Blame Canada
Natural Aspiration 08: Say What You Will About Trudeau, the Canucks Are Automotive Media Thought Leaders
True Patriot Love
When I was young(er) and more prone to puerilities, I was warned that social media was a powerful yet blunt tool that could have profound and unforeseen consequences. Every day, people all over the world land jobs, meet spouses, make friends … and lose them because of social media.
Among my most felicitous social media outcomes: Nearly a decade ago I was passing the time at work - there is a lot of down time in the early years of an investment banker’s career because the firm has pre-purchased all of the junior employees’ time, usually for about $150,000 a year, so there is no motivation to be efficient when you can just force someone to work all night or all weekend or to cancel a “vacation” under the threat of terminating their employment - by reading a Canadian-run automotive news and opinion website named The Truth About Cars. Among the standout writers on the site at the time was a youngster named Derek Kreindler.
I was so impressed with Derek’s writing that I took a peek at his LinkedIn; naturally, he returned the favor and took a look at my LinkedIn, and we started messaging back and forth. Whereas I was curious about the inner workings of automotive media, he was curious about the world of high finance. Naturally, we had plenty to discuss, and we still do over nine years later.
Derek eventually forsook the land of blogging, free loaner cars, and gratis five-star vacations for private equity. I cannot understate how challenging that is to achieve: outhouse to penthouse in one fell swoop. It would be akin to me deciding to become a professional athlete on a lark and then achieving it; moreover, achieving this fantastical goal by joining the starting lineup of an elite team and enjoying all of the accolades attendant. He later worked at a big bank on Canada’s Bay Street (i.e., Wall Street North) and has subsequently held positions at several carmakers.
Among the first things that Derek taught me was how the incentive structure in automotive media really works, and how the industry is consequently rife with hypocrisy. The prime mover in teasing out the ethical conundrums present in contemporary automotive media is another Canadian named Michael Banovsky; Derek learned from “Bano” and passed the teachings down to me. As an aside, Bano has a new venture called Speedster.News - I recommend it.
Automotive Media Incentive Structures
A few quick premises from which I will construct my argument(s) about automotive media:
Once upon a time, the mainstream car magazines played an important role as the information conduit between carmakers and consumers; there was no other practical way for the carmakers to connect with their end customer.
The magazines were thick, glossy, and well-funded.
Given their position of strength, the magazines could poke fun at cars with impunity; the infamous example was The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.
As it has done in many spaces, the internet disintermediated the legacy print magazines.
The “Long Tail” of content that the minuscule marginal cost of digital distribution affords meant that anybody could share their automotive musings online, even nobodies from flyover states like Sherman McCoy.
As the balance of power shifted away from the content outlets and toward the OEMs, the carmakers could be choosy about which writers would enjoy the perks.
Exempli gratia: Jack Baruth, when he was still in the employ of Hagerty, once asked me to pinch hit and attend the domestic launch of Porsche’s 992 generation 911 GTS, which was held in the North Georgia mountains; he reasoned that I (1) knew the roads, (2) knew the product, (3) knew how to write, and (4) would take the assignment seriously. Another Canadian, Luke Vandezande, who is a PR worker bee at Atlanta-based Porsche Cars North America (PCNA), rejected me and suggested that Hagerty send a “real” journalist rather than a customer.
Jack was irate, but I found this development amusing. Luke’s job is to help Porsche sell cars; from his point of view, he’d much rather have a reliably complaisant autowriter attend the event instead of a customer:
The typical autowriter depends on the largesse of PCNA to drive a modern Porsche; I, obviously, do not.
The typical autowriter has insufficient time behind the wheel of a high-end 911 either to discern the finer details of its performance and market positioning or to make appropriate criticisms; I, obviously, do (~70,000 miles over the past decade).
Readers who are also potential 911 purchasers would likely have been better served by my feedback, because there is greater commonality between our lifestyles, priorities, desires, etc. Unfortunately, that subset of readers was let down.
Eric Weiner, who ultimately wrote the piece for Hagerty, did a better job than the other attendees; I read all of the reviews from that event with great interest.
Let’s dig into the compensation of a typical autowriter to investigate why they might be so reliably complaisant, as I described them:
I have it on good authority from an industry veteran that a typical writer with a decade or so of experience would expect to earn mid to high five figures as a W-2 employee at a big media outlet.
Some senior writers with name recognition and sweetheart deals can earn six figures; these opportunities are rare.
Freelancers have theoretically unlimited compensation, but there are limitations on how many words they can crank out, even if they are able to sell the same story more than once (e.g., Georg Kacher, Andrew Frankel, etc.).
Freelancers must also take care not to arouse the ire of the likes of Luke Vandezande - annoy him or his counterparts at other carmakers and you won’t be driving any cars from that OEM.
So why do people want to be autowriters? The perks!
Would you like to spend the bulk of your life on a series of lavish, all expenses paid, travel agent-curated vacations?
Would you like to attend events like the Miami Grand Prix, the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Goodwood Revival, Monterey Car Week, and the Mille Miglia? All for free with the best available accommodations, of course.
Would it enhance your social standing to be seen driving around in an endless succession of high-end luxury automobiles?
All you have to do is accept a modest paycheck (enough to rent a serviceable apartment and put a few meals on the table), have a morally casual attitude about working as a tacit cheerleader for your sponsors, and ensure you never say anything that will upset a PR team or another journalist.
Do Perks Really Work?
Spike’s Car Radio is a popular automotive podcast hosted by Spike Feresten, who is a wealthy, Los Angeles-based car collector best known for writing perhaps the most-fêted Seinfeld episode - The Soup Nazi; he has a rotating cast of co-hosts that includes:
Jerry Seinfeld - Spike has been Jerry’s sidekick for decades.
Paul Zuckerman - A wealthy, Los Angeles-area personal injury attorney and car collector.
Matt Farah - The creator of The Smoking Tire, collector car storage impresario, and Fortunate Son of Roger Farah, who is easily worth nine figures.
Jonny Lieberman - An apex automotive journosaur who writes for Motor Trend.
In a recent episode, Zuckerman chastises Lieberman for his perquisite-laden lifestyle after Jonny breathlessly previews his upcoming trip to Spain to drive the new Range Rover Sport, after which he would travel immediately to Goodwood for the period-correct Revival vintage racing event. Lieberman claims that he is a consummate professional and would never be swayed by free travel or food; Zuckerman is simply amused by Jonny’s chutzpah.
I can assure you that perks do work, based both on my career experiences and my own outlay for automotive-related trips:
There are rules in place in the securities industry to prevent influence and favor purchasing via gifts; the annual limit between individuals is low, at $100.
The definition of what constitutes a “gift” is important, however:
If I invite a client to, e.g., my firm’s box at Yankee Stadium to enjoy a game, it is not a gift if I am there, as well.
If I invite a client to, e.g., my firm’s box at Yankee Stadium to enjoy a game, it is not a gift if someone, anyone from my firm is there, as well. The firm attendee and the client don’t have to know each other or interact in any way.
If I invite a client to, e.g., my firm’s box at Yankee Stadium to enjoy a game, it is a gift if there is no attendee from my firm.
In financial centers the world over, firms entertain clients with blank check happy hours, steak dinners, primo tickets to sporting events and concerts, etc. every night of the week.
The key difference between the financial industry and the automotive media industry is that the recipients can generally afford to purchase the perks that they receive; nevertheless, the benefactors find enormous value in bestowing these freebies.
For a more extreme example, consider my trip to the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2018:
The only “perk” I received was being made aware of when Porsche’s VIP tickets would go on sale and knowing where to purchase them.
My total outlay was ~$8,000:
VIP Ticket for Saturday and Sunday (including overnight) = $3,000
Food options included lobster omelets at breakfast and multi-course gourmet French meals with suggested wine pairings at lunch and dinner.
VIP Ticket for Thursday Night Practice Session = $600
Roundtrip Airfare (ORD-CDG-ORD) in Premium Economy on American Airlines = $1,500
“Luxury” Glamping inside the circuit = $2,400 ($600 / night x 4)
My “neighbors” had driven down from Blighty in a Porsche 918 Spyder.
Communal bath house only ~300 feet away; my hosts also graciously included a bucket in my lodgings.
Hotel Room (One Night in Paris) = $300
TGV Tickets, Ubers, and Incidentals = Balance
Despite having paid the full-freight tab myself, I was delighted to be at Le Mans, delighted to enjoy such a premium experience, delighted to meet other fellow luminaries in attendance, including Wolfgang Porsche and Oliver Blume.
How would I have felt if it had been a gift, totally free of charge?
God Keep Our Land, Glorious and Free
Despite my best efforts to remain abreast of happenings in the automotive media landscape, some things manage to elude my notice. Another of my Canadian friends recently alerted me to the prose of their countryperson Elle Alder, a twentysomething writer whose pronouns are “him, for now.” Out of an abundance of caution, I will refrain from employing gendered pronouns in my discussion of this author.
The road tests and driving impressions that most interest me are those pertaining to performance cars; Elle was invited to drive McLaren’s Artura on the press launch in Spain, as well as to attend the second wave of the Ferrari 296 GTB launch, which took place on Ferrari’s Fiorano test track (the initial event was also held in Spain, contrary to Ferrari custom).
After having struggled to comprehend Elle’s thoughts, I suspected that there might be some elaborate GPT-3 Turing test prank underway; for example:
Concerning the McLaren (emphasis mine):
Personally, I’d still rather spend my $280k on some old garbage — probably with carbureted seatbacks and a vacuum-tube rearview. I am also an idiot who thinks that their rose-tinted slobber-chic is endearing.
If you don’t suffer my sort of fool-hearted traditionalism, the power, usability, and warranty longevity of the Artura seem a strong value
Regarding the Ferrari (emphasis mine):
I remember a lot with that toy F355. And now, I remember feeling it pressed against my thigh as I carved switchbacks out of Maranello in a stellar descendent. Time may have carried beyond the Ferraris of my youthful imagination, but the 296 GTB and Assetto Fiorano demonstrate that Ferrari stands competently in the toy business. And these ones don’t even make you hum your own soundtrack.
I had almost entirely forgotten about Elle until recently; the same Canadian pal forwarded the author’s review of Cadillac’s Lyriq EV that was published in late June, in which Elle rants to a (presumably) majority Canadian audience about an American legal development (emphasis mine):
Driving the 2023 Cadillac Lyriq through the mountain roads of Utah the day after Roe v. Wade’s overturn, it’s a difficult thought to press from my mind.
As its carefully engineered creature comforts insulate me from the heat and arid terrain outside, the detached serenity of my borrowed Cadillac feels a poignant metaphor for my relationship with the devastating realities weighing on the Utahns I’m driving among.
Elle further postscripts the article (emphasis mine):
Author’s note: This drive took place in Utah, a state which enacted trigger restrictions on women’s reproductive rights within hours of Friday’s USSC overturn of Roe v. Wade. To Cadillac’s credit, Utah sounds to have been selected for its picturesque mountain backdrops, as is common across the industry, though the trigger laws were passed in 2020, merely awaiting the Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe v. Wade.
In the hours between my arrival and discovery of that news, and the dinnertime enactment of Utah’s own law, I sent a letter to industry representatives expressing that I will no longer be participating in programs hosted in states that are actively restricting the reproductive and associated rights of women and marginalized groups. I further noted that I would be acknowledging as much in this story. The initial draft of this story made a particular point of this, harshly emphasizing the question of how we are to reconcile an EV’s supposed progressivism with this starkly regressive human-rights backdrop, and what I personally view as tacitly complicit local event investment in line with GM’s established record of donations to candidates and PACs indifferent or actively hostile to women’s and LGBT rights.
Through several iterations, I’ve opted to save that personal perspective for a more developed standalone piece. Still, I wish to thank my fellow staffers for their solidarity and willingness to run that initial version.
In early August, Elle leveraged the power of social media and tweeted a link to a Google Doc formalizing their thoughts:
This is the key paragraph (emphasis mine):
For automakers, shifting events to equal-rights states is an opportunity to put action to the words of their Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion efforts. By redirecting movable travel and hosting investment to neutral or rights-protected states, manufacturers can demonstrate solidarity and respect for all of the travellers they host, and reduce liabilities by ensuring that participants have access to the full spectrum of legal protections and healthcare in the event of an emergency.
There appears to be a conspicuous absence of concern over abortion rights in the supercar launch paradises of Spain and Italy; I wonder why?
Per The New York Times:
Spain liberalized its abortion laws in 2010. In the years before, it allowed women to get abortions in only extraordinary circumstances, but the new laws allow all women to get the procedure in the first 14 weeks of a pregnancy, without restrictions.
But the map of where abortions are available is drawn up less by national law than by Spain’s doctors. In large numbers and across the country, doctors refuse to perform them.
What about Italy? From another New York Times article:
After a fight that feminists in Italy still consider a signal achievement, abortion within 90 days of pregnancy — and later for women in mental or physical danger, or in cases of serious fetal pathologies — has been legal in this country for over three decades.
But that does not mean that finding a doctor to perform one is easy. Seventy percent of gynecologists — up to 83 percent in some conservative southern regions — are conscientious objectors to the law, and do not perform abortions for religious or personal reasons in a country that remains, culturally at least, overwhelmingly Catholic.
It is a circumstance that has alarmed some women’s health experts, who say that the challenges will grow only more severe in the years ahead.
Why hasn’t Elle DEMANDED that automakers desist from launching cars in Spain and Italy? Sure, I mean, it probably is nice to lap McLarens at the Ascari Race Resort before enjoying a spread of jamón ibérico at dinner, and who wouldn’t want to visit Fiorano and drive on that same hallowed tarmac on which Niki, Jody, Schumi, and Kimi honed their craft en route to ultimate Formula 1 glory - the World Drivers’ Championship? Moreover, wouldn’t it be lovely to debrief over a memorable meal at Ristorante Cavallino around the corner? Michelin-starred chef Massimo Bottura completely revamped the menu and kitchen recently, after all. HOW could anyone miss those opportunities?
The subtitle to Elle’s Caddy review reads: “What is progress without blind spots?” Does Elle perhaps have a blind spot regarding their willingness to travel to Spain and Italy to review supercars?
This entire rant reeks of jealousy that the author wasn’t able to fulfill their own dreams of being an automotive journalist.