 Plymouth and Dodge?” This started as […]
Automotive News
Bird Chatter
Data Dive
CO2 emissions: Automakers still partying like it’s 1975
The U.S. automobile industry has shown admirable ingenuity in developing new technologies to reduce the greenhouse gases produced by its cars and trucks. The problem is that a religious devotion to bigger, glitzier and more […]
Bird Chatter
Auto Paedia
Groupthink
A tendency toward groupthink has been a chronic problem in the American automobile industry since the mid-50s. This was a key driver of the domestic automakers’ dramatic decline from the late-60s onward. More recently, foreign […]
Auto Paedia
Auto industry consolidation: Putting profits ahead of robust competition
The necessity of industry consolidation has long been a popular idea among auto executives and pundits. The basic argument has been that the automotive industry — both in the U.S. as well as globally — […]
Auto Paedia
Access journalism: Did it help fuel U.S. auto industry’s decline?
Access journalism is what the Columbia Journalism Review (2014) defines as providing “insider information from powerful institutions and people.” This is a different kind of reporting — requiring “different skills, different practices, and different sources” that “produce […]
Media Analysis
Commentators agree Keith Crain doesn’t ‘get it’
An overwhelming majority of commentators took Keith Crain (2019) to task for a recent Automotive News column where he questioned the viability of a rapid shift to electric vehicles. “The horse farriers of the 19th […]
Media Analysis
Retiring editor does the old soft-shoe routine
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 […]
Auto Paedia
Accountability journalism: An endangered species in auto media
This is a form of journalism that holds people and institutions accountable for their actions. The Columbia Journalism Review (2014) noted that the difference between accountability journalism and access reporting is that the latter tells you “what […]