Conde Nast's new car publication doesn't get greasy with technical talk about pistons, "horsepower" or other automotive jargon that other specialty car publications use.
Rather, Architectural Digest's Motoring, a new lifestyle publication, puts the glamour back into cars, maybe even a little sex appeal in its content, aimed at the affluent consumer who reads Architectural Digest, says Jeff Turrentine, one of the Digest's senior editors.
Content for the first issue includes a John Updike essay on driving and a feature about how marketers try to determine what personality types will want particular cars.
Auto design trends, scenic routes and interesting car collections by celebrities are fair game; "real hard core tactical stories about transmissions" are not.
Okay, so what about new safety features?
"It's hard to make safety features sexy," Turrentine says.
Fax or mail pitches (or press packets) to Turrentine and the other senior editors, Marina Isola and Mary Ore, at 6300 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA; fax: 323/937-1458. No emails, please.
Motoring takes its editorial staff entirely from the Digest (the editors have been doing double-duty for a while), but features separate freelance writers.
Final editing is almost complete for the premiere October issue, but there's still plenty of time to pitch the spring 2000 follow-up, which doesn't begin production until this winter.
The first issue of Motoring will be sent to Architectural Digest subscribers, but sold separately on newsstands.
Source: PR NEWS Media HotSheet