You’ve ruined my Saturday morning read! This from a friend who religiously reads the Wheels section of the Toronto Star every weekend. From reading The Garage, he’s already read most of the info that’s printed in the paper before it arrives. This may be the root of the problem between New Media and Traditional Media. New Media (ie blogs) publish the news as it happens. Traditional Media typically publish the news a week or even months after it actually happens. This problem is not limited to the motoring industry, as it affects all media outlets. News has always been about getting The Scoop. Due to the realities of publishing, bloggers get The Scoop more often than not these days and that has to be hurting the print guys. The print guys are striking back.

As traditional media outlets try to cope with a changing world, they are using that slimey old standby, the lawyer, to take the battle for them. So how does this affect the automotive end of the blogosphere? Well, it seems there is a bit of kaffuffle over some spy shots of the upcoming Jaguar C-XF. The folks at Edmunds Inside Line blog scooped some shots of the new model from trad print goobers Car & Drivel. The legal fur got flying and those pesky bloggers got shut down real good. Typically American! Let the rich big guy beat down the biggest of the little guys. While the print hacks try to recapture their shrinking portion of the marketplace they are resorting to drastic measures. Let’s face it, it’s only a matter of time before their readers defect and stop buying.

The problem here seems to be that the print guys are missing the boat. Perhaps they just don’t get what makes the blogosphere work. The magazines have become glossy has beens, with some nice articles and road tests thrown in. Why are they has beens? Because much of what they print is a month or more old before it hits the news stand. Most of their web sites are slow loading beheamoths that lack in any sort of personality. Blogs are all about personality. They are also all about interactivity. If you want to contact the author of a post, or the guy who owns a blog go ahead. His or her contact info is right there and they’ll likely get back to you personally within a couple of hours. When was the last time you were able to talk to Patrick Bedard, or Peter Egan? David E? Forget it.

Bloggers happily share knowledge and content with each other, knowing that it strengthens their content and their credibility. Road & Track and Car and driver each pretend the other doesn’t exist. The sole print mag that doesn’t behave this way is the independantly owned and run Grassroots Motorsports. Owner Tim Suddard has quietly publishing his killer motorsports mag for over 20 years and he’s built a huge, loyal following that is a testament to his publication’s integrity. Why? Because it has been published like a print version of a blog forever. Real enthusiasts who are car guys first, writers second, blasting out content because they love their content. These guys even have blogs on their site. If you want to talk to Tim or any of his team, just shoot them an e-mail, or comment on their blog. They will get back to you. The big guys just don’t get this.

With literally millions of people reading automotive blogs daily, it doesn’t take a genius to see that the big boys might be feeling threatened. They should feel threatened. If they don’t change their perspective and adapt to the way the new world operates, they will find themselves at the bottom of the tar sands with the likes of the T Rex.