Author Archives: Tabitha

The Auto Sleuth
Jan 26, 2015

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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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.
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.

Auto Almanac
Jan 26, 2015

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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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

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.

Jeep Liberty: 2002-’12
Jan 26, 2015

AutoFile_LIBERTY.qxdOverview

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

Description

Although it competed with the Toyota RAV4, Honda CRV and Ford Escape on price, the Liberty was a real off-roader. Its two optional four-wheel-drive setups with their low ranges proved superior for crawling over boulders or up steep hills. An extra-cost off-road package added protective skid plates, tow hooks and more aggressive rubber. The extra-tall cabin provided plenty of headroom and equally impressive visibility.

 Please contact us to order this feature.

Shift!
Jan 26, 2015

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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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.
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.

AutoCross
Jan 26, 2015

CrosswordOverview

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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

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.

Everyone grew up knowing a Tinky
Jan 26, 2015

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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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.

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

A friend and fellow auto writer recently put out a story about a kid from his high school days with the unlikely name of Tinky. He was described as being literally and figuratively larger than life and a certified gearhead to boot.
The portrayal of the gregariously oversized Tinky sounded vaguely familiar, as if I had also attended school with him. Only in my case his name was Mike and my school was in a different city.

Please contact us to order this feature.

Profiles, Jim McDowell
Jan 26, 2015

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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 check out some of our stories online, visit www.theoctanelounge.com, which is owned by Wheelbase Media.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

He’s proof that automobile big business doesn’t have to be all business all the time. That fun is actually part of business and, in fact, having fun means a better business. Whoa. Who is this mad man with these crazy ideas? Try this guy. Try the guy who believes that a day hasn’t been a good day if you “haven’t laughed at the bottom of your lungs at least five times.”

Please contact us to order this feature.