How to Become an Auto Journalist

"Collin" (coliin) 05/22/2014 at 10:38 • Filed to: Foolishness, Lunacy, Run Away

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Like many of you, I have been a commenter on Jalopnik for many years. I don't remember exact numbers, but the site couldn't have been more than a few years old when I stumbled over here from a less awesome car site. About six months ago, after making a couple of popular Oppo posts, I started to get a crazy idea. S0mehow, I was going to become a professional auto journalist.

Fast forwarding to today, how has it gone? Believe it or not, it's gone way better than I could have ever hoped. I haven't exactly gotten the call up to the big leagues just yet, but sticking with the baseball metaphor, I'd say I'm at least up to AAA ball. On the one hand, I get paid to write about cars, but on the other hand, I still keep another part time job to make sure I don't have to worry about paying my bills. On the one hand, I just got my first test vehicle, but on the other hand, it was a 2014 Corolla S. I could go on, but you get the point. I'm way further along than I probably should be at this point, but I'm also not exactly Jason, getting Bentleys dropped off at my door and invites to Huayra unboxings.

Recently though, following Matt's tweet about aspiring auto journalists, there's been a lot of chatter about how exactly one just goes out and becomes one. As someone who very recently went out and somehow became an auto journalist (though only a semi-professional one for now), I feel like I have a bit of insight for those of you who are looking to do the same thing. Hopefully some of you guys can learn from the mistakes I made along the way.

1) Learn to Write

Don't just learn to write. Learn to write well. One thing that I learned very quickly is that even though I am probably an expert on most things car-related, so is every other auto journalist in the world. In fact, the ones who get paid to do this thing full time probably know more than I ever will. Odds are, they know more than you ever will too. All those other aspiring auto journalists? They know everything that you know, they know everything that I know, and we can all make the same Top Gear jokes. None of us are particularly special in that regard.

There's a difference between knowing about cars and being able to write about them though. Everything that you learned in high school English about writing a paper applies to writing about cars. Your writing needs to flow. You need to avoid cliches. You need transitions between paragraphs. You need an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. You might not think all of that matters, but I promise you that it does. If your writing samples are full of comma splices, ellipses, and sudden endings to developing thoughts, you look sloppy, and if you're going to impress editors, you have to be as impressive as possible.

2) Only Use a Shtick if You Actually Have a Shtick

Tom owns a business where he gets paid to help people buy cars, and he writes about car sales. The Regular Car Reviews guys sing songs and mercilessly mock every car that they test. Doug writes like a gerbil that just fell into a bucket of cocaine. They stick with those things because those things work for them.

I, on the other hand, don't have anything that immediately stands out as unique other than possibly being generally entertaining. I once had a shtick as a condescending douche bag when I tried my hand at writing advice columns, and it played well there, but it never felt like it played well when I wrote about cars.

If you're trying to become an auto journalist, don't worry about finding a shtick if you don't have one. Just write something that someone other than your mother would want to read twice. If you try to force it, your writing will just feel awkward and off-putting.

3) All Outlets Count

I don't work for Jalopnik. I don't work for Autoblog. I don't work for Motor Trend, and I certainly don't work for Car and Driver. You probably won't jump right into writing for Car and Driver either. Do you know what though? That's ok. Being published by even the tiniest little car website in the corner of the internet is still better than being unpublished, and you can always parlay that success into working for a better known publication down the road.

Find your most popular full length Oppo posts, give them a little polishing up, and then start applying to write for every car site that you can find. If you get ignored, so what? If you get hired, that's awesome. If you get paid, that's even better. If not, just consider it an unpaid internship, and roll with it.

4) Join an Association

Once you have some sort of outlet that will publish your writing, your local automotive media association will connect you with fellow journalists in your area, PR reps, and probably even a few cars to test drive. There may be other ways to get started meeting people and driving cars, but joining an association is the way I did it. I recommend it because it worked.

5) Network, Network, Network

All of the people that you meet who have any connection to the industry are worth following up with. Currently, I owe an email to a rep who I met last week, and that's definitely the wrong way to do things. She should have gotten an email the day that I met her. Not only do you need to develop a good relationship with the representatives that you meet, but you need to develop a good relationship with the other journalists that you meet. I am forever indebted to the fellow journalists who said something nice about me to someone who had the power to make my life better, and I can't stress enough how important those relationships are.

6) Don't Drink Your Own Kool-Aid

Just like you aren't suddenly in a relationship the first time a girl kisses you on the dance floor at a fraternity party, you aren't an auto journalist the first time a real life outlet publishes something that you wrote. If you think you've made it and can let off the gas just because you got published somewhere, you're a fool. Your Facebook friends may be impressed with your fancy internet presence, but you still have a long way to go before you're putting your kids through college on auto journalist money. You've got to keep working just as hard as you did back when you were desperate to get published for the first time and maybe even harder.

7) Don't Quit Your Day Job

Unless you already have a bajillion dollars saved up from that time that you bought Ford stock at $1.50/share, it's probably going to take you more time than you have dollars to become a real life, professional auto journalist. There's always going to be that one guy who quit his cushy corporate job with a company car to become a writer, but odds are, you aren't Doug DeMuro. Luckily, car writing can be done on nights and weekends. Until you start making the big bucks, do that. Believe me when I tell you that it's very difficult to pay your rent with unhatched chickens.

8) Get Lucky

If we're going to be honest here, nothing about my extremely brief career thus far has been anything that I could have planned, and while I've definitely worked hard, almost every opportunity to move forward came out of nowhere. It can be both frustrating and awesome, there's no set of instructions that you can follow to guarantee anything, and a lot of people work for years before they see any real success. Even with some success right out of the gate, I'm still not in the clear just yet, and I could very easily be forced to fall back on other options just because life isn't fair, and the world is mean.

That's okay though. If I fail, at least I gave it a shot. I'm going after what I love, and at least I've made a few friends in the process. If you decide to do the same and fail as well, no one can blame you for trying. If you're going to give it a shot though, at least give it the best shot that you can, and if we both succeed, maybe we can share a few beers at next year's Detroit Auto Show.

Collin Woodard currently writes for The Smoking Tire and Wall Street Cheat Sheet. You can follow him on Twitter !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! or email him at Woodard.Collin@gmail.com.

Tom McParland > Collin 05/22/2014 at 09:49

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Excellent post! I would like to know more about this local Automotive Media Association thing

Jagvar > Collin 05/22/2014 at 09:52

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I was a journalist for three years, before I made the switch to the big, bad world of PR. I loved every minute of it. Always going interesting places, always meeting interesting people, even once getting a ride in an armored Rolls-Royce Silver Spur stretch limousine. Life behind a desk is very different, though there are pros and cons to each. It's so important to do what you love, and it sounds like you're doing it. My hat's off to you.

Jonathon Klein > Collin 05/22/2014 at 10:02

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" Doug writes like a gerbil that just fell into a bucket of cocaine ." That about sums Doug up. Also great piece, did you see the massive outpouring yesterday on twitter of advice for Will? It ended with bringing bananas and Rum to every party you go to.

Also which media association?

Collin > Tom McParland 05/22/2014 at 10:09

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You're in New Jersey, right? I'm not sure if there's one specific to NJ, but the International Motor Press Association is out of NYC. You might want to give them a look.

http://www.impa.org/

William Byrd > Collin 05/22/2014 at 10:10

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Good stuff, if that is your given name you have a solid name for journalism.

I am a writer in my day job and the first bit about putting your thoughts together in a non-nonsensical manner matters. You should be able to take the first sentence from each paragraph, put them together and tell a cohesive story (its called a topic-sentence outline). Triple check spelling, double check your facts, cite your sources, etc.

Whole-heatedly agree about writing for whoever you can, wherever you can. Find a website you like and ask if they need help. I write/edit for RightFootDown.com (aka RFD), and much like trying to develop the next awesome app (which I've also dabbled in) it can be a young man's game. I'm 37 and with 3 kids it's tough to find time to write, not to mention produce feature video content (which we are actually ramping up this weekend with a feature comparo so stay tuned to Oppo).

But write when you can, the more article length content you can get out there, the better. I would love to do this full time, but I get paid well and have a mortgage, the aforementioned offspring, and 2 new EcoBoost cars to pay for. If, one day RFD becomes the next /Drive and inks a deal, then I'll happily give it a shot.

But for anyone else, if nobody will give you a shot publishing your stuff, start your own damn website. I've done that numerous times, got my first article republished by Spinelli almost 10 years ago on Jalopnik via a website I owned, managed, and was the only writer for.

And as you said, networking is great. You can get a press pass easier than you think. Take a business card to the press office and they usually will hook you up, I haven't paid to go to the DC auto show in years. Talk to your friends with cool, or interesting cars. Ask to borrow them, write about them, take pictures of them. Speaking of that, learn to be a photographer and videographer too, it never hurts to be able to take nice pictures and video of your subjects.

I'm sure I could ramble on for hours, but this is your thread and it's a good one. Thanks for sharing.

Meatcoma > Collin 05/22/2014 at 10:11

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Dammit Bob, we can't see the car!

William Byrd > Collin 05/22/2014 at 10:13

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Collin Woodard once very briefly met Josh Wise, which means he is now full of wisdom and Doge. You can follow him or ask him more questions via Twitter @CBWoodard .

Careful with the wording, "full of Doge" could be misconstrued as a really weird ending to a night at the bar. :) haha

Meatcoma > Tom McParland 05/22/2014 at 10:18

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There is some buttering goin on here!

Meatcoma > Collin 05/22/2014 at 10:18

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Good read.

Collin > William Byrd 05/22/2014 at 10:34

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I really appreciate the reply, and feel free to chime in anywhere in the thread. I may have started it, but my experience is pretty limited.

You're definitely right about the whole photography/videography thing. I'm not really a photographer, so it's been a struggle to learn on the fly how to take compelling pictures to accompany my stories.

Collin > Jagvar 05/22/2014 at 10:36

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From what I understand, people jump between journalism and PR all the time. At least that's what the PR guy told me as he tried to poach me recently.

But yeah, the cars aside, I genuinely love writing, and if I can get paid to write about something I love, that's even better. I don't know how far this is going to take me, but I'll gladly ride it out.

Collin > William Byrd 05/22/2014 at 10:37

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I guess if you say it with a hard G, it gets weird. I always said it with a soft G though, which sounds more like a mystical power.

Collin > Jonathon Klein 05/22/2014 at 10:38

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I saw the first batch of tweets, but I don't think I saw the whole thread. The bananas and rum thing is probably good advice though. From my limited experience, it seems that auto journos like to drink. A lot.

Collin > Meatcoma 05/22/2014 at 10:38

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Thanks!

Jonathon Klein > Collin 05/22/2014 at 10:46

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It was ridiculous, Sam Smith joined in, was heavy on the rum needing bit.

Mosqvich > Collin 05/22/2014 at 10:54

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Excellent post. Very well written.

I found it pretty easy to gain access to most of the major auto outlets press-only sites for information. However, I'm not looking to make money, just hone my writing skill.

As far as schtick, it typically turns me off. I guess I'm a little too serious and want information. Having said that, I do like Doug DeMuro. Several Jalop writers irritate me, rely on whit and easy to develop cynicism and really are not journalists, while several are bona fide journalists who provide some entertainment and mostly informative and factual writing. You be the judge.

I have an idea to bone up on your knowledge. Why not write a set of posts on all the basics we read and hear about such as:

- What is heel and toe driving (i.e. describe it, etc...)

- What is torque?

These are just generalities, but as new readers grow and desire to learn more, often they get into our favorite topic and possibly don't understand all the little references made by auto journalists. This is just a thought as a way to strengthen your personal knowledge and bring a lot of others along with you.

I expect to see you in the big time in a few years!!

Regular Car Reviews > Collin 05/22/2014 at 23:03

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Eyyyy! Thanks for the shout-out!

Need_for_Sheed > Collin 05/23/2014 at 16:22

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Many people jump from journalism to PR. (Did it myself.) Very, very few make the jump in the opposite direction. I know a grand total of two reporters who went to PR, weren't happy and managed to get a legitimate media gig again.

It sucks, but once you've gone to PR your impartiality as a journalist will forever be questioned and in this media job market, there's always going to be somebody just as qualified who doesn't have that handicap.

Stef Schrader > Collin 05/24/2014 at 13:55

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I still need to join the Texas Association of Complimentary Sandwich Eaters just so I can write in "Volkswagen Type 3" for every "Car of the Year" type survey they publish.

Collin > Stef Schrader 05/24/2014 at 13:56

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*Car of Texas

Stef Schrader > Collin 05/24/2014 at 14:13

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Yeah, but it's Texas, so that's basically like saying it's the Car of Intergalactic Domination, anyway.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Collin 06/13/2014 at 12:24

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My main takeaway here? Never store your cocaine in a bucket if you have a pet gerbil (or chipmunk).

Weed is okay though.

Earthbound And Down > Jonathon Klein 06/13/2014 at 12:27

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For you, you would probably want to hook up with the Midwestern Automotive Media Association (MAMA). You pay some nominal fee every year (<$100, I think), and you go to meetings where you check out new technology in person, and you get direct access to local PR reps. You'll also get invited to twice-yearly rallies, the most recent of which was at Road America; that's where the Hellcat revving videos came from a couple weeks back.

http://www.mamaonline.org

There are some good people there. And then there's my coworker.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Collin 06/13/2014 at 12:29

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I applied to IMPA almost two years ago; back then my reviews just appeared on Examiner. They weren't interested in someone that only wrote for Examiner. In the last year I started publishing the reviews on Oppo and might take another shot at IMPA.

Earthbound And Down > Collin 06/13/2014 at 12:31

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Good writing will trump a shtick every time.

Jack Baruth, Ezra Dyer, Dan Pund, Eddie Alterman (when he actually writes these days), all those guys just write, and they write in a compelling fashion that keeps me - and plenty of others, both inside and outside the industry - reading.

I've come to the same conclusion recently, as well. This is a great guide, for sure.

Jonathan Harper > Collin 06/13/2014 at 12:34

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Five or six years ago I would never have considered becoming any kind of journalist. My dad began his career as a newspaper reporter and now has written many books and been published many notable places in his subsequent freelance career. Growing up it made me INSANE how he would want to read everything I had written and edit, edit, edit again. And again. Asking me "do you think this would be better if I marked it up one more time" FFUUUUUUU!!

But it was a blessing in disguise. I was baffled in college how many of my peers could not put a coherent paragraph together. Once Kinja dropped I saw a huge opportunity, especially in my former position at CCC. So I started writing. A lot. Since then I've had a lot of FP'd posts, and learned a lot about what people like to read, and how they like to read it. I changed, my style morphed, and then BMW hired me to make words for them :)

And here I am today.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Start writing. NOW! Take all feedback with a grain of salt; not everyone is going to like what you write. Do more.

Jeff Glucker > Collin 06/13/2014 at 12:40

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I may save this URL... great points. I have folks asking me all the time about how to do this stuff.

Nice piece Collin

Jonathon Klein > Earthbound And Down 06/13/2014 at 12:56

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I tried emailing them about a week and a half ago but never heard back. Should I try emailing them again?

Earthbound And Down > Jonathon Klein 06/13/2014 at 13:05

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Weird. Yeah, I'd say try again.

Earthbound And Down > Jonathon Klein 06/13/2014 at 13:05

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Full disclosure: I'm not a MAMA member yet.

Jonathon Klein > Earthbound And Down 06/13/2014 at 13:20

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Have you applied or asked yet?

Bret > Collin 06/13/2014 at 14:04

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Bookmarked. Excellent resource, thanks.

kyldare > Jonathan Harper 06/13/2014 at 14:07

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What do you do for BMW? Are you on the PR side?

kyldare > Earthbound And Down 06/13/2014 at 14:14

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Ezra and Sam Smith are two of my favorites. IMO great auto writing transcends the automotive industry and peeks inside the human condition. Sam's pseudo-gonzo adventure piece about the Mustang in R&T a couple months ago was incredible. I think it was Jack Baruth that had a piece (also in R&T recently) about how angry our cars look these days.

I definitely agree with you. A bit of "schtick" can flesh out your article, so long as the bones and meat of the article speak to something more than 0-60 times. Not every article has to be like that, of course. Sometimes you have to do a straight review of an econobox haha.

Jonathan Harper > kyldare 06/13/2014 at 14:29

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Sort of. Ad-side. I work for the ad agency that is in charge of 98% of US marketing for BMW. I mainly do social media things.

brakesnow > Collin 06/13/2014 at 14:45

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Great article, very well written! On average how much time would you say you spend editing an article after you write it?

kyldare > Jonathan Harper 06/13/2014 at 15:01

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How did you make the transition over to the PR side of things?

I write and do web production for a large automotive website but it looks like there's going to be cuts at the end of September. I'm keeping my eyes open for positions in the industry and also trying to explore other automotive venues (like ads, PR, press fleet management, etc).

Do you like making ad-copy?

Jonathan Harper > kyldare 06/13/2014 at 15:05

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Well I'm in a kind of interesting position. I wrote a bit about it HERE .

Ad-copy (especially in terms of BMWs) comes easily to me.

kyldare > Jonathan Harper 06/13/2014 at 15:13

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Sounds like an awesome job!

As a fellow BMW junkie, I'm jealous.

Jonathan Harper > kyldare 06/13/2014 at 15:15

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Send me your resume, I'll see if anything they're offering is a potential fit. jharper1126@gmail.com

kyldare > Jonathan Harper 06/13/2014 at 15:29

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Done.

I kid you not, my resume has an E9 CSL on it haha. I'll send it when I get home from work today.

Collin > brakesnow 06/13/2014 at 15:30

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I usually prefer to edit as I write. It probably takes longer than just writing straight through and then going back to edit, but I can't stand leaving something there that I know is wrong or even awkward.

Jonathan Harper > kyldare 06/13/2014 at 15:31

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Sounds good. No guarantees but I know my company is always looking for talented folks.

kyldare > Jonathan Harper 06/13/2014 at 15:35

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Oh yeah, I understand. I wasn't fishing for a job opportunity or anything, but I appreciate you taking my resume at any rate. Thanks!

Collin > Earthbound And Down 06/13/2014 at 15:37

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Thanks, I really appreciate it.

Collin > Mosqvich 06/13/2014 at 15:41

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Thanks!

Collin > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom 06/13/2014 at 15:41

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Did you just happen to have that picture on hand?

Collin > Jeff Glucker 06/13/2014 at 15:45

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I really appreciate it. Feel free to point people here any time.

Collin > Bret 06/13/2014 at 15:45

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You're definitely welcome.

Collin > Regular Car Reviews 06/13/2014 at 15:48

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Any time, guys. Any time.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Collin 06/13/2014 at 16:24

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Actually, yes. IIRC it came from a random interwebs search a few years ago.

Collin > Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom 06/13/2014 at 17:08

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"Google, which woodland creature is best to smoke a bowl with?"

Ben C > Collin 06/14/2014 at 05:07

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As a fellow auto journo I can only echo your tips (cos they're mostly true), and wish you all the best.

Keep at it and hope you make it some day.

Ben C > Need_for_Sheed 06/14/2014 at 05:13

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Yep. We call PR 'the dark side retirement home' around here, for journos who have paid their dues and want a stable career now without completely leaving the circle.

Turbineguy: Nom de Zoom > Collin 06/14/2014 at 22:51

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Naah, that would be too easy.. This was *totally* random :)

Zayd Ahmed > Collin 11/02/2015 at 07:48

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Why I loved this peice of writing? It’s simply amazing, i mean this guy can write. I love cars and hope to go down the same line and with people like this who are blunt but inspiring at the same time, I’d say he’s given me hope.