Automotive reporting sucks up to car manufacturers, doesn’t serve readers: Peter Cheney
Published October 10, 2011 | By Kharl Prado
By Markham Hislop, with Kharl Prado
Being an automotive journalist sounds like a dream for many car buffs: driving and writing about hot new cars, junkets to European test tracks, and access to race drivers and insiders of the car manufacturing world.
Seasoned columnist Peter Cheney of the Globe and Mail has a different take. For him, writing about cars is a passion, one he’s enjoyed since his days wrenching as a young Porsche mechanic decades ago. Cheney left the Porsche and Volkswagen dealership for University of King’s College, where he studied journalism and then went on to a 25 year career as a full-time staff writer for major newspapers, including the Toronto Star, and currently the Globe and Mail (one of his best-known articles features his teenage son, who crashed a $180,000 2010 Porsche 997 Turbo test car through the garage door of their home).
Cheney’s no piker in the reporting biz. He’s covered war zones in Afghanistan and Iraq, earned three National Newspaper investigative and foreign reporting awards, as well as a feature-writing award nomination. He has received the Canadian Association of Journalists Award for investigative reporting five times.
Then in 2009 he approached his bosses at the Globe with an odd request: he wanted to write a car column. But not just any car column. His column would put the human element back into auto journalism. He wanted to tell stories about people through their relationships with their cars.
A recent column, for instance, paid homage to his late mother-in-law and her family’s love of the Chrysler brand. His wife’s kin were artists and musicians, not gearheads like himself, and they were happy to drive even the ignominious K-car, one of the most reviled cars in automotive history. “Our first date showed me what I was up against: in the driveway was her parent’s K-car, a powder-blue Dodge Reliant. Behind it were three more just like it,” he wrote.
The real point of the story, as readers quickly learn, is not to discourse on the sad sack K-car, but a fond remembrance of Marian Beare, who he learned to respect and love as the years sailed past. And that is a typical Peter Cheney car story.
But it’s not a typical automotive story. Cheney says there is a well-worn model in automotive journalism, one he has chosen to avoid, though he’s happy to speak out about it because he believes car buyers are poorly served, as a general rule.
“The existing car journalism model is pretty limited because these are people who get paid by the story, they don’t spend a lot of time doing a review, or quantifying the numbers. The reviews are not authoritative. They don’t have enough exposure to the car,” he said.
Worse yet, most auto writers have become creatures of the manufacturers’ press flacks. Reporters who criticize a car might be denied access to the next new car launch, which is the lifeblood of their job, or left off the next junket.
Speaking of junkets, this is a particularly sore point for Cheney. Journalists are flown around the world, put up at swanky resorts, and treated like gold because their reviews are the best (and cheapest) form of advertising possible for the manufacturers.
“Some day I may write a book about it. And that’ll be the last story I file to the car section probably because every car section uses this model…There’s a handful of journalists like myself who pay their own way on trips,” said Cheney.
Why do newspapers and magazines like this model? In a world of squeezed margins and declining editorial resources, the stories are cheap, perhaps as little as $200 or $300. Newspapers can then sell expensive advertising around the story and enjoy fat margins. The economics driving the current auto journalism model are just too compelling to be eschewed by revenue-strapped publishers.
“Everybody gets something out of it except the reader,” he said.
And that’s the crux of the problem. Readers expect fair, unbiased reporting on a car they may be shelling out a lot of money for. Instead, the reviews are puff pieces by writers who often don’t know much about automobiles. Cheney says most automotive journalists lack hands-on experience with the nuts and bolts of cars, as well as the passion and dedication to spend time researching properly and understanding the real principles behind how automobiles work.
That’s the ex-mechanic talking, the guy who raced motorcycles for years, and still modifies every car he owns. It’s obvious during the interview that reviewers who report on the auto industry for the perks really grind his gears.
“You should get into it because it’s something you care deeply about and it’s because you have something to say,” he explains.
The Globe and Mail car section is one of the better ones, he hastens to add, noting that colleagues like Jeremy Cato have the experience and clout to write the kinds of stories they want without fear of reprisal from petty PR hacks.
Are there alternatives to self-serving car reviews unduly influenced by the manufacturers and advertising agencies? Cheney thinks so. He says online reporting and social media are the future of car reporting.
“Reader engagement. Live interaction. Online journalism where you get feedback. I’m increasingly disinterested in print,” he said.
Cheney likes the current trend of print newspapers, like the Globe and Mail, putting their stories online where they’re available for the long-term. He’s also discovered Facebook in the past year and uses the social media site to interact with his readers. Building a relationship with his audience will be a significant focus going forward, he says.
As will incorporating more video into his reporting.
“Video is going to be more important and I’m going to get the resources to do more video. I believe in visual story telling, even though I’m a born and bred writer,” he said.
Award-winning reporter and experienced storyteller, passionate gearhead, Peter Cheney says he has found his metier in automotive reporting. But don’t look for him at press conferences and car review junkets. That’s not his style.
He’s more likely to be found under a car with a wrench in one hand and a camera in the other. Which, when you think about it, is where you find most car buffs.
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Automotive reporting sucks up to car manufacturers, doesn’t serve readers: Peter Chen
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