Author Archives: jeff

WordSearch May 27, 2013

Overview

Don’t wait for stories to appear in the store when you can become a member of Wheelbase Media’s weekly news service and save more than 50 percent while gaining instant access to the new features as they’re produced. Click here to get started.

If you are not a member of the media, but still wish to read this and other feature stories from Wheelbase Media, visit www.shiftweekly.com to subscribe to Auto Shift Weekly newsmag, available for your Apple iPad or for your home PC or laptop in pdf format.

Description

Use: Interactive content for media professionals looking to bolster recurring readership and increase the amount of exposure time for their products, whether print or Web.

What it is: Why are auto publications so dry and so serious? We’re living proof that car nuts have a sense of humor and want to have a little sugar on their Corn Flakes. Your readers will have fun with the “Driver ’s Seat” Word Search as they unearth people, places and events. Driver ’s Seat is just one step in making your auto product more interactive, which provides more exposure for advertisers and more revenue for all.

Product specifications

Due to the highly complicated graphic nature of this product, we do not yet offer a version that can be played online. Instead, visitors to your Web site can print out the crossword and play it at their leisure. Vote yes to having a playable online verion by clicking here.
High-resolution 300 dpi jpg CMYK file suitable for print and Web.

Please contact us to order this feature.

2014 Jeep Cherokee – May 27, 2013

Overview

Description

Are you shocked and slack-jawed about the 2014 Jeep Cherokee that will arrive later this year?

Who can really blame you. After all, it was the immensely popular – and very square – XJ-designated Cherokee that introduced truckloads of buyers to the virtues of four-wheel-drive as far back as 1984. For the next two decades, it remained steadfastly unchanged until the Liberty stepped in for the 2002 model year.

Please contact us to order this feature.

AutoCross May 27, 2013

Overview

Description

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for their print products and/or Web sites. Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: For the auto thrill-seeker, this is one of the most unique additions to your publication. The International AutoCross will test the knowledge of your readers with trivia that scours automobile parts bins, dealer showrooms and the history of people and places that have made the automobile what it is today. Retain readers and have them coming back on a regular basis for more. Like Wheelbase’s other features, International AutoCross comes to you formatted and ready to use.

Product specifications

Due to the highly complicated graphic nature of this product, we do not yet offer a version that can be played online. Instead, visitors to your Web site can print out the crossword and play it at their leisure. Vote yes to having a playable online version by clicking here.
High-resolution 300 dpi jpg CMYK file suitable for printand Web. Postscript file also included for even higher resolution and no bitmapping of fonts.

Please contact us to order this feature.

2014 Mitsubishi Mirage – May 20, 2013

Overview

Description

It’s lean times these days for Mitsubishi fans. With only a variety of Lancer and Outlander models plus the iMiEV electric car on showroom floors, product diversity is definitely lacking.

Fortunately, some relief is at hand in the form of the 2014 Mirage sub-compact.
In the distant past, various Mirages were imported to North America wearing Mitsubishi, Dodge and Plymouth labels (Chrysler and Mitsubishi once worked closely together). That well dried up after the 2002 model year, but it will be at least partially replenished this fall by a small four-door hatchback that the automaker promises will be one of the most fuel-efficient non-hybrids you can buy.

Please contact us to order this feature.

1969 Dodge Charger Daytona – FineLines May. 20, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for their print products and/or Web sites. Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: Many of you asked if we could put our expertise to work to create a feature that covers not just classic cars, but those vehicles that have left an indelible mark on car culture. The Fine Lines series examines significant vehicle marques, their backgrounds and their contributions to the history of the automobile. All this, with real artwork.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and
art files for maximum work flexibility.
About 850 words: separate text file included.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (newspaper), but can be
reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Includes Photoshop layers file of main art.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark
Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with
standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to
match your style.

Description

They were affectionately known as “winged things.”
Parked on the showroom floor beside a hulking Monaco wagon or plain-Jane Dart sedan, the 1969 Dodge Charger Daytona must have looked like it was from another planet . . . or at least another world. Winged thing, indeed.
Truth be told, that wasn’t far off the mark since back in the late 1960s, car sales were heavily connected with racing and, of course, winning. Since you had to race what you built for street, the Daytona’s slippery shape – and the strange bodywork that went along with it – was solely intended to play along with the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR) rules of the day.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Top Gear – May 20, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for print/Web. Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: What’s new, what’s hot! Wheelbase Communications is committed to broadening readership (getting non-traditional auto-section readers into your publication/Web pages) and creating as much revenue potential as possible. Top Gear focuses on the aftermarket by telling your readers what’s new and what’s cool. This column includes four items per week as well as prices (where possible) and Web site addresses.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Includes Photoshop layers file of main art.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (newspaper), but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
About 850 words: separate text file included.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to match your style.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Bruce McLaren – May.20, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding top-quality automotive content for print/Web.Professional artwork, editing.

What it is: Cars are nothing without the people who create them and those who own, collect and preserve them. Profiles is designed to bring prominent, interesting car people to your readers’ attention. Fun, informative and masterfully designed, like most Wheelbase features, Profiles comes to you as a Quark Xpress/Adobe InDesign module that is completely editable for any space within your print pages or automotive Web site.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Includes Photoshop layers file of main art, where applicable.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (for newspaper use), with some depth variation from week to week, but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
About 850 words: separate text file included.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to match your style.

Description

Which is tougher: being a racing driver; a team owner; or a car constructor? How about all three at the same time?
It’s virtually unthinkable in today’s mega-million-buck world of Grand Prix auto racing that any of its talented, ambitious drivers could launch his own race team . . . and design and compete in his very own car.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Auto Almanac – May. 20, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding non-traditional and interesting automotive content for print/Web.

What it is: A treasure trove of essential automotive quick hits. After designing a highly successful Almanac for one of our daily-newspaper customers, we wondered if we could put together an automotive version. As a result, your new Auto Almanac contains trivia, concept-car spy info, auction notes and even games. All along the way, we invite readers to interact and submit their own ideas.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is the standard one-column newspaper format, but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces and shapes.
PDF of layout included.
About 600 words: NO?separate text file included.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to match your style.

Please contact us to order this feature.

It’s really time to get the lead out – May. 20, 2013

Overview

What is Auto Edit?

Welcome to AutoEdit, a new and slightly more irreverent weekly feature from Wheelbase Media.
Rather than your pages being a collection of random auto stories, the AutoEdit feature is intended to be the glue that holds it all together. Just as your editorial page is intended to be the pulse of your newspaper, Auto Edit can also be the pulse of your auto pages.

Auto edit runs 500-550 words and is all about your readers becoming more familiar with our key staff members via their personal views on the automotive world. Of all 18 of our weekly features, AutoEdit is the only one intended to provide weekly commentary. Journalistically speaking, this is just common sense since such commentary does not belong in our other news-type features.

Whether your readers agree or disagree with what’s written, they’ll know exactly how the writers of AutoEdit stand on their chosen topics. And, quite frankly, a little spirited debate is a healthy thing and that seems to be missing from more and more newspapers these days. AutoEdit is all about soul, getting back to the basics of solid content and showing readers that there are real people behind the nine-point typeface.

Story Intro

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been kind of hoping that all this new battery technology used in hybrid cars and electrics would find its way into other things, like, ohhh, I dunno, batteries, perhaps. All kinds of batteries. Big ones, small ones, rechargeable ones that just have to look at a wall plug the right way to get all happy and juiced up.

But nothing. Well, nothing that really affects me at this very moment. Lithium-ion, where are you? You would be my best friend right now, all lightweight and spry.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Shift! May 20, 2013

Overview

Use: Media professionals demanding automotive content on technology and vehicles designed to reduce pollution and save readers money.

What it is: The first “green” feature. One of our most popular new weekly features takes a look at the auto world from the unique perspective of fuel efficiency and technology as it relates to the environment, from hydrogen, hybrids, electric power and other alternative methods of propulsion. “Shift” is exactly that: a shift in thinking. What will the vehicle of tomorrow look like? Your readers can find out today in Shift. This predesigned module can be used as-is or reconfigured to fit just about any space.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Includes Photoshop layers file of main “Shift” art.
Multi-platform page layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8″x13″, but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
About 900 words: separate text file included.
Fonts are not included, but we attempt to stay with standard system fonts. If not, just change the fonts to match your style.

Topics Covered

Solar panels bring cool factor: South Korean automaker Hyundai is soon to flip the switch on that country’s largest solar-panel system, attached to the rooftops of its Asan, Korea, plant. It will deploy about 40,000 solar-voltaic panels later this year. When completed and on-line, the plant will be capable of supplying enough found energy to provide a stable source of electricity for up to 3,200 households. To produce the same amount of electricity, a thermoelectric (carbon-burning) power plant releases 5,600 ton…