2017 Azbee Awards of Excellence
Category
Print > Impact/Investigative > Heartland
Awarded to
Jamie LaReau, Neal Boudette, Staff Reporters
Entry details
Cash for Nissan's preferred dealers
Issue date (if applicable): 2/8/2016
Publication name: Automotive News
Publishing company: Crain Communications Inc.
Website home page: autonews.com
Please describe the publication's mission and readership:
Automotive News serves automakers, suppliers and dealers. Our 57,000 paid subscribers are split roughly into thirds: dealers; automakers and suppliers; and others. Our mission is to be the primary source of industry news, data and insight for the industry’s decision makers. We provide our audience the information they need, in a timely manner and in the format that they desire. Automotive News (in weekly tabloid print, digital and e-newsletter formats), autonews.com, related magazines, our daily webcasts -- First Shift in the a.m. and AutoNews Now in the p.m. -- and our specialized e-newsletters are part of Crain Communications. Our website has 340,000 registered users and averages 2.2 million visits a month, with 1.3 million unique visitors. The vast majority of our articles are staff written. Our coverage includes regular monthly pages/departments: Production Line, Connected Car, Marketing, Finance & Insurance, Fixed Operations, and Remarketing. The first is devoted to supplier/technology news; the last three to key dealership profit centers. Industry executives pay up to $1,500 to attend our annual events, proof that they see value in those events. These include (with 2017 attendance): Automotive News World Congress (1,100+), L.A. and N.Y. marketing seminars (800+; 500+); Best Dealerships To Work For seminars and dinner (400), and PACE awards for supplier innovation (450).
Please describe the enterprising work that went into this entry and its significance or impact on readers:
This story uncovered a potentially illegal effort by Nissan to support favored auto dealers with millions in secret subsidies, and exposed the measures it took to keep it hidden.
In late 2015, staff reporters Jamie LaReau and Neal Boudette had uncovered Nissan’s struggle to find operators to open new stores in Boston. They found that many potential buyers did not want to own the brand because of Nissan’s reputation for being hard to work with, as well as a widespread belief that Nissan had “favorite” dealers who received financial incentives making competition for existing dealers nearly impossible. That story ran in December 2015.
LaReau and Boudette set out to determine if the allegations of favorite dealers were true. Further digging unearthed a court case that previously had flown under the radar. By reading through hundreds of pages of trial transcripts, the reporters were able to shed light on the company's strategy and how it had pressured small dealers to give up their franchises.
Prompted in part by this story, two Cleveland, Ohio, dealers later sued Nissan, alleging its alliances with “preferred dealers” amount to illegal incentive programs that violate both US and Ohio laws. That suit is ongoing.
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Cash for Nissan's preferred dealers
Category
Print > Impact/Investigative > Heartland
Description
Publication name:
Automotive News
Company:
Crain Communications Inc.
Winner Status
- Regional Silver Award
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