Our Mission: Helping Your Bottom Line

The reason Ward's Dealer Business exists is to help you make more money. Period. Okay, we want to make a little for ourselves in the process.

We accomplish that by putting out the best magazine, the strongest e-newsletters and the most informative website in the industry. There is no question in our, and many of our readers' minds, that we are the best.

Ward's is the only place dealers can obtain objective and sound analysis of what's going on in automotive retail in addition to cutting edge articles written by some of the industry's leading experts in their fields. Many of our stories feature dealers and innovative practices they have implemented — all of this designed to help your bottom line.

In many ways, Ward's acts as a continual and virtual Twenty Group for our readers.

Other magazines and newsletters may provide access to rewritten press releases along with stories written by companies who have paid for their editorial to be in those publications. We don't do that. In short, you can trust Ward's.

Our mission and our editorial integrity are the most important traits Ward's has.

By now, you've probably noticed the magazine has a new look. The redesign maintains hints of previous Ward's magazines but features a more upscale, crisp and elegant feel.

Addie Janhevich, our senior art director, has created a look that better matches the affluent level of our readers — people who own and run multi-million dollar businesses, many of them businesses they themselves have started.

As you leaf through the pages of the magazine, you will find we also have updated our departments. On page 60, we have created a section devoted solely to technology — where you will find analysis of what is happening in the dealer-management system world.

On page 70, you will see our new Internet Marketing section, designed to help you create the most effective Internet departments possible.

Meanwhile, on page 68 is the new Remarketing department, anchored by a new columnist, Dennis Gregg, a consultant with NCM and Associates.

We also welcome Lee Harkins, the founder and president of Atcon, our new columnist in the Fixed Operations section. We have Ron Stoner, vice president of fixed operations for the Lithia Group, to thank for turning us onto Lee.

The redesign is one of many changes at Ward's. Recently, we've added a new assistant editor, Emily Genoff, who will help us continue providing you with the most relevant and up-to-date information.

We also have made changes to our website, www.wardsauto.com. Daily updated stories along with our new Dealer Resource Center, designed to help you quickly find information on any topic touching dealership operations are just a couple of the features the website provides.

And we invite you to sign up for Ward's e-newsletters: our Weekly News Edition that hits your desktop every Monday morning and the monthly Internet and Best Practices Editions.

We trust these changes reflect our commitment to you, our readers, that Ward's is, and continues to be, the industry's top source of information for dealers.

If you're in Las Vegas for the NADA convention, visit us at Booth 1813C to let us know what you think of the new look or anything else. You can also contact me at [email protected] and 248-799-1649.