2020 Azbee Awards of Excellence

Category

Overall Excellence > Cross-Platform Package of the Year

Awarded to

Amy Wilson, Melissa Burden, Hannah Lutz, Jackie Charniga, Laurence Iliff, Lindsay VanHulle, Jennifer Vuong, Eric Jones

Entry details

Retail Realities

Issue or publication date: Oct. 14, 2019
Publication name: Automotive News
Publishing company: Crain Communications Inc.
Website home page: autonews.com

Please describe the publication's mission and readership:

The 56,810 paid subscribers of Automotive News are split roughly into thirds: automakers, their parts suppliers and franchised dealers. Our mission is to be the primary source of news, data and insight for the industry’s decision makers. We provide our audience the accurate information they need, in a timely manner and in the format that they desire. Automotive News (in weekly tabloid print and digital formats); specialty magazines Shift on mobility trends and Fixed Ops Journal about the automotive service business; autonews.com and its daily e-newsletter; twice-daily newscasts -- First Shift and AutoNews Now -- and our specialized e-newsletters are all part of Crain Communications. Our website has 181,506 registered users and averages 2.79 million visits a month, with 1.76 million monthly unique visitors and a monthly average of 6.5 million page views. The vast majority of our articles are staff written. Industry executives pay up to $1,500 to attend our events, proof that they see value in them. These include (with 2019 attendance): Automotive News World Congress (1,100+); sold-out Leading Women regional (350) and Detroit (650) conferences; L.A. marketing seminar (500+); Retail Forum NADA (sold out at 450); 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:

Franchised dealers are a core segment of Automotive News’ readership. With auto retailing facing the specter of massive disruption, our Retail Realities project aimed to explore dealers' challenges from inside their stores. We sent six reporters and editors, plus a video team, across the country to get a front-line view of how dealers are approaching some of the biggest issues affecting dealers today. The aim: Give our dealer readers crucial information to help them navigate their own paths on such challenges as succession planning, the shift to digital retailing and butting heads with automakers – but personalize each topic through the eyes and ears of a dealer already on the journey. We created a 20-page print portrait of an industry transforming itself to thrive in a future likely to be more challenging than its past. A four-part podcast series and special video report contributed to the dialogue. We had to stay nimble: One reporter arrived for her visit to find a Category 5 hurricane heading straight for the dealership. Another installment changed when the reporter discovered the group’s prowess at retaining talent. Reader response made it clear the topic hit home. We received emails, letters and in-person comments. In the eight weeks following Oct. 14 publication, the package attracted, in addition to print readership, a total of 17,684 online page views and 12,604 unique visitors online. The podcast and video episodes were played 2,176 times.

Links to entry URLs

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Entry URL(s), if applicable:
https://www.autonews.com/assets/html/retail-realities.html

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