Dan Neil (journalist)

Dan Neil is an automotive columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a former staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, AutoWeek and Car and Driver. He was a panelist on 2011's The Car Show with Adam Carolla on Speed Channel.

In February 2010, Neil left the L.A. Times and accepted a position at The Wall Street Journal.

800 Words was discontinued in 2008 after the Los Angeles Times Magazine was transferred from the editorial department to the paper's business division — and advertiser control.

In 2008, Neil participated in a federal class action suit against Sam Zell, who in 2007 purchased the Tribune Company, owner of the Los Angeles Times.

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 a Chinese wall. Notably, Keith Bradsher — author of a book about SUV's called High and Mighty — indicated that among critics, "auto reviewers are the most likely to be compromised by the industry they cover." Speaking in a 2005 radio interview with Brooke Gladstone, after receiving the Pulitzer Prize, Neil described the symbiotic relationship between the automobile industry and its critics:

In February 2005, he began writing 800 Words, a column about pop culture, for the Los 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.

In September 2003, Neil became a full-time columnist for the Los 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 2001, Neil won the Ken Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism, from the International Motor Press Association. In 2002, his work was selected for Houghton Mifflin's Best American Sports Writing. In 2004 he was anthologized in the Best American Newspaper Writing.

In 1999, Neil received the International Motor Press Association's Ken Purdy Award for automotive journalism, and in 2004 Neil won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, presented annually to a newspaper writer who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism.' Awarded for his LA Times column Rumble Seat, the Pulitzer board noted Neil's "one-of-a-kind reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humor and astute cultural criticism."

Beginning with his work at The 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 to Car and Driver. In 1999 Neil was named senior contributing editor for Expedia Travels, a glossy travel magazine.

Neil's January 1996 review of the Ford Expedition described a back-seat encounter with his girlfriend, writing "this was loving, consensual and — given the Expedition's dual airbags, side impact beams and standard four-wheel anti-lock brakes — safe sex." The News and Observer reported Neil's recollection of the column in an interview years later:

In interviews he has said his goals at the time were to "learn to write and see the world." Neil was recruited by AutoWeek magazine in 1994 as a senior contributing editor. In 1995, he began contributing reviews to The New York Times, which he continued until 2003.

In 1991, Dan Neil had been moved from the newsroom of the News & 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." In contrast to the newsroom, where Neil had worked with editors, he noticed his copy was no longer edited. "For seven years, I had unfettered access to 200,000 readers." Neil's writing eventually reflected the lack of constraint.

Forbes described the suit as putting "the fast-changing newspaper business on trial," noting "newspapers have been under siege since the technology bubble popped in the late 1990s, with problems ranging from declining 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."

Neil began his professional writing career with the Spectator, a local free weekly, and began working for The News & Observer of Raleigh, North Carolina as a newsroom copy editor in 1989.

Neil was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on January 12, 1960, and moved to New Bern, North Carolina, at age 4. His father was an engineer with Stanley Powertools and his mother was a private investigator. He received a B.A. degree in Creative Writing from East Carolina University and an M.A. degree in English Literature from North Carolina State University.