Author Archives: jeff

WordSearch Sept 16, 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.

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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.

iQute test – AutoKnow, Sept 16, 2013

Overview

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

Well, it’s the smallest four-seat car I have ever driven, that’s for sure.
You have no doubt heard of the emerging urban-commuter market, a category of minimalist vehicles for minimalist buyers. The iQ fits the bill nicely with its tiny proportions and a rating of 36 mpg in the city.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Auto Almanac – Sept. 16, 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.

Desert Stars – The Octane Lounge – Sept 9, 2013

Overview

Description

The rich really are different than the rest of us. Umed Singh II, Maharaja of Kotah from 1889 until his death in 1940, commissioned this Rolls-Royce Phantom to be used as his tiger-hunting car on his huge private estate.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Boyd Coddington – Legends, Sept 9, 2013

Overview

Description

During his all-too-brief life he became as synonymous with custom-car building asMickeyMouse is to Disneyland. In fact, Boyd Coddington, best known as amodern-day blacksmith who could hammer, weld and sculpt lumps of coldmetal into hot works of rolling art, spent a part of his younger life withMinnie, Goofy, Pluto and Donald Duck.

Please contact us to order this feature.

WordSearch Sept 9, 2013

Overview

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.

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.

The Auto Sleuth – Sept 9 , 2013

Overview

Use: Voted the best automotive news column available: you need it.

What it is: If you could have only one automotive feature, this should be it. At Wheelbase Communications, we’ve chosen to stay away from providing an automotive-news column until we could do it in a non-traditional way. And here it is: the Auto Sleuth. Our worldly gumshoe has his ear to the ground, digging up the latest news on everything from product launches and updates to names in the news. The column is solely driven by reader interest. No boring statistics or auto-company pap here, just the straight goods peppered with the Auto Sleuth’s commentary and speculative, gossipy-style.

Product specifications

Mac and PC print layout with separate text and art files for maximum work flexibility.
High-resolution artwork suitable for print.
Multi-platform layout opens with either Quark Xpress or Adobe Indesign.
Layout is 8×16 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.

Hyundai Elantra: 2009-12 – Sept. 9, 2013

Overview

Description

The Touring, which was originally designed for the European market where compact wagons are in vogue, brought added practicality to the Elantra brand when it was introduced for the 2009 model year. The Touring was about an inch shorter and a half-inch narrower than the sedan, but it enjoyed a two-inch advantage between the front and rear wheels. Like its sedan counterpart, the Touring was equipped with a 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine that made 138 horsepower and 136 pound-feet of torque. Buyers could choose between a five-speed manual transmission or an optional four-speed automatic. The Touring was retired with the arrival of an all-new Elantra sedan for the 2013 model year.

Please contact us to order this feature.

A sample of my writing, 35 years ago – Sept. 9, 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

Back in the 1970s, my buddy John and I made a trip to Morocco. As you can imagine, it was quite the Third World adventure for a couple of North American kids. This was long before I became an automotive scribe, but I did write about the adventure with hopes of one day having it published. Today’s the day.

Please contact us to order this feature.

2014 Mitsubishi Outlander – Sept 09 AutoPilot

Overview

Description

There’s a new face at Mitsubishi that should receive more than just a passing glance. The 2014 Outlander wagon has cleaned up its design act both inside and out for 2014, shedding its dated open-mouth look in the process.

In some respects, the largest vehicle in Mitsubishi’s thinned-out fleet appears more like the second-gen edition that served the automaker for the 2007-’09 model years. As then, the front end returns to an understated and more aerodynamic appearance, which suits the vehicle better than the previous rally-inspired Lancer Evolution-style nose. Let’s face it, a seven-passenger rally-race wagon wasn’t fooling anyone. Leave that to the five-passenger Outlander Sport with its similar grille to explain.