TMS Signs 'LA Times' Pop-Culture Column by Pulitzer Winner Dan Neil

By: E&P Staff Tribune Media Services is now syndicating a weekly column on pop culture and American life by Dan Neil, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer for the Los Angeles Times.

The "800 Words" feature was launched this February in the Times' Sunday magazine. It has addressed topics such as robot dogs, "high-end backyards," the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the lives of NASCAR drivers, and Neil's stints as a short-order cook and male model.

Neil -- who grew up in the South and says he writes as an outsider from the center of pop culture -- won the 2004 Pulitzer for criticism for his Times auto column. He was also in the news earlier this year when General Motors pulled its advertising from the Times -- reportedly in part because of a Neil piece criticizing the automaker (E&P, April 8, 2005).