Since GMG bought Trader Media in October 2003 for £600m, Auto Trader's circulation is down 21.9%. In the first half of 2003, its average sale was 365,549, compared with the second half of 2005's 285,501.
In a stark indicator of classified advertising's shift out of print, other buying and selling titles have suffered even worse falls. Since the first half of 2003, Trader Media's general Ad Trader is down 30.8% to 157,173 copies, while rival Loot, owned by the Daily Mail & General Trust, is down 38.4% to 153,744.
GMG is currently studying possible asset disposals as a safeguard for the future of its newspaper business and on February 2 appointed Merrill Lynch to advise.
Trader Media is the jewel in its crown, having generated £116.6m of GMG's £122.4m operating profit for 2005, thanks in part to its profitable Auto Trader website. The site attracts 4.8m monthly users and 8,300 car dealers, according to GMG's 2005 financial report.
As potential buyers contemplate how much value to put on the business, they will have to work out how much of a gamble it is to take on the declining print titles as well as the online franchise.
*Kevin Petley, circulation director at Trader Media, defended the company's performance.
*"We are disappointed with any decline but we are still selling 300,000 per week which is a position a lot of publishers would like to be in," he said.
*"The website growth more than compensates for the publishing decline and the publications have grown market share. Our competitors have had a much more torrid time."
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