The Trading Post has the same retail space allocation as the Herald Sun newspaper in my newsagency. The gross profit it generates is only 3% of that of the Herald Sun. In a cash-flow sense, allowing for the cost of real-estate and labour, the Trading Post is a loss making title at least at Forest Hill, Victoria. Beyond the financial return is the efficiency.
With Trading Post sales continuing to fall, Sensis management must be considering how to respond. One option is to go completely free. The other is to shutdown the presses altogether and shift entirely online. I would not be surprised to see the Trading Post shift to a pure online model – given the tag line used in their logo.
It would make sense for them to forget print move online.
Having a well established brand name and high search engine rankings* makes the publication well established to move to an online-only model.
*Footnote: the word “sell” in Google returns http://www.tradingpost.com.au as the top result
Tradingpost is number 1, because they pay google adwords money to be on the top position in google search results. Around about 2.50 Dollars per click! It has nothing to do with high search engine rankings – it is the money they give to google.
Jurgen you obviously didn’t complete the search. Trading Post when doing a google search on “sell” does come up in paid search but it also currently is in number 2 of natural search (may have dropped one spot since Jarrod posted).