Mike Rutherford's column

By Mike Rutherford

23rd February 2008

	Twentt years ago, a small band of founding fathers and me vowed we would revolutionise motoring journalism with Auto Express

Forgive me, but emotions are running a little high at the minute.
If this doesn’t sound too corny, I’m feeling a strong sense of self-satisfaction, pride and achievement. I make no apologies for sounding a touch smug. Vindication is another warm sensation running through my veins. And I now know – as I’ve personally done it – that if you show and demonstrate your genuine belief in something long term, it WILL succeed. Even if the odds are against you, and you’re occasionally reduced to sleepless nights and tears of frustration.

The success story I’m talking about is Auto Express, a magazine I’ve been fortunate enough to write for, on average, for the last 1,000 weeks. Truth is, my relationship with the mag goes back further than that – to mid-1988, when Auto Express was merely an accidental working title for a possible future publication.

A small band of founding fathers and me were members of the original AE launch team, 20 years ago. We idealistically vowed to revolutionise motoring journalism and make our/your newest car mag more widely available, readable and affordable than any other. But that goal was pretty much all we had. Cash was short. Our original, tatty office in Camden, north London, was shared with Kerrang!, the heavy metal music magazine, whose writers rode motorcycles in the corridors and staged archery contests in the boardroom.

Our computer ‘system’ was unreliable, and during the early planning stage, some sections of the motoring and media ‘establishment’ sniggered and suggested that our ambitious project wouldn’t even get off the ground, never mind go on to become Britain’s biggest-selling weekly motoring magazine – a crown that Auto Express proudly wears to this day.

I don’t remember all the relevant individuals and organisations, or the important and varied roles they each played in driving Auto Express from
0-1,000 in 20 years. But if you’ve been a reader from the start or you’re a recent convert, you deserve to know that companies such as BMW, Citroen, Fiat, Jeep, Volvo and VW really did have the vision – and test cars – to help the mag out in the earliest days. The Max Clifford of motoring PR, Peter Frater (he launched Chrysler Jeep and relaunched Ferrari and Mazda in Britain) probably did more than any other outsider to help get the mag off the ground and keep it rolling.

Editor in chief, David Johns, joined after launch… and saved its life. Nobody has put in more early starts and late nights to ensure that this mag lands in front of you on time, in good shape, week in week out, year after year, from one decade to the next. Also, the mag wouldn’t be here today were it not for a sharp-suited chap called Phil Parker. He was the publisher with the patience of a saint (plus the all-important beer money) at launch. As executive director, he’s still around today. And still wearing the same suit! Me, I’m the only journalist left from the launch team. Don’t know why I should be the sole editorial survivor. But I know that the first 20 years have been a privilege and a pleasure, and the best is yet to come – as we intend to prove over the coming decades. So
stick with us. And keep on believing.

*Mike Rutherford has asked his fee be donated, with thanks, to the Teenage Cancer Trust ward at London’s University College Hospital (UCLH), which neighbours the original Auto Express office in Camden.

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