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.

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 !!

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"?

What the location office in places like Chicago, Milwaukee and Minneapolis????

RE new rumor,

We were told about this a couple of months ago here. There were several buyers interested, one was Google I think, yahoo might have been mentioned. But yes, bottom line they did not buy because of the print, they didnt want to mess with it. We were also told that the auto and truck books would be going to once a month. That will continue long enough to fullfill the contract with Dominion, then that will go away compeletely.

I don't agree that it makes sense. yahoo has been in financial trouble since they staved off the forcible takeover by Microsoft. I can't imagine that they could raise the funds to make this acquisition happen.

There is another wrinkle with a few of their content providers that an acquisition of atc would cause significant conflicts of interest. Where is "here" where this is such a sure thing?

I LEFT TWO YEARS AGO WHEN COX BOUGHT THIS. I KNEW THIS WAS NOT GOING TO BE GOOD. I LOVED MY JOB TILL THAT POINT. MADE GREAT MONEY. HOPE YOU ALL THE BEST. JOBS ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN RIGHT NOW. OBAMA STARTS HIS NEW JOB TOMORROW, I HOPE HE CAN FIX THE MESS THE COUNTRY IS IN.

all of us here know that the Yahoo deel makes sense,this may have been in the works for a while.

@ the new rumor,

Do you have any credible source for this rumor or are you just stirring the pot? Seems so unlikely to me that you just might be on to something.

SP

The lay-off notices are in and 3,500 are facing an uncertain future. I was one of you four years ago when I quit my Auto Trader job in San Diego to become a partner at ZoomAutos.com. Many people said we were crazy to compete with such an established company as Auto Trader/Auto Mart but we believed the opportunity to create a better magazine and a better internet site was worth the effort. We also believed that it is the people who represent the product that can make the difference between success and failure.

All of us at Zoom are shocked at the decision by our former employer to pull out of print. Maybe Cox management looked at the future of print and saw the glass half empty. My partners see the glass half full and believe there is a bright future when print and the internet are managed and integrated properly.

It is true that it is not easy to go out on your own and it requires hard work and sacrifice but the rewards for those of you who can see the glass half full are great.

All of us at ZoomAutos.com are cheering for each of you to stay positive and wish you success with your next job. For those of you thinking about joining our team, look for the earlier post from my partner, Carmen Cafro and send him an email.

Well said, Dan!

Many former Trader people have started successful magazines. It is HARD, expensive, and not what you expect. But the rewards have been remarkable. My partners and I started a magazine a few years ago in Atlanta. CarSmarts.com has grown because we could respond to the market and we always kept our overhead low. We never took our customers for granted and appreciate the trust they have in us.

It seems like there are a bunch of us in this forum that are now on our own. Either with our own magazines or working for others. AutoTrder/AutoMart was a wonderful place to learn and we are thankful the education.

It was simple....put a lot of magazines into alot of hands and our DEALERS would win. We were blessed with great employees and wonderful (and patient) partners. This latest evolution by Cox is a shock and I wish my friends and former peers the best. Like many folks here, we are going to expand our market and will seek partners and oppotunities for the new markets.

A long time ago, a few people were terminated from great jobs and looked around and decided to start Home Depot. Home Depot was founded because Bernie Marcus and Arthur Blank were fired. The opportunity to do something like that was put together in the ashes of disaster.

We wish the best to the Cox employees that will be given "generous" severance packages and offer them the opportunity to start over.

Good luck everyone.
Dan Fagan d.fagan@carsmarts.com

Having been in print in Atlanta, we watched the debacle of Trader run in circles, but with smart competitor strategies, and a magazine that worked, we had no problem sidestepping that storm. Now, stronger than ever, we have opportunities starting in the OKC and Tulsa market... probably more in the near future. Email me at speacock@cox.net for more info... and good luck You have been granted a fabulous "Get out of Jail FREE" card!

Are there any of the brand names that are not running at this time available for others to use as there own. like dealer auto guide, etc.

Here goes - AutoTrader.com will be purchased by Yahoo - on one condition, kill the print. This announcement will be made in 90 days. Also, Automart and Automart.com name rights have been purchased by JV Rockwell - announcement in 90 days. AutoTrader and TruckTrader will go to a monthly publication and be killed in about 120 days . You will see heavy TV media for ATC during this transition. Coinceidentally you will see a very similar announcement from Dominion over the next week.

Here goes - AutoTrader.com is being purchased by yahoo - on one condition, kill the print. Automart.com and Automart print have been purchased by JV Rockwell and the announcement will be made in 90 days ( they have bought the name rights but can't put another book on the street for 90 days.).AutoTrader and Truck Trader will go to a monthly format in about 4 weeks and will last for 120-160 days - then disappear. Why?? To show more profit to the bottom line and YAHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Please write this down and remember where you read it - 90 days. Coincidentally look for an announcement from Dominion in the next week or so, they are next. If anyone can find out if this is absolutley true please post.

is a short definition of whats happened to my city since June. The so-called Market Manager and Director,where a joke in evryones eyes that they poisioned with their ideas on how to totaly screw up a awesome bissnuess.They drove a good great preforming city into the ground.Shame on you Cox for ever putting these people in power.

Contractor ,its my understanding that you should be given 30 days rembirshment ,due to you via the contract,unless the circ manager finds that you were in breach.You have not been told anything ,and I can speak on behalf of many cites,due to the bs changining daily being feed to us by the so-called management that they are canning at the end of the month anyway.Contractor I would line something up asap.You maybe if you are lucky gonna last till mid Feb. or early March....

This just gets me so mad. Cox has destroyed a perfectly good product and company. It took YEARS to build it up like it was, which required hard work by alot of dedicated people on the local level. Didnt take them long to tear it all down. The way I understand it, Interco is joint owned by Cox and Dominion. Wonder if there will be another lawsuit over that? FYI, we got our books out of the Dallas plant.

So are you interco guys getting severance?

Intercoprint winston-salem nc layed off 19 including myself due to cox crippling interco. What the h... are these people thinking in this time. We were doing more work than we've ever done until the split of trader pub. sad very sad. Everyone needs to network to help each other.

I worked for InterCo in Phx. up until yesterday. We were told that 21 Auto Trader titles were being eliminated. 20 employees and myself were laid off. The Dallas plant is supposed to be laying off 20-25 by the end of the month. There is supposed to be layoffs throughout all the remaining plants. The Chicago plat was shut down completely.

I do not know why they would change automart around, only to shut it down soon after. I guess the same reason not more than a month ago we had several people from home office down getting everyone ready to go "virtual" and work from home, even ordered 2 pallets of these printer/scanners/fax for everyone, then to shut the whole thing down right after. Makes no sense. As for the print reps going to atc, and needing to wake up, Im sure all of them that have gone there have woke up and know what is in store for them. I dont know if they told all of them or not, but our 2 reps here to are going over there would not have got a severance because they were being offered another job. AND, these 2 reps were also told that it was only for 60 days, then after that, they would see if they got to stay or not. They know good and well after 60 days they will be gone.

Every cat/am employee that is with autotrader.com what do you think they are going to do with you when you have turned over as much print revenue as you can? What do you think they are telling the .com reps as you are going into their accounts, do not worry these guys are on a transistion team and all accounts will be passed onto you. Why cant they say what will happen after 90 days? Because then you wouldn't help grow their buisness. WAKE UP PEOPLE

That "Launching a New Identity" video has got to be the most rediculous thing I have ever seen! What a joke for a company like Cox--with cable interests even--to have such a poorly done "ad" It's no wonder things went south!

This was posted on You Tube in November...

Login to view embedded media View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCQ8dZ6n6hY


Auto Mart - launching a new identity. Why would these people spend so much money revising and launching a new look when they knew they were going to close it all down 3 months later? Clueless leaders?