Telstra kills off print version of The Trading Post

The internet has claimed another scalp: this time the print version of The Trading Post. But Telstra’s decision is no surprise. In fact, analysts wonder what took Telstra so long.

“It’s not a turning point, the turning point has already come,” Cox & Co principal Peter Cox told SmartCompany. “This is just one of the steps.”

“If this was an event that came out of the blue it would be a watershed, but it’s not. It’s just evolution.”

Telstra yesterday announced its decision to the move to an “exclusively online and mobile classified trading place”, as a result of a significant consumer shift to the internet, Telstra Media classifieds head Michael Padden told the ABC.

The 43 year old publication’s last print edition will be published on October 29, 2009.

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

But the decision is not a surprise, Cox says. “The rivers of gold have long since become a trickle.”

The paper had fallen victim to a global trend towards online shopping, Madden says.

The publication’s readership dropped by one third to 469,000 in the last year.

But tradingpost.com.au, which launched in 1996, averages 1.8 million unique visitors a month. The publication’s mobile site, launched last year, attracts around 140,000 visitors each month.

In the past two years, The Trading Post‘s number of print ads fell by 70% but the number of ads placed on tradingpost.com.au grew by 30%.

This trend towards online advertising is “cutting away at the heart and soul of newspapers,” Cox says. “If we look at carsales.com, that was floated for $800 million, which is close to the total value of Fairfax.”

But the closure is not likely to be seen as a big issue by newspapers, as The Trading Post has no news or editorial, he says. “It won’t be seen as extremely relevant as far as they’re concerned.”

The Trading Post was launched in 1966, by Margaret Wilkins and Charles Falkner, with an initial outlay of $24,000.

Telstra bought the publication, including 22 mastheads and five websites in 2004 for $636 million, but took a $110 million write-down on the company in 2007.

The telco’s total classifieds revenue fell 42% to $68 million in the year to June 2009.

The Trading Post‘s switch to exclusive online publishing will make 279 staff redundant.