Hachette Reorgs Auto Brands Into New Group

Road & Track and Car and Driver aligned under Jumpstart network.

By Bill Mickey
Monday, June 29, 2009

Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. announced today that it's reorganizing its automotive brands under the Jumpstart online network. Called Jumpstart Automotive Group, the new entity follows a similar structure set up for the women's and shelter titles, and gives Car and Driver and Road & Track managers cross-platform oversight.

Steve Wilhite, Jumpstart Automotive Media's president and CEO, will remain as such for the new group.

Hachette purchased Jumpstart, a vertical ad network for the automotive industry, in spring 2007, and immediately planned to merge online sales of its auto brands with the network.

The new group furthers that digital integration approach with a decidedly cross-platform directive. Ad sales for all aspects of the group—print and digital—will be handled by a freshly combined sales team.

Likewise, John Driscoll, the former VP and group publisher for Car and Driver and Road & Track will take on the new title of SVP, chief brand officer. Eddie Alterman and Matt DeLorenzo, each VP and editor-in-chief of Car and Driver and Road & Track respectively, will report to Driscoll. All three will now have cross-platform product development responsibilities.

The category, unsurprisingly, needs all the help it can get. And perhaps the newly integrated approach will help Hachette achieve the marketing efficiencies it touts with the reorg. Automotive was down 47.5 percent in pages in the first quarter compared to the same period in 2008, per PIB. Car and Driver and Road & Track were down 20 percent and 32 percent in pages respectively during the same period. That pattern held for other titles in the category as well.

In March, the company announced a similar structure for the women's and shelter assets in a bid to capture the "multiplatform integrated" sale.

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