About Autotrader Magazine

Auto Trader is a weekly magazine that connects buyers, sellers and dreamers of anything automotive with a promise to provide customers with an effective, affordable and easy way to sell their vehicles or products.

Auto Trader Magazine was first published in May 1989 and was originally based in a humble 3 bedroom house in Karrinyup that was basically converted to accommodate Telemarketers in the lounge room, a production team of 2 people in one bedroom, administration in another bedroom and the photographers out the back in the granny flat

Although coming from this modest background Auto Trader prides itself on being one of the first companies in Australia to commercially use digital cameras at around $3K a camera and around $20K for the computer to process the images it was not a cheap exercise but innovative it was if only the equipment we have now was around then my how much easier it would have been!

With this set up in place Auto Trader slowly established itself in the West Australian marketplace extending its distribution network throughout service station in the metropolitan area as well as focusing on building private content.

A few years after it's launch and with an injection of cash Auto Trader was able to move out of its rental property in Karrinyup and establish itself in a factory unit in Bayswater this was really the first major step for Auto Trader and enabled the magazine to take a big step forward.

From 1992 to 1995 Auto Trader grew significantly one of the reasons for this was being able to be self sufficient in it's production many a late night were spent with black hands running A3 sheets on those Hamada presses followed by many a long day binding on the Bourg collating machine Oh the Joy! They were certainly fun days!

In 1995 Auto Trader saw a change of ownership with the Guardian media group taking control and again enabling Auto Trader to grow the publication was able to change from an offset based publication to web based this saw huge efficiencies in terms of time saving.

The Auto Trader continued to blossom and grow until 2000 when the Guardian Media Group sold Auto Trader to Trader Media Classified a French based company. From 2000 through to 2004 being owned by Trader Media Classified meant also that we were part of the very popular and successful eastern states based Trading Post group this period again saw Auto Trader grow it's printed product as well as it's online product which now had a national focus.

In 2004 Sensis (owners of Yellow Pages and White Pages as well as multiple other brands) acquired Trading Post group from Trader Media classified in March 2004. Again Auto Trader prospered in this new relationship with Sensis and continued to be a leading brand for car buyers and sellers in WA.

In early 2010 after 6 years under the Sensis fold of companies it was again decided to sell Auto Trader Magazine to another company Just Magazines Group acquired Auto Trader on 31st July 2010.

Just Magazines are one of Australia's largest independent publishers of automotive publications and are a part of the Hunter Five group. Just Magazines produce six different monthly publications.

With Auto Trader now being part of the Just group this provides a great foundation for further growth and expansion of the Auto Trader brand as well as bringing the business back home to it's grass roots family based culture.

Auto Trader core values which are the key driver of all of our business decisions and that reflect the above mentioned culture are

- We are passionate about our brands and committed to our customers
- We provide a fun, fair and nurturing environment for the Auto Trader family
- Our policy is - Zero Bullshit
- We are determined to have a go
- We are determined to contribute to make a difference in the community
- We are innovative and progressive

With these core values as our foundation we are sure to continue to grow from strength to strength.

I will take this opportunity to thank all of our readers and advertisers for their loyalty and passion for Auto Trader and its products long may we continue to serve the great people of WA!