Facing a sharp decrease in print advertising demand, AutoMart and AutoExtra will cease publication and become online-only car venues.
AutoMart circulates in the Baltimore area. Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises announced the cuts this week as part of a strategic shift to consolidate its online operations.
The publications have lost significant business over the last few years, said Buddy Solomon, chief financial officer of Cox Auto Trader, parent company of the two folded magazines.
“Classified automotive advertising in AutoTrader, Truck Trader, AutoMart, has been down for several years running now,” Solomon said. “The decline, as you can imagine, accelerated rapidly in 2007 and 2008. As a result our magazines are no longer profitable, and we can’t afford to run unprofitable businesses.”
Cox Auto Trader will continue publication of two other magazines, AutoTrader and Truck Trader. The AutoTrader.com subsidiary will take over the Web sites of the two canceled magazines, www.AutoMart.com and www.AutoExtra.com, as well as AutoTraderLatino.com.
Some print employees will be reassigned to AutoTrader.com while an unspecified number of other jobs will be cut, Cox said in a press release. Severance packages will be offered to impacted employees.
The cuts come amid tumbling auto sales, which fell 18 percent last year to 13.2 million from 16.1 million in 2007. Industry watchers expected sales to continue to slide this year to 10.3 million.
Research firm The Kelsey Group expects interactive classified revenues to grow from $3.9 billion in 2007 to $9.1 billion by 2012.
“It’s not just for autos, it’s weddings, health, finance, all sorts of products, that’s really where the new media is,” Kelsey Group analyst Peter Krasilovsky said.
