Undoubtedly the accomplishment I’m most proud of resides at the web URL www.GMInsideNews.com. I first found that site back in 2003, while suffering boredom in my seventh grade English class and instantly became hooked by what it was. GMI was different than the other car websites I frequented; it had different information and allowed people–including me–to talk on the site. My 12 year old self was utterly amused at the prospects at the time. Little did I know that the discovery of a website would reroute the course of my personal life and end up being a pillar in my professional life.
From that day in April 2003, I remained affixed to GMI, visiting the site at least a few times a week. By June I had decided I was ready to take it to the next level and begged to become a moderator on the forum. Clearly I have been mesmerized by authority since a young age (scary, I know), so getting a title and different colored username was enamoring to me at the time and served as high octane fuel for my motivation to help out on the site.
As time went on I became more involved on the site, eventually realizing that what we had with GMI was special. GMI was more than a discussion forum and the whole team had this collective vision and dream for what it come eventually become. This ended up really being the first time in my life that I rallied behind something because I truly believed in it. The vision and the team that formed it were on a path for great things and I was convinced we were going to accomplish it come Hell or high water.
As the Fall of 2007 approached the site’s owner was forced to step away from the site, leaving a mild power vacuum in his demise. Perhaps to the dismay of some of my colleagues at the time, I sort of just jumped into the captain’s seat and started running the site. For me it wasn’t a power trip; I was so intent on carrying out the vision for the site that nothing else mattered at the time and the power vac was not about to suck the wind out of our sail.
A few months later the owner sold the site, with the new owners asking me to continue running the site as a contract employee. At the time I was a 17 year old attempting to wrap up high school, so accepting (another) job was not high on my priority list. However at the time we had made great strides in the “vision” and I kept thinking in my head, “With more resources we can finally make this work..” After finding out that the purchaser of the site was ran by a guy who started the company at 16, I realized that at 17, I was if not anything…a bit late to the game. I accepted.
When I took over the site it had virtually no positive relationship with the company it followed so closely (GM). In fact, the only relation GM had with the site was negative; in the form of them shunning the site and the former owner adding fuel to their fire. The entire situation was a case of a large corporation not knowing how to handle “new media” and site management that was convinced they did not have to have a relationship with the company to thrive.
I was not convinced the hate-hate relationship between the site and GM was conducive for either organization. By fall 2009 most of GM communications had turned over to personnel that were open to new media, so I began driving them nuts with inquiries and olive branches to work together. After some backdoor correspondence with the c-suite (hey, we are GMinsidenews), our request for discussion was granted. So at 19 I had a conference call with 4-5 director level employees of a Fortune 20 firm about starting over the relationship they had with GMI. And from that point on, it’s grown into a relationship with uncharted waters.
As time has progressed, the relationship between GM and GMI has become pioneering. The entire relationship started out with GM extending some of the perks of being a media outlet, but has since evolved to be far more meaningful than just that.
Today GMI has a solid relationship with it’s following company in three countries, spanning two continents. Arguably the most conductive relationship has been between GMI’s Australian staff members and GM Holden. The relationship has brought GMI’s global audience some of the most extensive coverage of Holden in the industry. In fact, no mainstream automotive media outlet in the U.S. has staff on the ground in Australia, yet GMI does and Holden allows them to cover the company like local media. This combination has brought U.S. readers interested in Holden (of which there are many on GMI) unmatched coverage during Holden’s most interesting periods. Holden also participates on the forum periodically.
Here in North America the relationship is much the same, just on a bigger scale. While we’re treated like mainstream automotive media now, we’ve also notched out further intricacies with GM in North America. For example, the president of GM North America (Mark Reuss) personally participates on the forum; even interacting with users and answering their questions. In fact, Reuss will tell you he’s on the site regularly and can even recall a few usernames that, um, standout for their candid feedback. Much to my surprise, our readers really treat him just as any other member…which is really the beauty of the site.
After nine years on the site, I think the vision the team and I had for it was finally carried out. Our readers are well educated on the subject we cover, we still break a boatload of inside information (sorry, GM) and now our “formal” relationship with the company is right where it should be. Today the site has entered into the status of “how can we advance from here?” Organically expanding the scope and breadth of the site will never be finished, only optimized and evolved.
I certainly cannot take all of the credit for the relationship that’s been chiseled out with the site. Without the global team and expanding audience of GMI, it never would have happened. GM deserves a large amount of credit as well for allowing our relationship to get to this point. As an OEM they have really been the first (to my knowledge) to let an enthusiast site get this close. I have often heard the saying, “Your best customers are on forums” – without a doubt true in automotive, and it appears GM has been the first OEM to fully realize and appreciate this.
For the record, my honesty for calling a spade a spade is well documented. GM legitimately deserves a lot of credit for what’s been accomplished here or I would clearly say otherwise 🙂
Nick D. Saporito 