It’s no secret the print media — all media for that matter — is in transition. That’s the kind way of saying the industry has hit tough times.

In some circles, the trend is called “slicing and dicing,” and no areas of the newspaper — news to sports, automotive to real estate, travel to food — are sacred.

Correspondingly, layoffs, buyouts, heavier workloads and the shrinking editorial space hasn’t help newsroom morale.

In recent months, some newspapers have made drastic moves. The Orange County Register recently stopped printing a business section, opting to transfer its business content online.

And on Wednesday, April 2, an advertising automotive section replaced the Sacramento Bee’s long-time editorial automotive section.

Mark Glover, a veteran automotive reporter who contributed car reviews and industry articles for the former twice weekly section, Wheels, has been reassigned to the
newsroom. His status with the new section is unknown.

The new twice weekly section, Drive, is being produced by the newspaper’s advertising special sections department under the direction of Lisa Padayao-Butt, former automotive editor of the Vacaville Reporter.

The debut section is four pages, including a front-page advertorial on the Hyundai dealership in Roseville, Calif. The back page is a full-page advertisement for the Roseville-Lincoln (Calif.) dealership.

The syndicated Click & Clack column, written by Tom and Ray Magliozzi, remains as an editorial feature. Discontinued are the popular syndicated feature Auto Album by Tad Burness and Question of the Month.

The debut section has a total of five advertorial and editorial articles, a welcome message from the new editor and 2 1/2 pages of classified and display advertising.

Personally, I’ll miss the Auto Album column. An “Old-School”  feature, the concise piece featured an illustration and a brief historical text account of a classic, often-defunct vehicle. Burness, author of nearly 30 automotive books, produced the text and illustration.

The Auto Album was also discontinued several months ago, but was reinstated following hundreds of inquiries to the newspaper. It will be missed.