Over to you…

Keith Adams

A quick chat with Mike Duff (fellow journo and my co-pilot to Chernobyl back in 2006) about AROnline kinda reinforced what I’ve been thinking for a while: it’s a great site but, just like the amiable robot from Short Circuit, we need more input.

‘Could you look to establish some kind of collective editorial trust to run it?’ he asked. ‘It’s definitely the best ‘marque site’ by a country mile. Indeed, despite the narrowness of its brief it remains one of the best motoring sites full stop. I would have thought that wannabe journos would be forming queues to write for it…’

Well, not really Mike. There are one or two people who’ve made a real difference but, in terms of wannabe jounalists looking to cut their teeth in the business and get their work out there, I’ve not really had a bite, as such. Given that the site helped launch my fledgling career and that some of the people who matter regularly read it, it does represent a great opportunity to get budding writers’ works out there.

So, if you’re looking to make the jump into writing and have things to say, do get in touch – we’ll see if we can find you a space here. AR helped me a lot and I’d like to see it help others, too.

Keith Adams

6 Comments

  1. Hi Keith

    As a very regular reader but one who can’t claim to have made a real difference, I often feel guilty about not contributing more to the site. At the age of 45 and with a half-decent career, I don’t really fit into the budding journo category, mind you. Last year, you posited the idea of having ‘great drive stories’ section on the site. I’ve often thought that I might have things to offer if that went ahead – mainly an enormous collection of Car Magazines from the 70s, 80s and 90s. Don’t know if the idea of a regular upload of scanned content (drives or just general items of interest – there’s loads of Austin-Rover stuff in there), perhaps with some introductory commentary, hits the spot. I’d be happy to do it if you feel that would be a useful addition to the site. Not sure what the copywright issues might be.

    Regards

    Jon

  2. Keith,

    I think you can read minds sometimes. I sit here on the verge of another dicipline in a job that is rapidly becoming the antethesis of who I am as a human being. Problem is, this industry is the only one that I know of, so what can I do? The answer is: if you can’t hack it write about it! It is appealing really to think of a possible change of career, especially as this site would provide a wonderful starting point to develop a craft (oh yes, it is a craft in the truest of senses) such as yours.

    There is one big problem. Just reading the content of this site overwhelms me with the sheer quality of writing from you and your current contributors, so much so that every time I put finger to keyboard I only have to think of the quality of the current content to bring me to a crashing halt for fear of being one who cannot step up to the mark. I’ve re-written my article so many times it’s untrue; every time getting deleted as I don’t think it is a high enough standard yet.

    Maybe just a crisis of confidence? Yes maybe and no doubt after the first article is written and submitted these feelings of inadequecy will subside but boy, the first step is most definately the hardest.

  3. There’s nothing new to write that many writers can get their teeth into here – it’s a resource of past information, and the key to it is not, sadly, the quality and variety of the writers, but the original layout and presentation, the editing, and the sources from within the firms – without those sources, there’d be very little content.

    I’d be happy to write on subjects I know about, but everything i know relating to Austin Rover has come from or been verified against this site. This is the definitive resource for the subject it covers.

    Also, I feel that my “opinion” bits, as they would be, are not really biting enough to be worthwhile. So even as an existing, employed, published and paid journalist in other fields with an almost personally destructive obsession with cars, I don’t think I have anything to contribute of value, or interest, despite really wanting to.

    When you want to do the same trick with Citroëns (and bear in mind, Julian Marsh has done a very good job of gathering content for his site, the overall site’s presentation lags well behind AROnline and lacks the interactive behaviour) let me know. Back in 1995 I started work on a car-related website which was aiming at the market and feel that the old “Jalopy” magazine had, but ultimately the lack of readership, the lack of apparent interest, made me drop it. And now we have Jalopnik and so forth. C’est la vie.

    I believe AROnline is uniquely competent in the approach taken and the quality, depth and accuracy of the material. It’s an intimidating thing to contribute anything other than “experience” stories to.

    Having said that, if anyone wants to lend me an Austin Princess for a drive and photostory, I’d be happy to oblige and provide some comparisons with the other “riding on air” ’70s machinery I’m so fond of!

  4. If you want scribblings about the life and times a 19-year-old Volvo 740 estate car, I’m your man 😉

  5. I honestly thought A-R would be bursting with submitted stories. I will make more of an effort just to put something back for all the hours I’ve spent absorbing the articles here.

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