Autotrader to be axed

Trader Media Group is the publishing group behind Auto Trader, Trader Media Group is owned by the Guardian Media Group and Apax and reports have revealed that digital now accounts for almost 79% of its revenue, according to the latest figures for the year to 2 April 2012. Digital revenues from online and smartphones were up 11% to £202m for the same period, while sales revenues from its magazine division were £27.8m, down £16.3m on the previous year.

The Auto Trader titles still sell an average of 87,000 copies a week but have experienced falling circulation and a slowdown in advertising revenues, which tumbled from £44.1m to £27.8m.

John King, chief executive of Trader Media Group, said in a statement “although we do not expect a pick-up in the environment, our increasing range of products and services such as mobile and embedded digital marketing services together with our considerable data capabilities provide us with confidence that we will continue to grow profits and generate cash.” He also added that the production of the print magazine would probably stop next year. "We won't make the decision until later this year, but we're looking at around 12 to 18 months from now," he said.