Privately owned GMG, publisher of The Guardian and Observer newspapers, received unsolicited offers from three private equity firms, including Blackstone Group, CVC Capital and Candover, after considering a float of the business from May last year.
Carolyn McCall, chief executive of Guardian Media, said: "We have been able to take advantage of the strong appetite for quality media assets and retain a majority stake in this superb company, from which we expect continued growth."
The business has been under increasing pressure from online ventures since GMG took control of it in 2003 from private equity firm BC Partners.
GMG paid about £600m for the remaining 52% stake it did not already own at the time in Trader Media, valuing the group at £1.1bn.
Trader Media Group publishes more than 70 titles, including Auto Trader, Bike Trader and Truck Trader. It posted an operating profit of £119.5m in the year to 2 April 2006, up 2.8% on the previous year.
Auto Trader magazine has a weekly circulation of 278,000 and its website gets nearly 7m visits a month.
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