Monday, February 09, 2009
Detroit: Something's missing from this Freep story
It's about newly retiring General Motors Executive Bob Lutz.
14 comments:
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Read the initial version of this story, and you'd have no idea General Motors is in grave financial trouble. Can someone explain the cult of Bob Lutz to me?
ReplyDeleteYup. Write for the source and not the reader. Readers aren't stupid.
ReplyDeleteGeez, who the hell fed this stuff about being big behind the GM Volt? Lutz career was made promoting muscle cars like the Dodge Viper, and the story should reflect that. It was a success at its time, but that time just passed.
ReplyDeleteCan someone explain the cult of Bob Lutz to me?
ReplyDeleteYes, GM has some of the best flacks in the business, and they are very accomplished in getting their version of the message out, especially to the hometown newspaper.
This story is fairly typical of the Detroit Free Press' coverage of the auto industry: a lot of words are used, but there's little depth. It's not surprising that the paper is consistently beaten on auto coverage by the Detroit News, the New York Times (whose Detroit bureau is headed by an ex-Detroit News-er) and the Wall Street Journal.
ReplyDeleteHiggins, like all too many other auto journalists, has been sucked into the Lutz cult because the auto exec is unusually accessible to the media and gives good quotes.
12:07:
ReplyDeleteYou really think the people in Detroit don't know how much trouble GM is in? I bet 1 in 10 readers are laid off auto employees. Get real.
The so-called "cult of Bob Lutz" is rooted in his image as a "car guy," one who truly enjoys driving. He has promoted himself as a lone spokesman for automotive enthusiasts in corporate headquarters, fighting beancounters who don't know a transmission from a differential.
ReplyDeleteHe's kind of like Phil Currie wanted to be viewed -- except that Lutz actually got some things done.
Another thing that's missing: Any idea of what the guy's salary is.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but The Detroit News no longer beats the Freep in auto coverage. They have gone downhill since MediaNews took over and business editor Mark Truby left. What you said USED to be true. The Freep is a much better paper and will likely win a Pulitzer for breaking the Kwame Kilpatrick text message scandal. MediaNews has turned the Detroit News into a rag with big stupid illustrations that waste space. (look at today's stupid front at detnews.com) That paper will not survive long.
ReplyDeleteNo, no, 1:53 p.m.
ReplyDeleteThe News consistently outperforms the Free Press in auto journalism contests, which are judged by outside reviewers. More importantly, the News has in recent years won significantly more awards in the Loeb contest, the most important business journalism competition.
The News will be around for a long time. The Detroit Media Partnership could have shut down the paper when it decided to reexamine home delivery. Shutting down the paper would have cut about as many jobs (200) as the decision it actually took: stop home delivery OF BOTH PAPERS four days a week. As Detroit Media Partnership CEO David Hunke said: There has NEVER been a plan to shut down the News.
Finally, the News' Web site has about the same reach as the Freep's site. In December, for example, the News, according to Nielsen Net Ratings, got many more hits for its Web site than the Freep.
I also wouldn't be so confident the Freep is going to win a Pulitzer for a source sending them printouts of text messages. The reporters did a fine job of confirming those text messages. But reporters for other news organizations who in 2008 broke big stories about corruption have pieced together their big scoops through tireless reporting. Their scoops were not handed to them.
And, finally, 1:53 p.m.: The work that Charlie LeDuff does showing Detroit's dark and quirky sides is much more interesting than anything produced by the self-important dolts you call 'columnists' at the Free Press.
ReplyDeleteWhat's missing? Man on the street interviews with the people with the Asian, Hispanic and Black "sounding" names.
ReplyDeleteOr was the mainstreaming police on furlough this week?
At least Dow Jones brought up GM's financial woes in its story about Lutz.
ReplyDeleteUSAT did what I would consider an equally inadequate job on the story.
ReplyDelete