Dan Neil | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1960-01-12)January 12, 1960 (age 66) |
| Occupation | Writer |
| Education | East Carolina University (BA) North Carolina State University (MA) |
| Genre | Automotive journalism |
Dan Neil is an American journalist, widely known an automotive columnist forThe Wall Street Journal[2] and a former staff writer at theLos Angeles Times,AutoWeek andCar and Driver. He was a panelist on 2011'sThe Car Show withAdam Carolla onSpeed Channel.[3]
In 1999, Neil received theInternational Motor Press Association'sKen Purdy Award for automotive journalism,[4] and in 2004 Neil won thePulitzer Prize for Criticism,[5] presented annually to a newspaper writer who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism.' Awarded for hisLA Times columnRumble Seat, the Pulitzer board noted Neil's"one-of-a-kind reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humor and astute cultural criticism."[5]
JournalistBrooke Gladstone called Neil "theOscar Wilde of auto reviewers."[6] Freelance automotive journalist Thomas Bey called Neil "the thinking man's smart ass."[7]
Neil was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on January 12, 1960, and moved toNew Bern, North Carolina, at age 4. His father was an engineer withStanley Powertools and his mother was a private investigator.[8] He received a B.A. degree in Creative Writing fromEast Carolina University and an M.A. degree inEnglish Literature fromNorth Carolina State University.
Neil is married to Tina Larsen Neil and has twin daughters, Rosalind and Vivienne — as well as a son, Henry (Hank) Neil, from his first marriage. After four years of trying to get pregnant and several in-vitro fertilization procedures, Neil's wife conceived four embryos in a high risk, "white knuckle pregnancy." Facing further complications, he and his wife chose to abort two of the fetuses. Neil wrote about the experience for theLA Times.[9]
Neil lived in Los Angeles before moving again to North Carolina, when he left the L.A. Times and began writing forThe Wall Street Journal.[2]
Neil began his professional writing career with theSpectator, a local free weekly, and began working forThe News & Observer ofRaleigh, North Carolina as an obituary writer in 1985.[10]
In interviews he has said his goals at the time were to "learn to write and see the world." Neil was recruited byAutoWeek magazine in 1994 as a senior contributing editor. In 1995, he began contributing reviews toThe New York Times, which he continued until 2003.[11]
Beginning with his work atThe News & Observer, Neil developed his writing style, combining humor with pragmatic insight,literary analogies and personal experience. Neil worked with the Raleigh paper until 1996, when he was fired. He subsequently worked as a free-lance journalist, including five years as contributing editor toCar and Driver. In 1999 Neil was named senior contributing editor for travel magazineExpedia Travels, a post he held through 2001.[11]
In 1999, Neil won the Ken Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism,[12] from the International Motor Press Association. In 2002, his work was selected for Houghton Mifflin's Best American Sports Writing.[13]
In 1991, Dan Neil had been moved from the newsroom of theNews & Observer to the classified advertising department with the expectation "that he would write dealer-friendly pieces to attract readers to the newspaper's automobile classified section."[14] In contrast to the newsroom, where Neil had worked with editors, he noticed his copy was no longer edited.[14] "For seven years, I had unfettered access to 200,000 readers."[14] Neil's writing eventually reflected the lack of constraint.[14]
Neil's January 1996 review of theFord Expedition described a back-seat encounter with his girlfriend,[5] writing "this was loving, consensual and — given the Expedition's dual airbags, side impact beams and standard four-wheel anti-lock brakes — safe sex."[14] The News and Observer reported Neil's recollection of the column in an interview years later:
"I wrote at some point about the kids getting into the Ford Expedition and commenting on the 'footprints' on the windshield. Well, that was just it! People went crazy! It was kind of likeJanet Jackson'scostume malfunction -- a none too daring transgression, overall, but the thing that finally sent people over the edge."[15]
Put on probation for the article, Neil was instructed to have his articles reviewed by an editor as well as the director of classified auto advertising.[14] Refusing, he was subsequently fired,[14] and wrote in a laterIndependent Weekly article that he was fired "for refusing to have my column vetted by the classified advertising department."[16]
Editors fromThe News & Observer contended that it was disingenuous to suggest that advertisers pressured the paper into firing Neil,[16] since Neil worked for anadvertorial section of the advertising department at the time.[16]
The incident highlighted the growing issue that newspapers,under economic pressure, have in maintaining the virtual wall between the "church" of news gathering and the "state" of advertising sales, sometimes known as aChinese wall.[6][14] Notably,Keith Bradsher — author of a book aboutSUV's calledHigh and Mighty — indicated that among critics, "auto reviewers are the most likely to be compromised by the industry they cover."[6] Speaking in a 2005 radio interview withBrooke Gladstone, after receiving the Pulitzer Prize, Neil described the symbiotic relationship between the automobile industry and its critics:
In September 2003, Neil became a full-time columnist for theLos Angeles Times and gained a following for his approach to automotive writing, which routinely included industry criticism — including criticism of automakers themselves and government emissions and safety policies.
In February 2005, he began writing800 Words, a column about pop culture, for theLos Angeles Times Magazine. The column was syndicated by Tribune Media in 2006. Neil won the American Association of Sunday and Feature Editors award for best general commentary column in 2007.
800 Words was discontinued in 2008 after theLos Angeles Times Magazine was transferred from the editorial department to the paper's business division — and advertiser control.
In February 2010, Neil left the L.A. Times and accepted a position atThe Wall Street Journal.[2]
In 2008, Neil participated in a federal class action suit againstSam Zell, who in 2007 purchased theTribune Company, owner of theLos Angeles Times.[17]
After the takeover, Zell rated reporters by how manycolumn inches they produced, relinquished theLos Angeles Times Magazine and other editorial publications to advertiser control — and laid off at least 1,000 employees.[17]
Neil called Zell "a corporate raider," adding "he's not a publisher. Newspapers are too important to the public to be treated as just pieces on a financial chessboard."[18] Neil and a group of Times employees claimed violations of theEmployee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and alleged that Zell breached his duty of loyalty to Tribune's employees.[18]
Forbes described the suit as putting "thefast-changing newspaper business on trial," noting "newspapers have been under siege since the technology bubble popped in the late 1990s, with problems ranging fromdeclining circulation, advertiser consolidation, classified ads migrating online, rising newsprint costs, bloated debt structures and, yes, over-staffing. Not to mention the rise of Internet news."[17]
Automotive journalist Dan Neil is as opinionated and outspoken as any of his peers, yet he opines without blunt-force drama, wielding an acerbic wit that makes him the thinking man's smart-ass. The Pulitzer Prize winner has written for AutoWeek, Car and Driver, LA Times, The New York Times, and The Wall Street Journal.
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