If you’d like to read this weird story about how Jason, Andrew Collins and I tried to “save” the spirit of Jalopnik via a fake “Editorial Board,” please consider becoming an Autopian member. Thank you!
If you’d like to read this weird story about how Jason, Andrew Collins and I tried to “save” the spirit of Jalopnik via a fake “Editorial Board,” please consider becoming an Autopian member. Thank you!
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I signed up as a member just to read this.
Even if was just Cloth (because I am a cheap ass), it was worth it.
Welcome!
Every penny counts when it comes to keeping good media alive. Welcome to the club!
Though I do sort of wonder what it would have been like if we did end up with some schmuck we could really push around.
Wonder if Matt wants to weigh in here 🙂
You sold it pretty well, I got the impression that the board was at least a few months old.
hahaha!
My company has gone through multiple reorgs over the last year, and I, as a result, have had too many bosses to mention.
I may or may not have adjusted my ‘role’ when meeting new bosses to take on things I wanted or drop things I didn’t.
“Oh, you want to know about _________. I have no idea who is spearheading __________.”
*Deletes _______ tab in OneNote*
Also, Yay! First comment as a member!
Jeez Torch, it’s like you forgot how the rest of Huddsucker Proxy went! /s
Great story; I still have Jalopnik bookmarked out of nostalgia and every time I check in, I nope out almost immediately. There are still good stories yes, some very passionate people, but the slop around it is too much.
Though I do sort of wonder what it would have been like if we did end up with some schmuck we could really push around.
I think we would have had The Autopian that much sooner. You could have converted Jalopnik and just taken over.
I’d like to know Rory’s reaction when he found out that you’d invented the Editorial Board. Or is this article the first time he’s going to find out? 🙂
Seconded
I knew about the editorial board, didn’t know it was made up right before I got there. But ultimately, it was really good to have those guys to lean on. Jalopnik was entirely different than I’d imagined it would be and they had a great feel for how it worked obviously.
Thirded
Fourthed
I promise to become a member as soon as you promise to add metric measurements after any usage of a length, width, volume, etc.
I have no f-ing reference point for how large a 55cu ft trunk and i don’t want to be googling things that take me away from reading the article.
Shouldn’t be too hard to add the alternate measure in brackets by default and make everyone happy. I’m sure you have analytics that show where your audience is from and sure as heck a decent percentage don’t know off hand whether a 177 inch long car is long or short without doing the maths or a lookup.
Ball is in your court!
Most of us in the states don’t know how big a 55cuft trunk is either
I think that’s at least a few too many cufts.
For all I know, it’s not enough
I’m assuming Miss Mercedes was the hire, an honestly inspired choice. The timeframe matches and I doubt others may have taken the risk. I was relieved to see her name on your masthead after the first month or so.
Please make us a T-shirt.
“Autopian Editorial Board Member”
Please make us any T-shirt. Last time I checked the merch store was sad. Looking right now I can’t even find the link.
Well you did what you could I suppose. Still if jalopnil (typo but I think it works actually?) was half as crappy you might still be stuck there. As it was you weren’t losing a lot by jumping ship.
Been there…have held on to at least one job way longer than I should have for security, etc… They honestly did me a favor by laying me off. Forced me to make a move for the better.
I’ve been around so long that I’ve eaten the Jalopnik Burrito at that place across from Warner Bros. I still go there for NP/ND but that’s about it. I miss the old days but I’m sure glad that we can come here.
I have been driving past that place for the better part of three decades. I’ve never stopped in. I had no idea there was a Jalopnik burrito. Why was that the case?
I got the idea that the offices were nearby in a very early incarnation. It was a little place with like 3 tables inside and one outside, where Pass meets Olive/Barham.
Yes, that’s the place I mean… I just assumed it was a place where WB employees went when their cars were on the fritz. 😉
For a fleeting moment I thought Jimmy was referencing the old Taco Bell where the Dog Haus is now, the one with all the kid headshots on the walls. But I never saw a Jalopnik burrito there. (I used Gate 4 a lot more than Gate 2.)
It was a good thing you did. Otherwise if you old guard left it probably would have been to different sites and little control and we would never have gotten Autopian.
I started reading regularly just prior to this, the change in the old lighting site was abrupt and jarring. Keep up the good fight.
Jalopnik now equals MFA junk. Eeewwww.
What’s Andrew P. Collins up to these days?
He was a fun writer back in the olden days.
He succeeded Patrick George as EIC of The Drive, sort of ironically.
I too always enjoyed Andrew Pterodactyl Collins’ work.
David, I’d become a member, but I worked at Chrysler dealerships on vehicles you designed for too long, and can’t afford it.
I’m sure the story was epic.
I went over to Jalopnik just now to take a look around.
Oh. Yeah. That’s why I don’t go there anymore. Tis a right mess.
“Right mess” is exceedingly polite – I can’t even load the site on mobile without an adblocker. Straight up doesn’t work. And don’t get me started on the constant Musk / Cybertruck rage baiting.
I guess I was raised to be diplomatic. 🙂
But you’re right. It fucking sucks.
I ended up keeping the old site in my rss feed (yes i still use rss) for way too long. I ended up deleting it and all of the old network because my phone heated up and they pushed so many adds I couldn’t read any of the articles without it crashing.
I really love reading the autopian and the community here. Good job “editorial board”
RSS rocks. I still use it. I still annoy website owners who don’t provide it (still looking at you Cars & Bids!)
It shows up in my Google News feed and from time to time has some interesting headlines so I click on it but yeah, every damn time so many ads pop up that I can’t read the article and multiple times it’s crashed my browser. I miss what we had at Jalopnik but those days are just gone now.
Yeah Jalopnik is completely unusable and has been for years. I gladly pay a subscription here to keep Torch, Tracy, and co. employed, writing weird automotive stuff, and putting it on a website that is actually functional with a comments section that works and no obtrusive ads.
Private equity was really ill-suited to go into new media; the low entry barriers and the fact nobody had a noncompete meant they were buying brands at their peak with little to no control of their enshittification rate.
I’m sure they’d have been aghast to learn of the rectally produced Editorial Board but I’m equally sure that between it and landing Rory instead of someone from another industry, they had another year or two of quality content they wouldn’t have gotten if you guys had been pushed out immediately.
Ketchup chip munchies kicking in hard after after each having an edible.
The Editorial Board (not its real name)
Dr. Edward Board, Esq., JD, PhD
“I was mostly traveling around the world fixing junkers”
Also known as the Spark Plug Gap Year.
Long live the Fake Editorial Board (F.E.B.)!
I was always curious about how those last few years went down behind the scenes. Makes me sad that site spiraled but I’m glad that yall made it out with your senses of humor intact.
Locations and venues change, but if you have the right people in charge you can keep a community together. I’m so glad you guys made this site. Seeing Jalopnik’s decline was sad, but I still have a home for my car nerdiness.
Well put. I was on Jalopnik from the Murilee Martin days, through the rise of Torch and the Tracy chronicles, and thought it would always be the best car place on the web. I stuck around mostly for Tom McParland’s occasional pieces but stopped posting, and then finally stopped visiting. Fortunately, I’d heard of a new site coming soon, and well, it’s been even better than I could have hoped for.
Always thought it was a shame that Murilee and Torch never overlapped anywhere, because it sort of seems like they’d get along.
Now, he’s the only reason I still check in at the Truth About Cars, to see what he’s turned up lately in some Coloradan junkyard
Have we ever seen them in the same room together? Murille (that saucy minx) was always sporting the beard disguise…. Just saying
Didn’t he write a piece for the Autopian not long ago?