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Last issues for Trade & Exchange Papers
News Release
For Immediate Release
Tuesday 24 November 2009
Last issues for Trade & Exchange
Papers
The once much loved classified paper, Trade & Exchange, will issue its last paper editions this week as the business chooses to focus solely on its online service.
The last issues of the Auckland and Wellington Trade & Exchange papers will go on sale this Thursday 26 November.
Managing Director, Peter Whitmore, said that online traffic had been growing and paper sales had been falling for several years now. “It has reached the stage where around ten times more people visit the website each week than purchase a paper. And compared to the papers, they gain access to around 50 times as many listings.”
Launched in early 1981 by Peter and Jill Whitmore, the Auckland Trade & Exchange was the first free ads paper in New Zealand and also one of the earliest in the world. In 1989 the Wellington edition opened and for a period there was also an edition serving the Manawatu, Wanganui and Taranaki areas. All these papers grew from small beginnings to become major classified advertising publications in their markets.
At its peak of popularity, people would wait at their local store for Trade & Exchange to be delivered, with over 50,000 copies being sold for one issue.
he Trade & Exchange web site, te.co.nz, launched in 1998, was New Zealand’s first major online trading site. Despite the success of Trademe with the auction model, TE has stayed with an open classified approach that allows buyers and sellers to contact each other directly, and gives the opportunity to view goods before a purchase is made. In terms of listing numbers it is now the largest free advertising site in the country.
“If we could keep the papers open we would”, said Whitmore, “because although most people are now online there is still a dedicated group of readers who use the papers regularly. However, unfortunately circulations have reached a point where the papers are no longer economic to produce.”
Whitmore said that the closure of the papers would lead to about a dozen job losses, including part time roles.
The papers and website are produced by Cabbage Tree Press Ltd, a privately held New Zealand company.
www.te.co.nz
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