Thank you for helping make 2023 a good year for Indie Auto

I hope you had an enjoyable New Year’s Eve and see promise in the coming year. I also wanted to thank you for helping to make 2023 a good year for Indie Auto.

As a case in point, page views were up by a third and surpassed 200,000 for the first time. That’s tiny compared to the major auto history websites, but it’s beyond what I expected when I first began building Indie Auto a decade ago.

The whole point of this website is to offer a different take on American automotive history. That’s why stories tend to be longer and include more historical analysis. And why we address controversial issues others tend to shy away from, such as climate change, automotive safety and industry concentration. Indie Auto is intended to be a car buff website for thinking people.

Also see ‘What did you consider to be the top Indie Auto stories in 2023?’

Indie Auto can take more editorial risks because it is not dependent on ad revenue — it is entirely reader supported. In the last year we have seen a solid increase in donations. So thank you to everyone who gave generously to Indie Auto in 2023. These folks have literally made it possible to keep the lights on.

The world of small-scale publishing can be quite tenuous. Aaron Severson (2023) of Ate Up With Motor recently hinted at why when he wrote, “The upkeep of the site is not particularly costly in monetary terms, but the work involved in creating new content is substantial, and since it doesn’t really translate into any significant financial return, it’s harder to find or justify the energy involved.”

I get Severson’s frustration but am much more optimistic than he is about the potential of an auto history website to be financially self-sustaining. In the next year I’m looking at making some upgrades to Indie Auto. Stay tuned.

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RE:SOURCES

• Severson, Aaron; 2023. “Status Report.” Ate Up With Motor. Posted Dec. 23.