In a move that appears to be a swing away from the online and back to the increasingly unpopular print medium, the Telstra-owned Trading Post online has partnered with Fairfax Media to allow classified advertisements to appear under both banners.
Under the agreement, general classified advertising packages for Fairfax customers will now include an online presence on Trading Post online, and the classifieds sections of the media group’s 180 regional and metropolitan publications will receive the Trading Post banner head.
The new partnership will see the online classified publisher feature ads from Fairfax on its site, but its online listings will not necessarily appear in print. The Trading Post presence will merely be offered to advertisers as an additional online option.
However, CEO of marketplaces at Fairfax Media, Nic Cola, says that the company is ultimately working towards featuring Trading Post online-generated ads in its publications. These classifieds would be geographically targeted according to region.
The agreement builds upon a classified advertising deal struck between Fairfax and APN News & Media last year that saw the latter feature Fairfax’s online classified advertisement brands Domain, Drive and MyCareer in over 90 APN regional Queensland publications.
The Trading Post has been out of the print market since October 2009 after experiencing diminishing advertising revenue, but the agreement with Fairfax will see it return to the medium it first entered four decades ago.
Cola says that the partnership with the iconic Trading Post brand will allow Fairfax Media’s customers utilize the online channel and have a much greater opportunity to sell their products.
“The deal is designed to add value to our large client base,” says Cola. “Our classified advertisers were asking for a simple online presence. A lot of our clients are after multi-platform solution, customers a more sophisticated now and ask for more than one medium.
“We have over 40,000 listing and we think it will help with our customer retention and attraction. It allows us to get our clients’ ads over a much larger audience.”
The Trading Post banner will be first incorporated into Fairfax’s regional publications and will be followed, over the coming months, by its metropolitan mastheads.
Michael Paddeb, Telstra’s head of advertising network, says “the partnership between Fairfax and tradingpost.com.au ensures classified advertisers will have the best of both worlds, with publications that engage with local communities combined with the extensive reach of Australia’s leading classified website.”
Article courtesy of Print 21 Online