New York, NY (August 10, 2015) – A team of award-winning journalists and storytellers with decades of experience covering automotive culture have joined Time Inc.’s new automotive destination The Drive (www.thedrive.com), it was announced today by Time Inc. SVP Editorial Innovation Matt Bean and The Drive Editor Mike Guy. The group includes: Jonathan Schultz now Deputy Editor; Lawrence Ulrich, Chief Auto Critic; Chris Cantle, West Coast Editor; Max Prince, Senior Editor; A.J. Baime, Editor-at-Large; Brett Berk, Writer-at-Large; Heather Albano, Managing Editor; Ben Keeshin, Staff Writer and Monica Burton, Assistant Brand Strategist. The new destination is scheduled to launch this fall and the team will relocate to its new state-of-the-art headquarters in Brooklyn’s Industry City later this year. 

 

The automotive community will be very familiar with this team from their work across The New York Times, BBC Autos, Car and Driver, Road & Track, Playboy/Maxim, Vanity Fair and The Detroit Free Press, among others. Of this new group, Bean says: “We’ve assembled an extraordinary editorial team with unparalleled experience, knowledge and talent for covering cars and the car culture. With their proven record and enthusiasm, The Drive is primed to become an influential destination in this exciting space.”

 

Said Guy: “The Drive will be a premium destination that marries the best of the Internet with the best in-depth automotive storytelling complete with lush imagery and immersive multimedia content — for this reason, we wanted to begin by hiring some of the most ambitious and renowned journalists in the world of automotive culture. Our rapidly expanding team includes some of the most recognizable and respected names in the business and as we continue to grow, we believe that we’re positioned to capitalize on the untapped marketplace of young car enthusiasts.” 

 

Earlier this month Time Inc. announced the creation of The Drive, a new automotive destination devoted to cars and automotive culture offering fresh perspective and compelling video franchises – all informed by the rapidly changing automotive landscape. With that announcement Bean, Guy and Eric Goeres were introduced as the brand’s leadership operating under Time Inc. EVP Mark Ford’s purview. In February, Bean was appointed to this current post after running editorial for Entertainment Weekly; Guy joined Time Inc. from his position as Digital Director at Maxim and Goeres becomes GM after serving the same role with Road & Track and Esquire. The following is more background on the new hires at The Drive. 

 

Jonathan Schultz Is the Deputy Editor of The Drive. He comes from BBC Autos, where he served as Deputy Editor, and prior to that as an Editor at the New York Times‘ Wheels blog.

 

Lawrence Ulrich is The Drive‘s Chief Auto Critic. He is the award-winning former leading auto writer at the New York Times and the Detroit Free Press, and a former writer at Time Inc.’s Money magazine. The Detroit native, former rock musician and longtime Brooklynite has written for Automobile, Road & Track, Car and Driver, Fortune, Conde Nast Portfolio and Maxim. 

 

Chris Cantle joins The Drive as West Coast Editor. Cantle is a writer, photographer, and videographer who has worked for Cycle World and Road & Track, and has contributed to various other publications, including Popular Mechanics.

 

Max Prince is Senior Editor at The Drive. A St. Louis native and music fanatic, he is a former writer for Road & Track, XCar, Maxim, and is the winner of the prestigious Phil Llewellin Award, given out annually by England’s Guild of Motoring Writers. 

 

Editor-at-Large A.J. Baime is the former executive editor of Playboy and Maxim and the author of the New York Times Best-Selling book The Arsenal of Democracy: FDR, Detroit, and an Epic Quest to Arm America at War and the critically acclaimed Go Like Hell: Ford, Ferrari, and Their Battle for Speed and Glory at Le Mans (currently in development for a major motion picture). Baime’s stories have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Popular Science, and other publications.

 

Writer-at-Large Brett Berk‘s work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Vanity Fair, where he wrote the “Stick Shift” car column, Ask Men, Autoweek, BBC, Bloomberg, Car and Driver, Departures, Details, GQ, The Globe & Mail, Maxim, Men’s Journal, Popular Mechanics, Road & Track, Vogue, Jalopnik, Men’s Fitness and Yahoo!. Brett also has a masters in education and previously worked as a writing instructor in New York. He is the author of the humorous instructive non-fiction book The Gay Uncle’s Guide to Parenting.

 

Heather Albano joins The Drive as Managing Editor. She comes to us from Maxim Digital where she served as Managing Editor for the past 7 years. 

 

Ben Keeshin joins The Drive as a staff writer. Previously, he wrote about cars and culture for Maxim, and has contributed to various other publications, including Road & Track.

 

Monica Burton joins The Drive as Assistant Brand Strategist. Previously, she has contributed to NY Mag and Newsweek.

 

Read more about The Drive: http://bit.ly/1HLYx3B

 

 

 About Time Inc.  

Time Inc. (NYSE:TIME) is one of the world’s leading media companies, with a monthly global print audience of over 120 million and worldwide digital properties that attract more than 140 million visitors each month, including over 60 websites. Our influential brands include People, Sports Illustrated, InStyle, Time, Real Simple, Southern Living, Entertainment Weekly, Travel + Leisure, Cooking Light, Fortune and Food & Wine, as well as more than 50 diverse titles in the United Kingdom such as Decanter, Horse & Hound and Wallpaper*. Time Inc. is home to celebrated franchises and events including the Fortune 500, Time 100, People’s Sexiest Man Alive, Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year, the Food & Wine Classic in Aspen, the Essence Festival and the biennial Fortune Global Forum. Hundreds of thousands of people attend our live media events every year. We also provide content marketing, targeted local print and digital advertising programs, branded book publishing and marketing and support services, including subscription sales services for magazines and other products, retail distribution and marketing services and customer service and fulfillment services, for ourselves and third-party clients, including other magazine publishers.

 

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 CONTACT:

Scott Novak

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212.522.2687

 

 

Danny Leonard

danny.leonard@timeinc.com

 

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