PBL has announced this afternoon that it will merge its online advertising business with carsales.com.au. This puts Australia’s #1 auto site within the realm of the Packer media empire. Just a couple of years ago News and Fairfax dominated classified advertising. That dominance is shared with PBL. In fact, PBL is setting the agenda at present.
This move by PBL underscores the need for newsagents to reevaluate their business model. Advertising is moving online. The speed of change is increasing and the deal by PBL will serve to increase this. Newsagents need to be replacing newspaper generated traffic and revenue. The PBL move demonstrates how to do this – pursue opportunities just outside your current area of operation but close enough for you to understand the business.
Newsagents and others relying on newspapers for revenue and traffic cannot sit by and wait for someone else to provide them with a future.