Dave Smith, Top Wards Editor for Many Years, Dies

Former Wards Editorial Director David C. Smith, the man behind the company’s onetime flagship publication, Ward’s AutoWorld magazine, has died.

Smith passed away Sept. 19 in the Michigan home he shared with Isabelle Smith, his wife of 67 years, according to members of his family.

Smith, 93, came to Wards in the 1970s following stints at the The Detroit Times and Toledo Blade daily newspapers and The Wall Street Journal. Just prior to joining Wards, he served as the business editor at the Detroit Free Press, where he also was part of a team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 1967 Detroit riots.

A native of Mount Clemens, MI, Smith joined the Marine Corps after high school and served three years in Korea. It was a membership of which he was most proud.

Over the years, Smith helped launch several publications at Wards. The list includes Ward’s Engine & Technology Update bimonthly newsletter (originally created as Ward’s Wankel Report to cover the trends of that emerging engine technology).

That powertrain focus ultimately led to the creation of the Wards 10 Best Engines awards, which are celebrating their 30th year next month.

In the late 1980s, Smith was behind the creation of Ward’s International, a twice-monthly newsletter that expanded the company’s coverage to the global auto industry. He also was integral in the creation of Ward’s Dealer Business magazine, which increased the focus on the automotive sector’s retail side.

Smith eventually moved to the Editorial Director’s role, overseeing all those publications plus the company’s cornerstone newsletter, Ward’s Automotive Reports, and its research and data operations. All those products ultimately led to what is now the WardsAuto and Wards Intelligence online publications, a transition to digital that he also headed.

But Ward’s AutoWorld was always Smith’s biggest pride and joy. For many years, the monthly newsmagazine typically featured a brand-defining hand-drawn cover illustration rather than a photo – sketched by former Detroit Free Press editorial cartoonist Dick Mayer – and was packed with news and features –   oftentimes award-winning – few competitors could match.

“Ward’s AutoWorld was Dave’s pet project,” notes Ed Miller, editor of the magazine from 1988-1991. “And his philosophy that trade journals could be as hard-hitting and objective as any national business publication was Job One. He loved for his staff to break big stories. They did, and he joined in.

“He was fair but didn’t spare the rod for anyone, including auto company CEOs,” he adds, “and his BS meter ran hot and 24/7.”

Smith’s simple directive to his staff was to do “anticipatory journalism.” He preached constantly of the need to be out front with the news and astute analysis that showed the direction the industry was heading. He wanted Wards to be first with which brands were on their way up and which were heading toward a spiral; what emerging technology was destined to become the hottest trend; and in uncovering the inside scoop on how automakers were likely to tweak their business strategies in answering the new competitive realities. That’s a mantra that still drives the staff today.

“Dave was a mentor and a taskmaster,” says Marge Sorge, another former staffer and first woman to be editor of Ward’s AutoWorld. “He would never let you skim the surface of a story. He demanded you dig deeper and deeper until you were sure you had the entire story – and that you were right.

“I’m sure Dave is in Heaven right now, interviewing everyone who has gone before him and getting the whole story.”

Others who worked for Smith say he could be intimidating at first, with one-time Ward’s AutoWorld Editor Drew Winter confessing he was scared to come to his initial job interview because from the headshot that ran with his monthly editorial in the magazine, Smith “looked like the most hard-boiled badass journalist I’d ever seen.”

But once you got to know him “his sometimes gruff and stubborn approach mostly was a façade,” says Wards ex-staffer Bill Visnic. “It was the simple bodywork surrounding one of the highest-horsepower hearts I’ve encountered. Dave lived for the auto industry and was the friend of anyone he believed shared his seemingly limitless enthusiasm for its processes and products.”

Over the years, Ward’s AutoWorld took exclusive deep-dive looks into key new vehicle programs undertaken by Detroit automakers to fend off foreign competition, examined labor issues at manufacturing operations and explored the evolving dynamics between suppliers and their customers. Smith’s end-of-the-year interviews with the industry’s top CEOs were must-reads every December.

“(Dave) was blunt…but always fair,” says fellow Marine Bob Lutz, a longtime auto executive with companies such as BMW, Chrysler and General Motors, the consummate industry “car guy” and frequent interview target of Smith’s. “He was proud of his USMC heritage, and I’m proud to share that with him. We liked each other. He was a great, genuine person.”

Smith also was known as a superb copy editor. Maybe drawing from his military background, he was tough and demanding – staff would cringe as he handed back that first edit of their story, bloody red with corrections, deletions and additions, and filled with a half-dozen notes on additional information Smith wanted the reporter to get into the story, all without increasing the word count and expected to be resubmitted in short order. But once they saw the final story in print, they were usually appreciative of the insight and push Smith provided.

He also knew how to build a team. There were annual Christmas parties and occasional summer picnics with aggressive games of touch football at Smith’s home, as well as the odd after-hours staff get-together here and there at local watering holes. In the office, he liked to lead a Friday afternoon round of pitching quarters, often winning, before sending the staff home early for the weekend.

Smith’s impact reached beyond his staff, with many others on the beat crediting him with mentoring them and often providing valuable perspective on the auto industry.

“Dave knew everything about the industry and served as a mentor at a distance for me,” says Joe White, who covered autos for The Wall Street Journal and Reuters over the years. “Beyond what was in Wards, I’d see him at events and listen to what he had to say – and walk away smarter than when I walked in.”

Former Wards editor-turned-communications specialist sums it up nicely on hearing the news. “What a legend,” says Katherine Zachary. Nissan Vice President-Communications for Africa, Middle East, India and  Europe.

Smith, who was inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame in 2005, is survived by his wife, daughter and two sons and their families, including five grandchildren.

Smith, at the helm of Ward's AutoWorld.