We love (if not admire) Autoblog's puppy dog enthusiasm for all things car. So the fact that they're on any side of a fight– any fight– is shocking. Yesterday we reported that Chicago Auto Show Internet Director Mark Bilek used his company's blog (Showlopnik) to piss on blogs in general and mild-mannered Autoblog in specific. Autoblog kept stum about the e-contretemps, covering the show with their usual New York Timesian panache. But it seems like they can't do nothin' right. Here's, in its full sarcastic splendor, is another broadside from the Chicago Auto Show folk. This time it hails from Paul Brian, the Show's Director of Communications.
Dear AutoBlog. Amazingly, you don't seem to get it. You seem to think that auto shows are about the number of intros. Oddly enough, manufacturers, the ones who pay the bills to produce auto show, have a rather different perspective. They seem to think that auto shows are designed to make the connection between their marketing people and the public who have cash (and loans) to purchase those products. Gee, what a novel idea! Unfettered, unbeholden customers who are not on some company "X-Y-Z-A Plan" pricing for employees and suppliers. Real people. People who like big displays and the ability to view the industry in one place on one floor with the show industry's undisputed best place in which to display. You'll learn about it more when you move out of your mom's house. So, as self-absorbed as you might be, you might want to get cozy with the notion that it's really not all about you."
Can we expect anything less from a bastion fo orignality that calls itself Showlopnik…[cough] Jalopnik [cough, cough]…
I know what he means. The last time I was at an auto show I just couldn’t get close to the new minivans or the economy cars. Women and families were packed 20 rows deep around them. I was forced to hang out in the barren section around the enthusiast vehicles and concepts.
Defensive much? In other words, the Chicago Auto Show actually aspires to be a local show, unworthy of national coverage. Organizers couldn’t care less that the automakers shoot their collective wad in Detroit. In fact, they prefer it that way.
These guys obviously think that Blogs should be nothing more than the same paid-for-by-advertising “reviews” that the old school buff books provide, only more frequent and written by brain-dead teenage “interns”. Oh, and make it look a little like these newfangled Myspace thingies, will ya?
Let me get this straight, car industry. You have a whole ecosystem of Bloggers, commenters and readers that care enough about your products to try and get a peek at new offerings BEFORE they hit the market? And instead of thanking your lucky star that people are interested AT ALL, you still think this buzz is a bad thing? The mind boggles…
Well, to play devil’s advocate for a moment:
– Autoblog does read like it’s written from their Mom’s basement. Spelling, or even spell-checking skills not required.
– Most of Autoblog’s entries are ‘intro’-style short snippets. Of course, that’s just the nature of the blogging beast, it doesn’t really lend itself to in-depth coverage. And at auto shows it’s all about getting the pics up online before the competition I guess.
Autoblog reminds of the Apple/Mac fanboy sites: a lot of text and fawning, little critical thought. The internet version of the gutless reporting of Motor Trend, C&D, etc.
Of course, I still read it every day :-)
How can anyone hate Autoblog? Autoblog is at best canonical and at worst dull. Picking a fight with Autoblog, isn’t that kind of like picking a fight with Switzerland?
They sound like Car & Driver attacking the internet because people stopped showing up to the door rather than imbrace new technology properly. Do people really go to these autoshows in the numbers they used to.
Wasn’t the point of these auto shows the “big-intros” of new models and concepts by manufacturers? I mean look at the Detroit show – big intro after big intro.
I think this guy is having a major captain obvious moment by stating what the purpose of a car show is…and the fact that what is on a web page reaches more people for a longer period of time after the show is long gone is eluding him.
From his comments he appears to be the self-absorbed one, not the people he’s chastising.
Mark me down for never stepping foot in the Chicago auto show after the two displays of stupidity from these people.
These guys have to be about the most dense bunch of PR people if they don’t realize that all of the buzz generated by the intros is due to auto enthusiasts and not the people looking for a deal on a new Malibu.
And, where to all these enthusiasts go for their instant information re: these intros? Sites like Autoblog, TTAC, Jalopnik, etc. Its the immediacy of the information available on new media that has made the old buff books “news” irrelevent and generates interest in attendance at the major shows.
But for the intros, what interest do I have to go from MN to Chicago each spring?
I’m guessing Bilek & company are also ticked about getting their thunder stolen, with blown embargoes left and right. They didn’t have anything left to introduce on press day that hadn’t already been blogged besides the Acura RL and Lexus ES Pebble Beach Edition, bummer.
To which I say: grow up, kids, this is they way it is, and those of us who don’t attend auto shows don’t give a damn what you think.
Can someone please explain to me the -lopnik? Is it some internet term/phrase/meme that I’m just not up to date on? I’m still stuck on the owls and the lolcats.
Sounds like sour grapes to me – I’m sure the show’s organizers would be more than happy to accept a greater number of new model intros than they got this year.
Detroit also suffered from leaks and pre-releases, but they had more cool stuff, even if the venue is a fraction of Chicago’s.
Sounds like someone’s knickers are in a twist over the fact that said basement-dwelling college students’ blog gets exponentially more respect and pageviews than theirs.
And the message is that Autoblog lacks professionalism?…
Shame on Autoblog for focusing on new car introductions (of which there are few at Chicago anyhow).
What the buying public really needs to know is whether the Buick LaCrosse has any new colors, whether the Mercury Mountaineer offers 18″ rims and all about the new cabin pollen filter in the Kia Rio.
From a guy with the title of “Director of Communications”, his comments are surprisingly unprofessional and immature. And what’s wrong with living in your mom’s house?
I second Virtual Insanity’s query. When I read the title “Jalopnik”, I do not think car enthusiast website. What train may we be missing?
Jalopnik is a major automotive blog–go there.
If its all about blown embargoes, then the heart of the problem is really the automakers. They should wake up and realize the internet exists and have their PR departments respond accordingly. Don’t like pictures of your intro appearing before the official date? How about holding all the info in-house until said date and then issuing a broadcast e-mail or establishing an FTP site with all available info to all media outlets at the same time. Obviously, this hurts the buff books most because they can’t have the info in their corresponding newsstand issue, to which I say its time to reinvent yourself in the mold of EVO, TopGear and CAR or just go away.
@ Virtual Insanity & N85523
I believe Jalopnik is a neologism combining jalopy, an old slang term for autos, and the Slavic/Yiddish suffix -nik, roughly someone who is in to something, like Beatnik; thus Jalopnik is someone who is into cars.
Showlopnik is just stupid, though.
Like I keep trying to tell you, Jalopnik is the name of a very popular automotive website/blog. Try it.
Ah, gotcha. I love Jalopnik, and, with the upmost due respect to TTAC, its my favorite auto blog. I just never got the name.
If only the Chicago Auto Show floor staff showed this much enthusiasm. Maybe then the gear shift levers would still be in one piece, the seats wouldn’t be stained, the glove boxes would close, etc. How so many cars get damaged so quickly is mind boggling. You would think that the manufacturers would have a few spare parts handy to fix such problems, but no.
I’m surprised nobody’s picked up on this (most of all the show’s organizing staff that have the vendetta against AutoBlog). What am I talking about?
Three-quarters of the cars at major autoshows (i.e. Detroit, Chicago) have no pricing information at all.
I attend Detroit every year. I was thinking about hitting Chicago next year instead, but this makes me not want to bother. The thing that really gets me is that you can’t even find out info if you wanted to (and, as others have said, these glitzy events are for enthusiasts – people looking for the cheapest version of the Kia Rondo need to see their local dealer). At Detroit, I asked a Subaru spokeswoman how much the new Forester would cost. She couldn’t tell me. There also was no pricing information even on the Impreza and Legacy models that I can find in double-digint numbers a mile from my house at the local Subaru dealer. Chrysler and Ford were the only carmakers that I saw pricing info at. I tried to find some out (at Kia, Mitsubishi, and a few others) to no avail.
WTF? This is the most bizarre exchange I can imagine – PR whores spitting on the face of the people putting their unfettered pile of crap out there.
It almost makes me wonder if they’re doing it just for the buzz it might generate, regardless of how negative and completely stupid it is?
Chicago Auto Show = Britney Spears?
Ah, so while Jalopnik’s title does mean something (even is slow-wits like me don’t get it at first glance), Showlopnik is an unoriginal rip-off. Should we really be expecting editorial excellence from them?
Hmm, this actually fits right in with Chicago in general. The “second city” has always been insecure/defensive in its communications. These guys for the auto show are just no different.
Also the Chicago Auto Show is indefensible when it comes to the lack of intro models. I mean who cares that they can fit so many cars under one roof when all you have Corollas, Aveos and G5s in triplicate. It is just one big showroom that is actually less informative and more inconvenient than a visit to the dealer.
And what did they think was going to happen by having the webcams on during the set up anyway? Autoblog didn’t need to tell any of their readers to go look for sneak peaks like they hadn’t thought of already. Please. By having the webcams up, you’re asking for it. The first images of the Pontiac G8 were found this way during the set up of the video screen.
I live in Alabama. If it weren’t for blogs the only way I would know about the Chicago show at all is from very limited coverage in the near-death “car magazines” that I subscribed to as a kid pre-Internet. Not only can I see the intros (and other displays) thanks to the blogs, but I can go back and search/review them later. My screensaver at work is a slideshow of images (from Autoblog) of the Detroit show.
I grew up wanting to go to one of the auto shows, there weren’t any where I lived. Now I live in Birmingham, where our local show is decent but we only get a few 6 month old concepts. I was beginning to think that our show is just lame and maybe I should road-trip to see a “real” one. Now I know that I’m not missing anything other than some cold weather and a press clusterf***.
Virtual Insanity: Can someone please explain to me the -lopnik? Is it some internet term/phrase/meme that I’m just not up to date on? I’m still stuck on the owls and the lolcats.
The word “Jalopnik” is a made-up word derived from the word “jalopy,” meaning a “car,” (often a hoopty, beater, old run-down car; or, conversely, a very fancy, mint-condition or unusual car) and the suffix “-nik.”
According to The Columbia Guide to Standard Written English the suffix “-nik” is Yiddish or Russian in origin, while a Wikipedia article claims that it is Slavic in origin. It is used to describe a person related to the thing, state, habit, or action described by the word to which the suffix is attached.
Other words that use this suffix with similar meaning are: “beatnik, peacenik, and computernik.”
So, a “Jalopnik” is someone who is somehow related to “Jalopies,” (someone who has, or likes, or is like a “Jalopy”).
The nonce (made-up word) “Showlopnik” is a combination of the words “Show” and “Jalopnik” and would mean someone who is somehow related to Jalopy Shows (i.e. someone who attends, or puts on, or who is a fan of auto shows).
You’re getting _way_ too arcane about the word jalopnik. The only important thing is that whatever its derivation or meaning, it is the name of an extremely popular existing automotive website/blog, jalopnik.com, which means that while these Chicago Show PR guys are on the one hand deriding car blogs, on the other they have named their own blog by playing off the name of an existing car blog.
Sort of like a group of angry, middle-aged feminists naming their blog FILFhunter.com, if ya get my drift.
And no, please don’t try to parse FILFhunter.
Well, Virtual Insanity did ask. Of course, he (or she) is virtually insane. Sometimes things get slow and I get bored at the reference desk.