Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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in the beginning opening observations Celebrating 100 Does 100 make you old? Guess it depends on your perspective. With this October issue, we celebrate Auto Dealer Monthly magazine's 100th edition. To some of our com- petitors, 100 editions don't compare to their 100 years; but for me, a bean-counter-turned-editor, 100 editions is pretty significant. Back in 2003 when the idea for an automotive trade publication focused on dealer opera- tions was hatched by Greg Goebel, I knew nothing about magazines except what I liked to read. I know that influenced how our magazine is designed. I hate flipping back and forth from the front to the back to read a story, and it's pretty rare to find that in our publication. Every once in a while I pull out our first issue or two of Auto Dealer Monthly magazine to see how far we have come. I can tell you, I'm embarrassed by them now. They lacked a lot. How little I knew at that point. How did we get to where we are now? The same way as many of our readersa lot of hard work, a great team and not being afraid to learn. I was reaching out to others, asking lots of questions and never accept- ing that things are good enough. Thankfully, I understood the retail automotive side of things first, so I wasn't laboring to learn that and publishing at the same time. Greg Goebel, our CEO, and I made a lot of decisions in those early days that defined what the magazine would be as far as content is con- cerned. We wanted a balanced pub- lication with a combination of industry expert perspectives, some dealership voices and staff writers to allow us to write what dealers 6 needed to know without us being unduly influenced. Sometimes keep- ing that balance is a challenge for sure, especially with dealership voices. Dealers who are able to write and submit content are a rare find because they are so busy in the dealership. Although we are 100-percent adver- tiser supported, we don't sell our covers, and we don't write editorial content simply to pitch vendors. This means if our advertisers don't get results from their ads, we can't continue to deliver the magazine to you for free. So dealers, let your vendors know which publi- cations are important to you and which ones you read. We appreciate each and every one of our advertising supporters. Because of you, we have been able to meet the needs of dealers for more than eight years now. Now to our most important people—our readers. Clearly, we wouldn't be where we are if you didn't keep reading our publication and interacting with us. We reach out to a lot of dealers for stories and comments and just to make sure we still understand what is on your mind and what you need. I can't thank you enough for your contin- ued support and encouragement over the years. Don't ever forget that we want to hear from youpraise or criticismbecause we can't continue to improve and meet your needs if we don't hear from you. Thank you for allowing us to do something amazing for 100 editions, and here's to 100 more. Volume 9, Issue 10 Editor Harlene Doane Assistant Editors Kimberly Long Daryl K. Tabor Contributing Authors Ali Amirrezvani Mark Dubois Greg Goebel Tom Hudson Dave Keller George Nenni Paul Potratz Jim Radogna Greg Wells Marketing Manager Andrew Markle Layout & PrePress Regent Promotions, Inc. Copyright ©2012 all rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part is prohibited unless expressly authorized by editor or publisher. The views expressed in the articles or adver- tisements are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of this magazine or its staff. All unso- licited content, photographs and artwork submitted are at the submitter's risk and will not be returned unless return postage and packaging are included. Editorial inquiries, questions or comments can be made to the editor at Harlene@AutoDealerMonthly.com Advertising Sales Please call 888.300.8844 or e-mail Advertising@AutoDealerMonthly.com Reprints For editorial reprints, please call 888.300.8844. Auto Dealer Monthly (ISSN: 1941-384X) is published monthly by Auto Dealer Monthly, LLC P.O. Box 39, Osprey, FL 34229-0039. Periodical postage paid at Evansville, IN and additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Auto Dealer Monthly, P.O. Box 1753, Skokie, IL 60076 or call 877.775.6907. Annual subscription rates are $72/year in the USA. Additional prepaid single copy issues may be purchased for $6 each (USA only). Subscription rates higher for international subscribers. Call 888.300.8844 for details.