Daype Classifieds

In the latest confirmation of changing times in traditional publishing, the Trading Post is dumping its weekly print edition to move online.

The classified advertising icon, which was immortalised in the hit film “The Castle” will publish its final print edition at the end of October.

However, two publications – WA AutoTrader and WA Boatrader – have been quarantined from the long anticipated digital switch.

Since its genesis in 1966 as the Melbourne Trading Post, Australians have bought and sold almost anything through the weekly – from cars, boats, bikes and trucks to pets and household furniture.

I bought a trusty and slightly rusty EJ Holden special sedan through the Post in the late 1980s.

Telstra says the move to an “exclusively online and mobile classified trading place” comes as a result of a significant consumer shift to the internet.

Michael Padden, Telstra’s head of classifieds, says nine out of ten Australians now access the internet weekly as online shopping becomes an increasingly popular pastime.

The decision brings Telstra into line with a harsh and sad reality that is gripping publications around the world.

“With print classifieds usage declining significantly across ad volumes, circulation and readership, it’s unviable to continue producing the weekly print publications,” Mr Padden said.

“It is an increasingly competitive market so Trading Post’s success as an organisation depends on making sound business decisions that set it up for the future.”

Telstra bought the publication’s 22 mastheads and five websites in 2004 for $636 million to gain a foothold in the classified advertising sector, fighting off bids from Fairfax and Kerry Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Limited.

The original founders, Margaret Wilkins and Charles Falkiner, started the publication in 1966 for an initial outlay of $24,000.

The company rapidly expanded and passed through various hands before being bought by Dutch-ownedTrader Media in 1998.

Telstra’s $636 million acquisition in attracted criticism at the time that it had overpaid for a fading advertising sector. Charles Falkiner told AM at the time that the figure was “mind boggling” and that Telstra had probably paid too much.

The end of the Trading Post in its best known form comes as the global newspaper industry continues to bleed from plunging levels of classified advertising, once known as the “rivers of gold”.

Earlier this week, the outgoing chairman of Fairfax Media, Ron Walker, defended his push for new digital acquisitions saying the once mighty publishing empire might have collapsed if efforts to replace advertising revenue were not made.

“If we had continued to rely on the cash flows from the Sydney Morning Herald, the Age and the Financial Review, the company wouldn’t have existed today, so, it’s paid off for us,” Mr Walker told PM.

Telstra said 279 positions in nine locations will be made redundant as a result of the switch from print to online publishing. A Telstra spokesman says the company will work to redeploy staff where possible.

It is a sad, but necessary digital switch, in a world where the new rules of publishing continue to perplex the still powerful media barons – even Rupert Murdoch who is planning to charge for online news content later this year.

By Peter Ryan
September 30, 2009
source: blogs.abc.net.au