Dan Neil is an American journalist, widely known an automotive columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a former staff writer at the Los Angeles Times, AutoWeek and Car and Driver. He was a panelist on 2011's The Car Show with Adam Carolla on Speed Channel.
In 1999, Neil received the International Motor Press Association's Ken Purdy Award for automotive journalism, and in 2004 Neil won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, presented annually to a newspaper writer who has demonstrated 'distinguished criticism.' Awarded for his LA Times column Rumble Seat, the Pulitzer board noted Neil's "one-of-a-kind reviews of automobiles, blending technical expertise with offbeat humor and astute cultural criticism."
Background
Neil was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, on January 12, 1960, and moved to New Bern, North Carolina, at age 4. His father was an engineer with Stanley Powertools and his mother was a private investigator. He received a B.A. degree in Creative Writing from East Carolina University and an M.A. degree in English Literature from North Carolina State University.
Neil is married to Tina Larsen Neil and has twin daughters, Rosalind and Vivienne — as well as a son, Henry (Hank) Neil, from his first marriage. After four years of trying to get pregnant and several in-vitro fertilization procedures, Neil's wife conceived four embryos in a high risk, "white knuckle pregnancy." Facing further complications, he and his wife chose to abort two of the fetuses. Neil wrote about the experience for the LA Times.
Neil lived in Los Angeles before moving again to North Carolina, when he left the L.A. Times and began writing for The Wall Street Journal.
In interviews he has said his goals at the time were to "learn to write and see the world." Neil was recruited by AutoWeek magazine in 1994 as a senior contributing editor. In 1995, he began contributing reviews to The New York Times, which he continued until 2003.
In 1999, Neil won the Ken Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism, from the International Motor Press Association. In 2002, his work was selected for Houghton Mifflin's Best American Sports Writing.
Firing from the News & Observer
In 1991, Dan Neil had been moved from the newsroom of the News & Observer to the classified advertising department with the expectation "that he would write dealer-friendly pieces to attract readers to the newspaper's automobile classified section." In contrast to the newsroom, where Neil had worked with editors, he noticed his copy was no longer edited. </blockquote>
Put on probation for the article, Neil was instructed to have his articles reviewed by an editor as well as the director of classified auto advertising.
Editors from The News & Observer contended that it was disingenuous to suggest that advertisers pressured the paper into firing Neil,
After the takeover, Zell rated reporters by how many column inches they produced, relinquished the Los Angeles Times Magazine and other editorial publications to advertiser control — and laid off at least 1,000 employees. Neil and a group of Times employees claimed violations of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and alleged that Zell breached his duty of loyalty to Tribune's employees.