DETROIT - The huge European automotive industry will get its own Automotive News. On Feb. 5, 1996, the first issue of Automotive News Europe will go to 18,000 executives of suppliers and automakers doing business in Europe. Crain Communications Inc., parent of Plastics News, will publish the London-based newspaper every two weeks. The new publication will have its own editorial and sales staffs, and draw on the worldwide resources of Automotive News.
The increasingly global manufacture and sale of automobiles make this the right time for a worldwide publication focusing on the needs of European executives, according to Keith Crain, publisher and editorial director of both automotive publications.
A prototype issue of Automo-tive News Europe was introduced last week during the huge Frankfurt auto show in Germany.
``We'll report with insight and independence on every facet of Europe's vast auto business,'' said Crain. ``In content, style, speed and depth of understanding, Automotive News Europe will equal the standards of excellence set by Automotive News.''
Richard Johnson, 41, will be editor of Automotive News Europe. Johnson joined Automotive News in Detroit in 1984, and opened the newspaper's bureau in Frankfurt in 1986, where he had a front-row seat for the opening of Eastern Europe in 1989.
In 1991, Johnson moved to Tokyo as the newspaper's Asia editor, covering Japan's economic crisis and the emergence of China and Southeast Asia. He recently relocated with his family to London to oversee this latest venture.
Automotive News celebrated its 70th anniversary last month. It has 35 full-time automotive reporters and editors in news bureaus from Tokyo to London to Frankfurt, and domestic operations in all the major American automotive cities. Peter Brown, editor and associate publisher of Automotive News, will be co-publisher and executive editor of Automotive News Europe.
Automotive News Europe will have news bureaus in London, France and Germany and correspondents throughout Europe. It will be edited with the European reader in mind, printed in Europe and widely distributed in Europe and the rest of the world.
