RIP Motor Authority, the Car Connection, Green Car Reports

[testerdahl]

Bug news this morning all three of those websites are shutting down as of April 1. That’s 6 colleagues of ours losing their jobs. They did a great job, just aren’t turning a profit.

They were web only and didn’t do a lot of video. I think they got screwed by Google algorithm updates.

That’s why we diversify so much. RIP.

 

[Saddle Tramp]

Damn that sucks. Glad you're helping Zack out with his channel.

 

[jillciminillo]

Definitely sorry to hear this. I used to syndicate their content when I was with Sinclair Broadcast Group. It was always top quality, and the guys who work there are all awesome. But, yeah, diversification matters.

 

[Saddle Tramp]

There was a news blip about the closings on another automotive website. They blamed it on private equity instead of diversifying their content. I personally think it's more than just these things, so I went to their landing pages to find out more.

The first thing that came to mind was that I've heard of two out of the three before, Motor Authority and The Car Connection. I never heard of Green Car Report. I have to be honest and say seeing GCR blew up one of my theories that the sites were trying to emulate the "Big Three" (Car and Driver, Road and Track, Motor Trend). I was going to argue that the internet has shattered the mold of the "Department Store Magazine" and that people have put themselves into "camps", but Green Car Review is a dedicated magazine for one of those camps. It should've done well in its group.

The loading page for The Car Connection is a disaster to me. It looks like the generic pages you'd find a Cars.com and the like; a huge banner immediately followed by the columns of generic cars in white. There is no hook here! Nothing to promote the articles in any meaningful way. This is CarGurus with hidden Easter Eggs of reviews. If they wanted more reading traffic, they should've pushed the articles and reviews harder.

Motor Authority reminds me most of the big three. In fact, I can see it being a solid replacement for Automobile Magazine. It would've been great in print. There are a lot of articles I would be tempted to read but there's no stories in there. I get all my news from some random site called Pickup Truck + SUV Talk.

That might be too much of a ramble. The main question is why did they fail? I don't know. Maybe Jill and Tim are right. Maybe it was the lack of diversifying into videos. But look how long it takes to get a solid following there. Did they have the time to do that? Would they be able to rise among the crowd? When it comes to the Big Three, I never watch their videos. Do you? Let's flip the question. When it comes to YouTube Channels, do you go to their websites? (Obviously you come to the forums or you wouldn't be here. )

Would TikTok and YouTube Shorts have been a good platform to make commercials for these e-zines? Should they have promoted themselves on other enthusiast channels and forums? Does Ad Blocker hurt their survivability?

As I said before, I just don't know. All I do know is that three sites are lost and it's sad. I'm going to head out to Books A Million to grab a copy of Vintage Truck magazine.

 

[testerdahl]

There was a news blip about the closings on another automotive website. They blamed it on private equity instead of diversifying their content. I personally think it's more than just these things, so I went to their landing pages to find out more.

The first thing that came to mind was that I've heard of two out of the three before, Motor Authority and The Car Connection. I never heard of Green Car Report. I have to be honest and say seeing GCR blew up one of my theories that the sites were trying to emulate the "Big Three" (Car and Driver, Road and Track, Motor Trend). I was going to argue that the internet has shattered the mold of the "Department Store Magazine" and that people have put themselves into "camps", but Green Car Review is a dedicated magazine for one of those camps. It should've done well in its group.
When it comes to YouTube Channels, do you go to their websites? (Obviously you come to the forums or you wouldn't be here. )

Would TikTok and YouTube Shorts have been a good platform to make commercials for these e-zines? Should they have promoted themselves on other enthusiast channels and forums? Does Ad Blocker hurt their survivability?

I can tell you there is a direct correlation to our website traffic when I highlight stories on a video. It isn't massive, but I do see a bump in traffic. However, there are times when the website generates its own traffic and I have to put up a video real fast since I didn't realize the story was blowing up.

Case in point is the diesel emissions regulation story (see analytics below). I didn't foresee that taking off like it did and then I did the video the day after. Then, I followed it up with three other videos and one other post that did terrible. Incredibly difficult to catch lightning in a bottle a second time.

As a Publisher who oversees all the facets of the business, I see the importance of diversifying our content and income streams. This particular post made 4 times the money the YouTube video made which is very abnormal. I'm sure it got shared to some other forum or social media group.

I've thought about trying to turn it into a TikTok video and I need to get off my butt to give it a try. Maybe I'll do it today. I just find TikTok to be a little hard for me to get the hang off.

 

[Saddle Tramp]

Thanks for the insight. I appreciate you sharing these facts when the best I can do is just look in from the window.

Listen to your automotive partner in crime and jump on TikTok. Jill is right on this one.