Following is a Q&A with Kevin A. Wilson, senior editor/special projects, AutoWeek.
By Greg Shemitz
Q: What’s your background as a journalist? What are your responsibilities at AutoWeek?
A: Out of college (Eastern Michigan) I worked at Sliger newspapers in suburban Detroit — Northville Record and Novi News — for six years. I joined AutoWeek as news editor in 1986, was promoted to senior editor and then executive editor. After nearly 15 years in the latter role, I moved over to direct special projects. I’ve been a columnist, with one break, since the late ’80s. Freelance credits include several local publications, Microsoft’s Encarta Encyclopedia, Newsday and others.
Q: What types of stories are most likely to pique your interest? What kind of material should public relations people be on the lookout for?
A: My personal interests tend toward stories of innovation, whether that’s historic or modern. I started out as a sports car and motorsports fanatic, but my interests have broadened considerably. AutoWeek tries to present the full spectrum of the automotive lifestyle.
Q: What recent projects have given you the most satisfaction or are most reflective of your work?
A: I directed our coverage and wrote part of our special “back to school†teen driving issue (Sept. 4, 2006), part of an ongoing commitment to driver education and training issues, and a good indication of what “special projects†is all about. Another piece that got a lot of attention somewhat earlier was about the dearth of minority participants in motorsports, most particularly African-Americans in NASCAR but also taking a broader look.
Reflecting my interest in innovation, both historic and modern, I once took a Prius to a gathering of Stanley steam cars and another time presented our GM EV1 coverage in combination with a drive of an early GM Firebird turbine concept car.
Q: What industry publications, Web sites and services do you refer to?
A: Automotive News, of course, and all the manufacturer media Web sites, including the corporate blogs. Among consumer sites, which we keep an eye on for competitive reasons as much as anything, I tend to look at Edmunds and Consumer Reports most frequently.
Q: What do you like/dislike about dealing with PR people? Any tips you’d like to give them?
A: The most persistent concern has to do with the management of embargos on news. As a weekly enthusiast publication and a Web site, we often find ourselves squeezed between our print competition, which runs on a monthly cycle, and the daily newspapers and Web sites. In the Internet era, we’d love to see embargos done away with entirely, but at the very least they have to be established in a manner that’s fair to all. Our philosophy has been that we won’t be first to break an embargo, but we won’t be third with the news either. That sometimes causes friction with PR folks, who perhaps have made a “deal†with a slow-to-press monthly and wind up with egg on their face when they can’t keep a lid on a story. The solution, from our point of view, is not to promise what you can’t deliver. PR folks don’t always see it that way.
The other topic is selectivity. We’re a consumer publication. We don’t cover the supplier side or labor relations issues or dealerships, yet I throw away several such releases every day, and the frequency and persistence of “follow up†phone calls on matters that don’t fall into our purview are a major annoyance. Do us both a favor — spend 10 minutes figuring out what AutoWeek is before you focus your pitch, so you don’t waste your client’s money or your intern’s time trying to figure out what AutoWeek is going to do with material that’s obviously inappropriate to our publication.
Q: How and when do you prefer to be contacted?
A: E-mail is best because we can deal with it on our own timeframe. Our weekly cycle makes Mondays a bad day to try to get through. Unless you’ve got big-time breaking news that we can slam into print immediately, it’s best to wait until later in the week.
Q: What’s the best way to send news releases to you: mail, e-mail or fax?
A: E-mail. I work from home and the road a lot, so snail mail or a fax to the office can sit for awhile in my physical inbox, but I’ve got e-mail access all the time.
Q: Do you accept photos/graphics/artwork? If so, how do you want to receive them? Any specific formatting requirements?
A: We do like to have art, but only of cars, and the manufacturers are pretty good about giving us access to those. Formatting isn’t a major concern; if it doesn’t work for us and we want it, our art department is good at following up.
Kevin A. Wilson
Senior Editor/Special Projects
AutoWeek
Crain Communications
1155 Gratiot Ave.
Detroit, MI 48207-2997
E-mail: kwilson@crain.com
Phone: 313-446-0336
Fax: 313-446-1027