Author Archives: jeff

Take the off-ramp and put your mind in gear
– Sept 22, 2014

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

In my view, multi-lane divided highways, perhaps inadvertently, promote poor driving habits. They generally create a false sense of security that can lull any driver into a careless trance. Since everyone’s traveling at roughly the same pace – usually well over the limit – you really have little concept of forward motion until you need to come to a sudden stop.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Auto Almanac – Sept 22, 2014

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.

Ferrari 308 – FineLines Sept 22, 2014

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

Back in the 1970s and ’80s, TV private-investigator series were all the rage and many of their stars were defined by the cars they drove. But gumshoe Thomas Magnum, played by actor Tom Selleck, was one very cool customer. And the equally cool Ferrari 308 prominently featured in the “Magnum, P.I.” series proved to be just the kind of eye candy that helped make both the show – and the car – a roaring success.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Who Gets The Girl?
AutoKnow Sept 22, 2014

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. Use: Media professionals demanding a variety of automotive topics for broader readership. What it is: Diversity matters. An automotive print product or Web site largely based on new-vehicle reviews is missing an enormous readership. Auto Know gives us the latitude to explore fantastic auto-related stories outside the realm of mere reviews. Whether it’s about how surround sound is engineered into a vehicle, European cars that will land on our shores, or knowing when it’s time to throw in the towel on your old beater, Auto Know is the perfect tool to capture new readers. . . with solid, interesting stories.

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (newspaper), but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
About 800-900 words; separate Word text included if you don’t want to use the supplied layout.
Artwork resolution (200-250 dpi) is high enough for print use.
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

For the all the guys out there who think that flashing a cool set of wheels is the fast track to a woman’s heart, we have some news for you. Actually, 100 women have some news for you.
Yes, it’s true that some women are more attracted to certain vehicles than to others, but as you’re about to find out, not for the reasons you might think.
How did we discover this? By devising a fun survey and taking to the streets with five vehicles to see if any patterns would emerge.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Show-offs. . . SEMA Show
The Octane Lounge Sept 22, 2014

Overview

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

Description

The SEMA show, which ran Nov. 4-7, featured more than 2,200 exhibitors, showing off high-performance parts, pieces, machine tools, scantily-clad young models and who-knows-what-else. Most of all, though, SEMA features hundreds and hundreds of custom and concept cars, many from the world’s leading automakers, others from tuners.
There’s something for everyone at SEMA, from hot rods to racecars to supercars, and everything in between, along with the usual dramatic excesses that Las Vegas naturally serves up.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Profiles, Shojiro Ishibashi – Sept 22, 2014

Overview

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. 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

Spurred by Japan’s rapid industrialization, and the increasing number of cars on the road, Ishibashi conducted extensive research in the tire market and saw an opportunity. He recognized the huge potential for motor transport in Japan and after a few years of testing prototypes he developed the first tires in Japan purely based on Japanese technology. He created the company name by reversing the English translation of his own name: Bridgestone came from a literal translation and transportation of Ishibashi, meaning “stone bridge” in Japanese.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Keyless entry? How about keyless driving . . .
Full Throttle Sept 22, 2014

Overview

Use: Media professionals looking to diversify their automotive readership with women authors who provide their views on a wide variety of topics.

What it is: Courtney Hansen, America’s favorite Garage Girl and the former host of The Learning Channel’s Overhaulin’ auto makeover show, a new-book author and the host of Spike TV’s weekend “Power Block,” has teamed up with Wheelbase Communications for this exclusive column. If you’re looking to build more regular readership and to bring more women into the pages of your print publication and Web pages with the help of a friendly and outgoing automotive celebrity, this bi-weekly column that alternates with our own Rhonda Wheeler is a must.

Product specifications

About 800-900 words; Word text file plus high-resolution art files for print and Web use.
Mac and PC layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Coming soon! Multi-platform page layout that opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.

Description

Let’s take the easiest-to-lose item on the planet — car keys — and make it so you can lose them inside the car, too. Oh, in some cases you get to lose two keys inside the car. The new Dodge Challenger Hellcat has a key for lower power and one for higher power. Cool, yes indeedy, but you know what’s going to happen. . .

Please contact us to order this feature.

2015 Mini – Sept 22 , 2014 AutoPilot

Overview

Description

The Mini lineup has undergone plenty of change and several new models since BMW acquired the brand and launched its initial version for the 2003 model year. For 2015, a shuffle within the Mini ranks has one model departing along with the addition of the Mini Hardtop 4 Door.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Shift! Sept 15, 2014

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.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Fall Fever
AutoKnow Sept 15, 2014

Overview

Product specifications

Mac and PC page layout with accompanying text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
Layout is 8×21.5 inches (newspaper), but can be reconfigured by your designer to fit most spaces.
PDF of layout included.
About 800-900 words; separate Word text included if you don’t want to use the supplied layout.
Artwork resolution (200-250 dpi) is high enough for print use.
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

Car “care” is not a four-letter word.
In fact, like many things in life, you can spend your way around it. When it comes to your vehicle, a dollar spent on the right products often equals many times that saved down the road on repairs, resale value and elbow grease. The following products were chosen for this reason. Wheelbase Media is not affiliated in any way with the following companies or their products. They have been selected as a sample of the thousands of products out there that are designed to, among other things, give you more time to live your life.