Can Auto Trader go on guarding The Guardian in the online era?
There are four daily national newspapers which are generally thought to be resistant to the gale-force winds battering newspapers. One is the Financial Times, whose international expansion has been a success. The Sun and the Daily Mail, though not unaffected by adverse conditions, should go on making good money throughout the recession – unless we all end up in soup kitchens. The fourth daily newspaper commonly thought to be recession-proof is The Guardian. This is not because it is profitable. With its sister paper, The Observer, it lost £24.9m in its last financial year, though this figure contained exceptional items. In the present financial climate The Observer is certainly losing money, and I would be astonished if The Guardian were making any. Nonetheless, the two papers have been buttressed by the considerable profits of the Trader Media Group, which publishes Auto Trader, the motoring classified ads title. It was therefore interesting to hear Carolyn McCall, the chief executive
