Today’s passing of Jean Jennings got me thinking about the auto writers I read growing up.
People like John Phillips and Brock Yates and Peter Egan and others. I grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, when the four buff books — Car and Driver, Road & Track, Automobile, and Motor Trend — ruled the roost. Yes, there were other, smaller titles and niche magazines (Four Wheeler and Off Road often found their way into my home), but those were the four that dominated. As a young enthusiast I started off with MT and then graduated to R&T before shifting over to C/D when I got old enough to understand some of the pop-cultures references — and when I was old enough for the irreverence to speak to me.
I bring all this up to say that back in the day, you knew the byline of just about every writer, not just those who had head shots and monthly columns. I also, of course, knew of the local auto writers — Jim Mateja and Dan Jedlicka in my neck of the woods — before getting to know them later when I started doing this job.
Between the columnists and certain car reviewers, there were certain folks I really wanted to read each month.
I suspect some of you had the same experience. If not with print, then with journalists who worked in digital media once content shifted online. Some of those folks even worked for this very Web site.
So, who was it for you? Who were you looking forward to reading each month when your favorite print mag hit your mailbox or the local bookstore or newsstand? Or when you logged on to the Internet at work in order to waste your company’s time?
You know what to do. Sound off below.
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Source: The Truth About Cars
