UPDATE: Matt provides some insightful comments in posted comment at the bottom. Per his comment, I added a small blurb that (I hope) clarifies that the Jeep News issues discussed below were more consumer-oriented, similar to The Willys War News, rather than dealer-oriented periodicals like the WO Sales News and Salesbuilder. Still, it would be interesting to get more WO Sales News issues and compare the content to the Jeep News issues to see if there is any reuse of content, which would suggest some kind of coordination between those two periodicals. That the Jeep News seems to have stopped about the same time the Salesbuilder launched is also curious, but perhaps just a coincidence?

L to R News Periodical Covers –>1945 The Willys War News, 1945 The Willys News, 1946 Fergason’s Jeep News, 1947 WO Sales News, 1947 Milt. Henry’s Jeep News, 1947 Russ Borg’s Jeep News, 1948 WO Sales News, 1948 Salesbuilder, 1948 Cristie’s Jeep News

I sent Barry Thomas the following information the other day. He found it very interesting, so I thought I would republish (and fix the errors, ugh) the info here. If anyone can add to this or correct it, I’d appreciate it!

Here’s a history I’ve assembled about the transition from The Willys War News to Willys-Overland’s Salesbuilder.

July 1945: During WW2 Willys-Overland launched The Willys War News (probably in 1942). The last issue appears to have been July 1945: http://www.ewillys.com/2015/03/20/the-willys-war-news-vers-3-3/

Sept. 1945: As far as I can tell, the next issue was also labeled The Willys War News, but with WAR X’d out in red. It is marked Volume 1, No. 1, suggesting it was the beginning of something else. http://www.ewillys.com/2023/10/13/volume-1-issue-1-of-the-willys-war-news/ (It’s unclear to me how many additional issues of The Willys War News were published.

1946: My best guess is that W-O launched WO Sales News in 1946 as a dealer marketing periodical. I don’t have any 1946 issues, but a 1947 issue (below) claims to be Volume II, which likely makes Volume I published in 1946, though how many issues were produced I don’t know.

1946: A magazine, more consumer facing than the WO Sales News, was launched in 1946 called Ferguson’s Jeep News Volume 1 No. 1, but there’s no information (that I have spotted) in the first issue indicating who was producing the magazine: http://www.ewillys.com/2022/08/28/1946-issue-of-jeep-news/. Given the proper use of apostrophes around the name ‘Jeep’ , there could have been some influence by Willys-Overland behind it, but I can’t say for certain.

Importantly, Matt notes in the comments below that he has a Volume 1 No. Jeep News issue with the name C. Denigers, so there was some kind of marketing program likely used to assigned names to the top of these issues. But, who was overseeing such a program isn’t your et clear.

Jan 1947: Willys Overland publishes WO Sales News Volume II No. I. Printed on the cover of the bottom page is “January 1947”, which suggests to me the intent to publish this as a monthly periodical: http://www.ewillys.com/2022/09/06/january-1947-willys-overland-sales-news/

1947: Jeep News Volume 1 No. 3 was published, but this time it was Milt. Henry’s name at the top, replacing Ferguson: http://www.ewillys.com/2022/09/09/1947-jeep-news-vol-1-no-3/ I explain in the post link why I thought this was published in 1947.

1947: The next issue of Jeep News Volume 1 No. 4 has Russ Borg’s name headlining the issue: http://www.ewillys.com/2022/09/11/year-jeep-news-vol-1-no-4/

Jan 1948: The next issue of WO Sales News that I have is WO Sales News Volume III No.1, published January 1948: http://www.ewillys.com/2022/09/12/jan-1948-willys-overland-sales-news/

July 1948: The first issue of Salesbuilder appears in July of 1947 as Volume 1 No. 1. I don’t yet have this full issue: http://www.ewillys.com/2019/05/28/salesbuilder-magazines/

Why the name change from WO Sales News to Salesbuilder? There was a short blurb on google announcing this change published in the 1948 Volume 22 of “Tide”, a marketing and advertising publication, but I can’t find much more info than the screen shot I grabbed (to get to this link, google “salesbuilder jeep news”, then click on the “books” search tab:

Also, about this time, Willys Overland was undergoing a marketing shift, pushing out the “Willys” brand in favor of “Jeep”, a discussion I have documented on eWillys. The company would reverse this trend in 1951 with the introduction of the Willys car and the Willys Makes Sense marketing campaign, also documented on that link above. Both issues are also discussed as part of the Willys Makes Sense Ad Campaign Post.

1948: The last issue of Jeep News (that i know of) shows Cristie’s as the headliner of Volume 1 No. 6. I believe it appeared in 1948 based on pics of two “Lefty” CJ-2As photos in the issue.

Salesbuilder would run throughout 1953, when Kaiser Purchased Willys-Overland’s Assets. To the best of my knowledge, the name was switched to Kaiser Willys News (Unless there was something else between Salesbuilder and KW News that I haven’t seen). .

The eight-page issue of the 1966 Jeep News Volume 12 Number 3 began with the 1966 Caravan of Jeeps organized by Kaiser Jeep to introduce the jeeps to Eastern European countries (See the next post about a story in the September 1966 issue of Four Wheeler Magazine at the surprise awaiting the caravan in Czechoslovakia).

Page two shows a photo that went viral, in today’s slang, of a Harvey Schaible in a V-8 powered jeep that flew into the air at the top of a hill climb that was part of a Play Day weekend with multiple local clubs attending the event. Page three contains various stories, including a good photo of a TWA-branded airport jeep. Pages four and five continue the story of the Eastern European Caravan.

Page six has fascinating story about the use of 2WD DJ-3As and DJ-5s RHD vehicles (the DJ-5 having been launched in 1966), some converted to automatic transmissions, for use as spay vehicles.

Page seven reports on the use of jeeps to travel a portion of the Oregon Trail between Vale and Farewell Bend, Oregon. Some of this area would be passable by I-84 in 1975, but even today some of the original trail traveled in 1966 is still evident (see this map, which shows a partial area between Vale and Farewell Bend).

Page eight has multiple stories, including a photo and short report on Mr. Diamant and his family, who were traveling in a Gladiator Camper. There’s a longer story and a map of their travels here.

The eight-page Jeep News Volume 12 Number 1 kicked off 1966 with the news that sales increased 23% and, surprising to me, special equipment sales jumped almost 42%. Given the increase in Wagoneers and Gladiator sales, I would think the special equipment numbers would be falling, as I thought a shift was happening away from the notion of utility vehicles in favor of “fun” and family vehicles. I’d be curious to know what was driving those equipment sales.

Page two is mostly dealer news, while page three continues a page-one discussion of the anti-skid, safely and traction capabilities of the Wagoneer and Gladiator jeeps. Page four highlights the use of larger magazine images.

Page five goes international and includes an article about Mrs. Welthy H. Fisher, an 85-year-old literacy advocate, who raised funds for a Wagoneer-turned-traveling-library, which she used to deliver books to folks in India as part of a function of Literacy Village, a program she launched at age 73. From her photo, I’d never guess she was 85.

Page six features Sinclair Oil’s Wagoneer, which traveled with a touring exhibit featuring a flatbed trailer with nine large animatronic dinosaurs. I wonder whatever happened to those dinosaurs. Here is a pic of them floating down the Hudson River circa 1964:

Page seven reported on the unexpected 4WD display at a Florida Airstream gathering of almost 1500 trailers. Mud had forced many of the trailers to be towed into the site via tractor, but the fact that Florida Outdoorsman John Wilhelm had a Wagoneer capable of puling his trailer into the site without issue seems to have spurred interest in his jeep. Page eight highlights the use of jeeps in Detroit Mine, something covered by Jeep News previously and other sources.

This eight-page holiday  issue is the final issue of 1965 (only 6 issues produced). Page one introduces the first luxury Wagoneer, the Jeep Super Wagoneer. Page two highlights the growing demand for contract plowing. Page three continues the luxury wagon discussion, while also noting that parts can make an “attractive store display”; so, when you start hanging parts in the living room, just show your partner this article and how it can be actually attractive (good luck with that, lol).

Pages four and five share more on Gladiator and Wagoneer vehicles. Page six shows off an unusual display in Peru, while the new Kaiser Argentina Model 101 four-door jeep is depicted. Page seven shares news on the Afton Canyon excursion in Southern California, which is the first I’ve heard of this annual trip. It drew 398 vehicles in 1965.

Page eight includes a story on a New Jersey M-38 fire jeep. Also on the page is a photo of Col. Dave Harbour, an outdoor writer who drove his wagon 100,000 miles, being presented with a model jeep, but I can’t tell what kind of model it is.