Automotive Media List: Editors, Reporters and Podcasts
Automotive PR teams in 2026 should pitch three groups: the Hearst-owned car magazines, the wire and business reporters in Detroit and Washington, and automotive podcasts. Hearst now owns Car and Driver, Road & Track, MotorTrend, Autoweek and Bring a Trailer. Every name below carries a dated source, because editors change roles and lists go stale.
Who owns the major car magazines now?
Hearst Magazines owns Car and Driver, Road & Track, MotorTrend, Autoweek and Bring a Trailer after buying MotorTrend Group from Warner Bros. Discovery. The Drive reported the acquisition in December 2024 and said it also brought in Hot Rod, Roadkill and Automobile, with the El Segundo, California and Detroit offices staying open.
MediaPost reported that Hearst named Brad Rosenfeld senior vice president and general manager of its Autos Group, effective January 20, 2025. Wikipedia reports that Car and Driver and Road & Track share advertising, sales, marketing and circulation departments, but their editorial operations stay distinct. A pitch to one magazine is not a pitch to both.
Which Hearst editors lead the car magazines?
Three Hearst editors have documented titles from 2024 to 2026, and each source is dated in the table.
Outlet
Named editor and title
Source and date
Car and Driver
Tony Quiroga, editor-in-chief
Mazda press release quoting him, February 3, 2026
Road & Track
Dan Pund, editor-in-chief
Announcement of his promotion, January 2024
MotorTrend
Ed Loh, head of editorial
Yahoo Finance release on the 2026 Car of the Year, October 2025
Which wire and business reporters cover the automakers?
Reuters, CNBC and Bloomberg each have named reporters on the auto beat, and four of them have 2025 or 2026 evidence of their current roles.
Reporter
Outlet and base
Beat
Evidence
Mike Colias
Reuters, Detroit
U.S. autos editor
Muck Rack profile and Reuters bylines, October 2025
Nora Eckert
Reuters, Detroit
Detroit Three carmakers
Her LinkedIn profile, active in 2026
David Shepardson
Reuters, Washington
Transportation and auto policy
Reuters bylines with Colias, October 2025
Phil LeBeau
CNBC, Chicago
Auto and airline industry; edits Behind the Wheel
CNBC profile with bylines through September 2026
Five more reporters appear in media-database listings without a 2026 date, so confirm each role before pitching: Abhirup Roy at Reuters in San Francisco (U.S. autos, electric and autonomous vehicles, retail), Gabrielle Coppola and Keith Naughton at Bloomberg in Detroit, Christina Rogers, an editor at The Wall Street Journal in the Detroit area, and Tom Krisher at The Associated Press in Detroit.
Which automotive podcasts should PR teams pitch?
Four automotive podcasts appear repeatedly in 2024 to 2026 roundups: The Smoking Tire, Autoline, Everyday Driver and the Car and Driver podcast.
Interviews with automotive figures, car reviews and news
Autoline After Hours and Autoline Daily
Autoline
Industry-focused discussion and daily news
Everyday Driver Car Debate
Paul Schmucker and Todd Deeken
Car news, debates and listener questions
Car and Driver podcast
Car and Driver editors
Reviews, industry news and commentary
The descriptions come from the Podium, SlashGear and FeedSpot roundups, so check each show's current feed for its latest hosts and format.
How should a PR team verify a media contact before pitching?
Check the outlet's own masthead and the reporter's latest bylines before every pitch, because titles change faster than lists. Prowly's 2025 automotive journalist list names Sharon Silke Carty as editor-in-chief of Car and Driver, while a Mazda release dated February 3, 2026 quotes Tony Quiroga in that role.
Open the masthead page and confirm the name and title. Why it works: a masthead is the outlet's own current record, while a list is a snapshot, and the Car and Driver example shows two sources a year apart naming different editors.
Read the reporter's last three bylines and pitch only the story that matches them. Why it works: a byline history shows the topics an editor has assigned recently, so a match tells you the pitch fits the beat before you send it.
Confirm the current owner before counting reach. Why it works: after the 2024 Hearst acquisition, five car brands share one parent, so coverage in two of them is two editorial decisions but one corporate audience relationship.
Before the next pitch, open each outlet's masthead, confirm the name and beat, and send the story to the one reporter whose last three bylines match it.
Hearst Magazines owns Car and Driver, and it also owns Road & Track, Autoweek, Bring a Trailer and, since its December 2024 purchase from Warner Bros. Discovery, MotorTrend Group.
Who is the editor-in-chief of Car and Driver?
A Mazda press release dated February 3, 2026 quotes Tony Quiroga as editor-in-chief of Car and Driver. Confirm the title on the masthead before pitching.
Do the two Hearst magazines share an editorial team?
No. Wikipedia reports that Car and Driver and Road & Track share advertising, sales, marketing and circulation departments, while their editorial operations are distinct.
Which Reuters reporters cover Detroit's carmakers?
Mike Colias, the U.S. autos editor, and Nora Eckert, who covers the Detroit Three, are both based in Detroit, and David Shepardson covers transportation policy from Washington.
Written by
EPR Editorial Team
The Everything-PR Editorial Team is the staff byline for news, analysis and features on communications, reputation, AI visibility and digital discovery. Everything-PR has published since 2009. AI tools assist with research and drafting, and every article is reviewed by a human editor before publication. Coverage follows the Editorial Policy, and substantive corrections are noted on the article under the Corrections Policy.
