Friday, September 01, 2023

funniest thing I've read today so far, a writer's bio

Mark Vaughn grew up in a Ford family and spent many hours holding a trouble light over a straight-six miraculously fed by a single-barrel carburetor while his father cursed Ford, all its products and everyone who ever worked there. This was his introduction to objective automotive criticism.

I like to point out good writing, and good writers, because all of us experienced the best writers and writing, and APPRECIATED them. 

But they grew old and either died or retired. The market changed, car magazines fired staff, shut down titles, and didn't figure out how to excel at doing the only job they existed for during their 100 year run (1905 to 2005) because they'd only ever had one trick, rely on the income from advertisers, and suddenly, there was no reason for corporations with advertising budgets to pump the money into propping up magazines with mediocre results. 

Magazines folded like socks, wacky wavers, origami stocks. A few switched to long form coffee table book style higher quality (Rodders Journal) and others tried, but didn't have the various factors needed to stick it out until they could figure out how to succeed (Motor Trend Classic) 

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