Automotive Journalist

[tuner117]

Hey guys! I have tried to contact several magazines and companies to see if someone can help me... I am wanting to become something like a automotive journalist, but I am unsure in which requirements are needed for such a hobby. I'm 16 years of age in grade 11 and I'm wondering what kind of classes I should look at taking and what kind of things i could do to hopefully reach my goal!
Thanks!!

[Seth1968]

You probably won't get much of a response (if any), by contacting reception at a magazine.

Email the journalists.

[asd913]

I've no idea how to break into the field of automotive journalists. But I think there are some initial steps to better get you on your way.

Firstly, get information from people who know the ins and outs of the business. I can guarantee that you will have no luck with any magazine to get your answers. Corporations are not in the business of altruism. You are much better off asking individual journalists/editors for 15 minutes of their time to speak to you. Some just like to talk, some are too high on themselves to respond. So take a shotgun approach, shoot 100 emails and hope a one or two actually get back to you.

Secondly, get good at networking. Take a seminar on how to network. Keep putting yourself in positions where you are remembered positively (if those positions don't come, make them as best you can). Market yourself and your achievements to people who can make a difference to your initial success. Be willing to help those that can help you and even those that you think will never translate back.

Finally, there are a lot of niches in any field. Automotive journalism is no different. Think about what you would like to write about and start getting a sense of what level of understanding is required to speak to that subject. Finding a new niche is also good but sometimes hard to do.

Btw, good on you for having a direction in your life at age 16. An important trait to succeed in a field as small as automotive journalism is not to let rejection get you down. Just keep going and trying to understand how to get better. Be ready to do mundane jobs for years if that is the norm in that field (but never let that define you).


Best of luck,

AJ

[ExtraSlow]

For a start, I'd get qualified to be a Journalist. MRU has a Journalism program. Part of that program are courses in "Specialized writing" and "special topics".

Having a history with automotive hobbies is a good start too. Join a race team.

[rage2]

You can always intern here to gain some experience. We're always looking for writers to join our team.

[ExtraSlow]

Doing some unpaid work at Beyond or other places is good place to start. See if you like it.

[dirtsniffer]

Originally posted by tuner117
Hey guys! I have tried to contact several magazines and companies to see if someone can help me... I am wanting to become something like a automotive journalist, but I am unsure in which requirements are needed for such a hobby. I'm 16 years of age in grade 11 and I'm wondering what kind of classes I should look at taking and what kind of things i could do to hopefully reach my goal!
Thanks!!

From my experience it seems that most of the auto journalists were not originally journalists by trade. Most seem to be formerly in racing or automotive engineering.

[Sugarphreak]

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[ExtraSlow]

Every kind of journalism gets a lot of criticism. If you think automotive articles are bad, try politics!

[Sugarphreak]

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[schocker]

Originally posted by Sugarphreak
Unpaid work at Beyond = Post Whoring? :D
Does that make you the number 1 automotive journalist on beyond? :rofl:

I have always wanted to do automotive journalism as I have always been interested in cars and have tried to keep up on news for all manufacturers. Even started canadacarblog.com but I haven't ended up putting on any articles.... :D

[rage2]

It's quite a bit of tedious work, mostly churning through press releases and interpreting it out in a readable non marketing fluff fashion. The plus side is you are up to date on all the new cars that are out.

The auto show coverage is pretty fun, but stressful as hell. It's fast paced because manufacturers space the press conferences so close, and you have to fight other journalists and photographers on the floor to get the first pics out. Balls out 12 hours a day pretty much, 6 hrs of eating and partying, sleep, repeat. Then there's the weeks of prep work to go along with it before the actual show.

Original content like the Summer Series that we did this year all makes it worth while. Nice relaxed pace, meet new people, their cars, and try to tell their story. It's still a bit of work, I'd say for my articles, I put in a solid 12 hours each just writing and revising. I'm not the greatest/fastest writer, so it takes time for me to really get a sense of the story and put into words.

If any of you guys are seriously interested in doing this, we're more than happy to help you out. We have a pretty solid team, but we'd like to get more people on board to help out just to hit up more shows down the road.

[Gripenfelter]

Take courses in English and journalism. Start by writing articles for your local paper and develop a name for yourself and go from there.

[Mibz]

Originally posted by rage2
It's quite a bit of tedious work, mostly churning through press releases and interpreting it out in a readable non marketing fluff fashion. The plus side is you are up to date on all the new cars that are out.

The auto show coverage is pretty fun, but stressful as hell. It's fast paced because manufacturers space the press conferences so close, and you have to fight other journalists and photographers on the floor to get the first pics out. Balls out 12 hours a day pretty much, 6 hrs of eating and partying, sleep, repeat. Then there's the weeks of prep work to go along with it before the actual show.

Original content like the Summer Series that we did this year all makes it worth while. Nice relaxed pace, meet new people, their cars, and try to tell their story. It's still a bit of work, I'd say for my articles, I put in a solid 12 hours each just writing and revising. I'm not the greatest/fastest writer, so it takes time for me to really get a sense of the story and put into words.

If any of you guys are seriously interested in doing this, we're more than happy to help you out. We have a pretty solid team, but we'd like to get more people on board to help out just to hit up more shows down the road. This is 100% accurate. There are ups and downs. I have to write about three cars that I seriously don't give a shit about right now and it's really difficult. Because they're updated models, I also need to go back and verify the differences between old and new because manufacturers don't always make that clear in their press releases. Do I really want to talk about subtle differences in the side-skirts? Fuck no. Do I need to? Sometimes.

My wife thinks the car shows are a vacation and she couldn't be more wrong, haha. It's balls to the wall from 5:00am until whenever you've completed all the articles for all the cars that were revealed that day. Then you get to start the prep for day 2. If you're lucky you'll finish all of that shortly after dinner and have enough energy to stay awake for some fun. Otherwise it's straight to bed and do it all over on day 2.

Every now and then you get an opportunity to do something really cool, though. I got to go to a Michelin event in New Orleans which was an amazing experience and I got to meet some really great people. The summer series was a blast, and I hope we get to do something similar in winter. It's also pretty cool being able to talk to almost anybody about their car, even if they think it's relatively boring.

Honestly, you don't even need fantastic English to get started at Beyond. We employ three FOBs. I remember somebody asked about documenting their road trip and submitting it to Beyond and I said hell yeah. I promise you that if you enjoy writing it, people will enjoy reading it. The worst thing that happens if you submit some work is we don't post it and tell you why.

That's just for Beyond though. If you want to be a real journalist then I can't help you. I'm the furthest thing. Not that some of those Jalopnik writers are any better.

[benyl]

Originally posted by Mibz

My wife thinks the car shows are a vacation and she couldn't be more wrong, haha.

Yup, my wife thinks the same. Bringing her to the next show. She probably won't see me at all for the press day.

There is tonnes of prep before a show as already mentioned. We are constantly scouring the net to find out what might be revealed.

I'll be editing the photos this time around along with writing and photographing. Going to be nuts.

I can't write worth shit, but Beyond lets me do it. haha

[Sugarphreak]

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[flipstah]

PM'd

[natty54]

awesome pic flip

[Xtrema]

Or vlogger. There is some dude in Calgary driving all kinds of luxury cars and post vids on youtube. Typical 3 GoPro set up like many others, usually with the dealership sales guy in tow. And he also buys ad time to promote his videos as well. I think his review and delivery is ok at best and could be a bit boring at worst but if you got nothing better to do and able to drive the latest cars on the market and get paid a little bit for it, why not.

[schocker]

Originally posted by Xtrema
Or vlogger. There is some dude in Calgary driving all kinds of luxury cars and post vids on youtube. Typical 3 GoPro set up like many others, usually with the dealership sales guy in tow. And he also buys ad time to promote his videos as well. I think his review and delivery is ok at best and could be a bit boring at worst but if you got nothing better to do and able to drive the latest cars on the market and get paid a little bit for it, why not.
is it that guy with lexus, I hate those sooooooo much :rofl:

[Xtrema]

Originally posted by schocker

is it that guy with lexus, I hate those sooooooo much :rofl:

I checked out his channel where he just did a review of C400 with some sales guy from Hyatt tagged along. He did Audi's as well.

Berdette Automotive I think but the channel is under his personal name.

I just can't stand the monotone delivery.