February 2016, in a small dining room in the centre of Toronto on the eve of the country’s biggest auto show, an executive from one of Canada’s major automakers approached with a comment that was as bewildering as the look on her face.
“We’re a little surprised,” the executive said, holding up a copy of the first Automotive News Canada, “we were sure that this would just be a small insert into Automotive News written out of Detroit. This is actually really Canadian.”
It was a defining moment out of the gate, to be sure.
Maybe it was healthy skepticism, cautious optimism or perhaps just a wait-and-see approach, but a funny thing happened on the way to creating a new publication for car dealers, manufacturers and their original-equipment suppliers in Canada: Canadians actually believed what we were doing was real. A year into our satisfying adventure, many things are reality.
We have a robust print product that lands in the mailboxes of 10,000 readers every month. We have a packed weekly email newsletter that lands in the inboxes of 2,500 recipients a week. And we have a vibrant home page and breaking-news alerts that keep our readers informed at every moment of their business day.
So much more is coming in a busy 2017.
Automotive News Canada, in partnership with the Automotive Parts Manufacturers Association, has built a world-class lineup of influential and powerful speakers who will appear at our first annual Automotive News Canada Congress Feb. 16-17 in Toronto during the auto show.
That same week we will launch a newsletter with the singular focus to bring daily news to our readers every afternoon.
And there are more projects to come, from video products to webinars to special sections in print and online.
All of it uniquely Canadian.
What has been even better during this year is the journey we’ve made together.
With reporters positioned across the country, we have met so many readers and told so many stories, from car dealers in Vancouver to suppliers in Ontario, from inside the meeting rooms during historic labour negotiations to the plant floors of transforming manufacturers.
We’ve analyzed currency fluctuations, trade implications and new businesses opportunities across the country.
All of what you see is the antithesis of what was assumed would happen with the launch of Automotive News Canada. This is not pre-packaged news from America. It is Canadian news for Canadian readers.
