15-02-2025
Editor's Letter: I Got My Start with Jean Jennings. So Did Lots of People.
From the March/April 2025 issue of Car and Driver.
C-Suiters, Aristocrats, and ego puffers didn't stand a chance when Jean walked in. Walls fell, posing stopped, and everyone's attention shifted to her. And she owned and satisfied every expectation. Every room was hers. Former Car and Driver editor and Automobile magazine editor-in-chief Jean Jennings died in December after a fight with Alzheimer's disease.
Fortunately, Jean lives on in the many, many people whose careers she sparked. C/D might not have digital director Laura Sky Brown, senior editor Ezra Dyer, associate managing editor Jennifer Misaros, deputy editor Joey Capparella, or deputy design director Nicole Lazarus without Jean. She gave me a chance too.
With only four major car magazines and the internet still in its Netscape Navigator phase, becoming a car writer used to be about as possible as playing for the Yankees. Landing a job required someone to die or retire—at least it felt that way as I was waiting in the Automobile lobby to interview as a motor gofer (its version of our road warrior). I wore a suit and tie. Jean found my overdressing amusing, possibly because she'd worn overalls to her first meeting with David E. Davis Jr. I made an impression, and my sartorial awkwardness inspired her to write a column about the great gofers of the past. Now I'm writing one about her.
Like a great diaspora, Jean's hires are spread throughout the car-writing world. Her Automobile was a talent incubator, its senior staff (including C/D's Joe Lorio) a faculty that fostered genius. I learned magazine craft under the tutelage of Jean's number two, Mark Gillies, who in a career turn became one of the best PR people I've known. After he left, Jean elevated Joe DeMatio to the role. He led the Automobile academy by devoting his time and talent to enable the able.
The training worked, perhaps too well. When Jean's discoveries kept abandoning her, she jokingly described Automobile as the of car writing. I gofered alongside Mike Austin, who is now Road & Track's executive editor. Jean said yes to the creative perfectionist Jason Cammisa when he was just a guy with a cool Volkswagen Scirocco; now he's a must-watch on YouTube. That same year she signed Sam Smith. Sam's writing makes us all look like hacks—I hire him whenever he says yes. Former C/D staffers Eric Tingwall and Erik Johnson got their first offers from Jean and still work in the industry—Erik met Jean after selling her a pair of shoes. She saw intelligence and capability in David Zenlea and Rusty Blackwell; today they're thriving at Hagerty's magazine and Bring a Trailer.
More than just a finder of people, Jean also put women in control. During my tenure at Automobile, every department had a female lead. Amy Skogstrom—later executive editor at the Porsche magazine Panorama—ran production as managing editor. Art director Molly Jean governed design. And copy chief Wendy Warren Keebler ensured every word was where it should be. Outside the office, Jean's leadership and position inspired women to enter and prosper in a male-dominated industry.
In addition to her disciples, Jean is survived by her husband Tim, her three dogs, and her body of work, which remains as engrossing, funny, and disarming as it was when it was printed. Jean, know that while you disarmed us all, you armed three generations of writers. Thank you.
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