Jean Jennings

Jean Marie Jennings (née Lienert; February 3, 1954 – December 16, 2024) was an American journalist, publisher and television personality covering the automotive industry. She was widely known for her unabashed, enthusiastic and outspoken approach; for making the industry more accessible to a broad cross-section of enthusiasts; and for mentoring a generation of automotive writers, editors and designers.

After writing for Car and Driver (1980–1985), she co-founded Automobile, where she continued to write her widely known column, Vile Gossip, after becoming the magazine's editor in chief (2000–2014) and president (2006–2014).

She was the automotive correspondent for Good Morning America (1994–2000) and the Oxygen network. She was later the Chairman, CEO and host of the self-branded automotive website and blog, JeanKnowsCars (2012–2016), wrote articles for LinkedIn, and edited the book Road Trips, Head Trips, and Other Car-Crazed Writings. She guested on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, convinced Jerry Seinfeld to freelance an article for Automobile magazine, and continued to write the Vile Gossip column intermittently for Autoblog.com (2020).

With Jennings as editor and President, Automobile was the first car magazine to win a National Magazine Award — for a column by Jamie Kitman. Jennings herself was honored by the Detroit Press Club Foundation; won the Motor Press Guild’s 2016 Dean Batchelor Award for Lifetime Achievement; was a 2021 inductee to the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame and won the Ken Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism.

David E. Davis, with whom Jennings co-founded Automobile magazine, said Jennings "changed the nature of the readers' response" to automotive journalism.