Another group of automotive-media Web sites are going away.
Autoblog was blown up last fall, though it has returned with a new look. There was some concern that the site might use AI in place of humans, but there are bylines I recognize from flesh-and-blood people I know (one of whom I did some work for, prior to TTAC) on the site. At the very least, it remains a going concern.
That doesn’t appear to be the case for The Car Connection, Motor Authority, and Green Car Reports. According to social-media posts from two editors, those sites will be winding down on April 1.
The sites are/were owned by Internet Brands, which also owns CarsDirect. They were once part of High Gear Media before IB took over.
This is where I have to disclose that I am not unbiased. I am friends with or friendly with most of their staff, and myself and other current and former TTAC writers have had bylines on those sites. I freelanced for Motor Authority and Green Car Reports years ago, as well as other former sites that were once under the High Gear Media umbrella and later folded into The Car Connection. A few of my best industry memories were from my days freelancing for High Gear. I might not be in this job if I hadn’t freelanced there.
So, this one hurts on a more personal level — though we never like it when a good site falls. Sure, other automotive-media sites are our competition, but they’re also a resource. Not only do we use other sites for news aggregation — as some of them use us — but as a resource for fact-checking, specs, instrumented testing, and more. I also like to check my reviews against others to see how my impressions lineup.
This is also a small industry and many of us know one another. So it always stings a bit when a site closes down.
I’ve reached out to Internet Brands for comment. We’ll update if they reply.
[Image:Tero Vesalainen/Shutterstock.com]
Become a TTAC insider. Get the latest news, features, TTAC takes, and everything else that gets to the truth about cars first by subscribing to our newsletter.
