Cox Auto Trader Makes Strategic Moves to Improve Online Automotive Advertising Business

[BK]

All of your opinions are worth listening to and are very interesting. I also feel that COX will make a huge mistake by cutting out the printed books. Just goes to show you what these people with "MBA's" are capable of. Oh wait, we have experienced that for a few years now. Is it the greed that spurs recklessness or their "BOOK TRAINED BRAINS"?

 

[The New Rumor]

I found out today - for sure, that JV Rockwell has not purchased AutoMart; but have heard from several people that the Yahoo deal will happen. If anyone from Cox corporate is reading this give the employees a chance to run the print business and be responsible for Circulation, composing etc. Hell, it doesn't work anyway - right??? I will purchase Automart print in my city for $1. In return I will support Automart.com or AutoTrader.com in the magazine - free advertising for Cox websites and great press for the Cox organization. As a matter of fact I will buy every city for $1 and make a damn good living doing it.My dealers are pissed about the decision and if I had $50 bucks for every phone call I received hearing people vent I could retire. ( But print doesn't work and Internet is booming ) My dealers are telling me that their Internet leads suck from everyone. Oh well I am sure there is a great reason for all of it. Maybe all the Manheim auction sites will close down as well because most dealers are buying online anyway. MY ASS !!

 

[Still Curious]

What was Auto Mart’s top producing territory and what did the top producer in the country bill annually?? Does anyone know??

I know some markets offered sales assistants so the number might be higher in some markets but I am very curious to know the top annual dollar mark.

 

[MrBShoff]

Yeah, it's been a sad couple months for what used to be an amazing company. I long for the days of Trader Publishing Company w/ B. Reith & R. Jamin.

These so called CATAM "VPs", who were certainly over employed goofballs (except Menard), knew about this all along and led us on. Hmmm, let's bring in "The Scott" and "Uncle Joe" from ATC to turn this around. Turn it around? I was forced to watch my Auto Mart margins go from 35% on $40k weekly revenue to 5% after absorbing a monthly DD expense of $60k+ and ATP operations that had been losing money for years. It kills me.

Think about it; Reith "retires" from Auto Mart, RJ gets canned from ATP, they can half the ATP managers in a reorg, J. Moore is "laid off" (I think because he wouldn't play ball with these Cox clowns), the AM & ATP managers "compete" for Market Manager positions, the MMs then lay off 50% of their managers, then MMs are canned, the RDs were lied to, then the whole thing gets closed down!

The writing was on the wall, I just didn't want to see it. Being an Area Manager who brought home brass each annual meeting, it breaks my heart to see all the effort, money, and time away from my family traveling all go to waste. Way to go Cox, way to stick with an investment.

BTW - Do you think Jimmy Hayes, Uncle Joe or "the Scott" have Call Source logins? Perhaps they should have reviewed dealer calls before deciding to kill it.

There's still demand for the products.
I hope each of the former RDs and MMS decide to grab that market share with their own books. Those Cox clowns are too disorganized to even go after non-competes. Trust me, I saw it first hand.

Thanks for reading my rant.

 

[NJ]

Does anyone have a projected date that Cox will kill off printing Auto Trader, Truck Trader and the other?

 

[Shelly Peacock]

Wow... it's really getting hot out there! Only means that the time is right... and BTW... We only have a couple of positions left for the new book... If you or anyone you know wants a seamless transition to a "better" print option, please email me at [email protected]!
The clock is already ticking...
Good Luck out there!

 

[Circulation/Independant Contractor in Motown]

Just want to say thanks to all you folks who have worked hard and are now getting the shaft. I stumbled upon here after getting a little suspicious with the way circulation levels have fallen off ( I handle a route in SE michigan and the route brings in around a third of what it did a year ago when I started) Its pretty sad how this has all happened. When I first started driving in the early 2000's and began my first car search-the autotrader print mags were the ONLY way of finding a vehicle outside of going dealer to dealer or happening on for sale signs on the side of the road. My customers (the stores I dist too) have been complaining lately on how much both sales levels have dropped off and how thin the magazines are now getting. I'll admit to being a bit of a skeptic when reading info over the internet and such but I must say that the info here seems to fit pretty nicely with my own observations. Just want to say thanks and give well wishes to those that posted this stuff. Me personally, I'm just trying to hang in there till may at the latest-I'll have my undergrad degree then which hopefully will leave me with more options. Also just a couple weeks ago they forwarded a letter/email to all carriers about the changes with automart-seemed pretty vague though and seemed like it left room for more "cuts" or at least that was my interpretation of it- if anyone is curious to it let me know- thanks again and best wishes to all,

 

[Shelly Peacock??]

Who are you and what are you talking about?

Your original post had a cox email contact. Are you with cox? I am confused.

 

[legal weasel]

Regarding Non-competes in California:

A noteworthy exception to the willingness of states to enforce properly drafted noncompete agreements is a state with high concentrations of high technology businesses: California. Section 16600 of the California Business and Professions Code provides that "every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void." As a practical matter this means that in all but a very few and unusual types of situations, noncompete agreements are not enforceable in California.

 

[Shelly Peacock]

I am a Managing Editor for a new publication in Oklahoma. I have a cox.net email address because they have cornered the market here in Edmond, Oklahoma on cable and internet, so we had no choice. It is unfortunate that the suspicion level is so high, but I was planning to launch my pub before AT even sniffled, let alone fell ill and died. I have competed against them for my entire vendor life, however I hope to clear up any confusion with this post.
The saddest thing that I see here is the absolute lack of empathy from the Cox group, and the eminent sale of ATC only strengthens their bottom line, a large part of which is ... wow... NEWSPAPERS... aka Print.
There are 3 ways to contact me, [email protected] (I use that to check my email remotely)... [email protected], and through Dan Fagan (see above post), as he is the COO of the company that I represent. Smart Media Solutions.
Google me if you have any further doubts...
but I will fill the gap immediately in Oklahoma.