Our duty to you, our readers, is to provide unbiased news and insights that you can use to improve your business and operations. Part of our mission is to be transparent with our audience when conflicts arise with that mission.
On Friday, we published a story in our daily eNewsletter citing a prominent news organization’s report that LKQ Corp. was exploring a sale of certain assets within its portfolio. LKQ Corp. is the parent company of NTP-Stag and SeaWide Distribution, among many brands and divisions.
After we published the report, we were alerted to potential discrepancies within the story. We followed up on the report that said LKQ Corp. was considering offers for its Keystone Automotive Industries division, its specialty parts division. As we examined the story, we discovered that Keystone Automotive Industries and LKQ Corp.’s specialty parts division are separate entities. Keystone Automotive Industries is included in its parent company’s Wholesale North America segment.
The report was based on multiple anonymous sources, and LKQ Corp. representatives did not comment for the story.
Because there was confusion over whether the story’s sources were suggesting a sale of the specialty parts division—which would include NTP-Stag—or Keystone Automotive Industries—which was not—we have taken the story down and sought additional clarity.
We rarely speak directly to our readers because of the narrative voice of our publications. I felt the decision we made here required transparency to update our readers on the change and the reasons behind the change. We do not take such measures lightly, but we believe keeping material public, which includes genuine disputes over the full facts, would be a disservice to our audience.
If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to me at 720-749-1064 or [email protected]. We thank you, as always, for your time and attention.
Chris Freeman
Editor-in-Chief
