IT'S NOT 2006 anymore and the automotive media as we knew it a decade ago is not the one we know today.

In a relatively short time that hungry beast has gone from being predominantly print-based to totally broad-based and its information requirements have changed dramatically as well with an insatiable demand for instant, active, accurate and relevant information.

The world was just starting to learn about Facebook in 2006, when Autodeadline Australia was launched at the Melbourne International Motor Show, and Twitter was still in the novelty phase.  Before that, the only things that tweeted were birds and faulty smoke alarms.

Autodeadline was followed in fairly quick succession by first Bikedeadline for the motorcycle writers, Racedeadline to collect and spread competition information and finally Truckdeadline for the transport writers.

That makes Autodeadline unique in Australia; its ability to cross a number of boundaries with all four "deadlines" linked, letting journalists move easily from one to another to merge related subject material. 

Ten years ago the motoring media was almost entirely print-based with television and radio coming aboard only for the big stuff like motor show opening days, the Australian Grand Prix or Bathurst 1000 and, just maybe, the launch of a new Ford Falcon or Holden Commodore.

When the new "digital media" started making inroads into traditional journalism it was regarded by most as a passing phase and only as its resiliency became obvious did the media traditionalists and corporate PRs grudgingly accept it and start catering to it.

The results have been nothing short of spectacular as the uptake and technology grew exponentially. Blogs, You Tube, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Buzzfeed, Flickr, Vine, Google News, Yahoo News, 9gag, Reddit, StumbleUpon and even Snapchat have, in just a few years, become viable alternatives to the mainstream media in the same way online sites became real alternatives to the accepted print media.

They might not replace the major news outlets but they are players, providing a complementary service by way of confirmation, a solid back-up service imbued with a level of trust denied the major media players.

Why? Because the information comes from "a friend of a friend of a friend", a boast denied to the mainstream news services.

In other words, these alternative sources are populated by "influencers", regular people with valid and usually outspoken opinions and impressively large numbers of online followers.

To meet this increasingly insatiable information demand, corporate information providers have to stop thinking about what worked in 2006 and start thinking about what is needed now in order to be viable across all platforms.

In other words, they have to move away from the old print media-only information sites where static words and pictures are posted and switch to a broad-based information host capable of meeting the variety of needs demanded by a wider user base.

Autodeadline, part of the Deadline Network, is exactly that.

Launched in Australia in 2006 as an extension of the American Wieck Media service, Autodeadline was designed expressly to cater for automotive public relations teams trying to meet the diversifying needs of the 21st century motoring media.

It offers contemporary media not only the traditional press and vehicle launch kits and reproduction-quality images that go with them but also broadcast-quality video and audio from manufacturers, importers and industry groups, strengthening stories by taking them across multiple platforms.

And in a time when print journalists have become multi-media content providers with videos and blogs and television and radio reporters are writing for websites, that content diversification is more important now than ever before.

Importantly, Autodeadline is wholly unique by being a public information provider with social media sharing capabilities and its own non-media mailing list for interested public users ranging from "just car guys" to social media influencers and potential buyers.

People who, in other words, have become instant information outlets operating proactively rather than reactively.

No-one waits for Friday's paper anymore.

As an added benefit, brands using Autodeadline can tailor specific categories to match their particular business focus.

And because of the Autodeadline structure, users can set-up their own baskets to collect stories, images, video and audio grabs from all across the site, reviewing everything before editing, downloading or emailing links to it.

So in what is effectively a one-stop shop for information collection and media dissemination, Autodeadline easily manages everything from standard press kits and images through to broadcast quality video that can be previewed and downloaded for television stations, low-resolution streaming video and radio-quality audio grabs.

When it is all boiled-down the Deadline platform is a site that crosses traditional media, social media and the needs of an enthusiastic public while giving full social media integration, multimedia capabilities with broadcast quality video and audio, easy and logical user navigation and great visual appeal across a growing user spectrum.

Autodeadline gives a broader and deeper reach potential than ever before with the greater sophistication levels at which the wider industry needs to be working to be seen and heard.

Yes, in media terms the times really have changed for those who supply information to the wider automotive media and those who use it.
Because it isn't 2006 anymore.

ENDS