Alloy Update: Jan 2026
I always think of myself as a pessimist. It’s just easier for me to imagine the worst, or even to view it as a foregone conclusion. But here I am, posting on this car website while the world spins itself apart.
Whatever I see of the world and whatever I think or say about it, whatever situation I find myself in, the things that I actually do suggest that on some level, I believe things can get better. So, I am maybe not an optimist, but it is nearly impossible for me to lose hope. Things can change fast, and in my experience, where there’s a will, there’s usually a way.
This project is in large part a response to just how bad the experience of using the internet has become. It’s hard to accept that making your product difficult or annoying to use is a necessary part of building a sustainable company. We are not saving the world with this car site. But if we can make one little thing less shitty, that’ll feel good. Maybe it’s a business. And maybe that applies to other things down the road.
Making something and investing our time is a way to demonstrate our belief that things can get better.
So, where do we stand as far as making something? Alloy is a few months old, still more or less in a soft-launch. Four of us work full-time on the site and a handful of others are contributing with some regularity. We’ve published some stuff I’m really proud of and I’m proud of our body of work overall. We’ve reached a surprisingly large number of people through our social media channels and here on the site. We have excellent engagement and we’ve converted a lot of readers to members so far. Our technical challenges have been limited and easily handled by the team at Partner & Partners who we really can’t say enough good things about. So far things have gone shockingly well, but we’re not remotely close to delivering what we think we need to make this thing work. This is minimally viable Alloy and there is so much more to do.
Here’s what I think we’re missing, you can add your suggestions in the comments.
Joy
As I mentioned above, these are not particularly fun times. 2025 was a year of deep anguish and loss for me personally, and 2026 isn’t off to a great start. But, that’s part of why I want to deliver more joy on the site.
Look for more DIY stuff, more Alloy TV, more animations and graphics and hopefully some in-person events. We’re not going to ignore the serious stuff, but it’s ok to acknowledge the good things that somehow, continue to happen. I will not personally be experiencing joy, to be clear.
Reviews
We’ve published some great feature reviews on the site and we’ve also developed a novel approach to our regular weekly reviews. We have a good backlog of those, but that project is paused as of this week while we figure out our finances. It’ll get done before too long, and I think it really brings something new, fun and useful to Alloy.
Features
We’ve published some nice features, and we have some great ones coming, but the ratio of news to features should tilt a bit more toward features and bigger stories that you can’t read elsewhere.
Video/Audio
We’ve been kicking around some ideas and we’ve done a fair amount of testing, but I think it’s getting to the point where we need to just start publishing stuff and see how it evolves.
Racing
This has been a real dereliction of duty on our part. We need racing coverage. Thankfully, we’ve got a new season starting next week in Daytona.
That’s what comes to mind immediately, but I’d be very interested to know what you want. One of the difficult things about pouring a year into a project is that people are very hesitant to tell you what they don’t like, where you’re coming up short. We have some ideas, but it’s also very hard to see from where we are. So, one of the most useful things you can give us is your thoughtful feedback, ideas, whatever.
Finally, to my colleagues in automotive media, I (Rory) am making a personal appeal for your support. As I look around the business, I can point to a good number of people who got their first job, first byline, or first photo credit because of me. I’m really proud of that. I can point to a number of projects that I supported financially or by going out of my way to promote it in whatever publication I was working for at the time. There are no competitors on the internet.
If you know me well, you know that more than anything, I enjoy doing things for people and I never ever expect anything in return. But, we’re trying to do something big here and frankly we could use the help getting Alloy in front of people. I’d be very grateful for any linkbacks, stories, interview opportunities, likes, retweets, etc. If you see something here that you think is cool, share it with your audience. If this works, if we raise a successful publication from nothing in 2026…I don’t know if I’d say it’s important, but it’s special. Who knows, you may find yourself happily toiling away at an Alloy site in a few years.
I am beyond grateful for those of you who have bought a membership or bought merch. Believe me, I check the lists.
That’s all I’ve got at the moment. From all of us at Alloy, thank you, We love you.
3 responses to “Alloy Update: Jan 2026”
-
Go, Alloy, go! Excited to be a part of this journey with you, Brother.
Looking forward to more cool stuff in 2026, as Alloy is one of the bright spots in this ruined world. xoxo -
Been there, done that, know how tough launching any sort of publication is. Best of luck, Rory, hope to catch up in person somewhere soon.
-
Love how the magazine is developing. The general approach and layout are really delivering on your promise to weed out the worst elements of the internet reading experience. And the weekly movie reviews are a fave feature—but now I am struggling to find them??
As a side note, I really appreciate when a publsiher establishes some kind of publishing rhythm—a “Film Review Fridays” or “Retro Tuesdays” or whatever, just some kind of way to slow the firehose of seemingly undifferentiated articles/newsletters/info (from everywhere) that fill my inbox/timeline/browser tabs. Something to anticipate and plan for—as small as the effort may seem, it’s nice to know every Friday I’ll be getting “X” contribution on a subject, and I mentally set aside a little moment to enjoy it on the day—but maybe that’s just me!
Excited to see how ALLOY evolves!
Recent Posts
All Posts
January 20, 2026
January 19, 2026
January 16, 2026
Leave a Reply