I operate TrueDelta.com, which provides vehicle reliability information. Our information has two large advantages over that of Consumer Reports:

1. Report actual repair rates, not just vague dots, to make the differences between models much clearer.

2. Results promptly updated four times a year; so our information averages about ten months ahead of CR’s.

But, since we’re a competitor, you’ll never see CR mention our information, and I’m personally not allowed to mention my site in their forums–even when I have information that they cannot provide. Now that they’ve bought the Consumerist, I suspect the same will be true for it.

Quite a few times a journalist has told me that he can’t write about the unique information TrueDelta.com offers car buyers, because part of what the site offers competes with information offered by their employer.

In other words, from where I sit media consolidation isn’t a good thing. Each media outlet has its own interests, and these come before the interests of readers. The larger these outlets get, the broader their interests get, and the more delimited their reporting gets.