Trading Post hands in its papers

Telstra confirmed yesterday that the newspaper, owned by its Sensis division, would be published solely online from the end of this month.

The Trading Post has been a part of Australian life since 1966, but was made famous in the 1997 movie The Castle, in which the Kerrigan family pored over it for bargains.

At one point, one of Darryl Kerrigan's sons lifts his head from the pages of the paper and says someone is offering a pair of jousting sticks for sale.

"Tell 'em they're dreaming" is his father's famous response when he hears the asking price.

Telstra has blamed the closure on steadily falling sales as classifieds have shifted inexorably to the internet. There has been a 30 per cent increase in the number of advertisements placed on the Trading Post website, and a "substantial decline" in print advertisements, Telstra said yesterday.

As a result of the closure of the print operation, 279 people will be made redundant in nine places around Australia, but Telstra said it would try to find replacement jobs for them within the organisation.

I would like to thank the employees working within Trading Post, who are a highly dedicated group of people. It is never a good time for job losses and decisions like these are not made lightly," Telstra Media's head of classifieds, Michael Padden, said.

In April, Telstra closed the Trading Post print classified call centre in Sydney, at a cost of 70 jobs. The workers were told that volume at the George Street centre, which handles classifieds for the print version, had dropped 50 per cent.

The Melbourne Trading Post was first printed in 1966 by Margaret Wilkins and Charles Falkiner. Two years later, operations were established in Brisbane and Sydney, while Adelaide, Perth, Tasmania, Darwin and ACT editions were established during the 1980s and '90s.

Sensis bought the business in 2004 for $636 million.

Telstra said the most popular Trading Post categories are pets and horses, household furniture and goods, wheels, tyres and parts, home renovations, rural and machinery, gardens and outdoor living, business and office, and sport, leisure and recreation.