After 82 years of continuous print publication, the iconic Trade-A-Plane will cease the print issue in December and convert entirely to a digital format. As digital competition has eroded Trade-A-Plane’s dominant position in aviation classified and display advertising, the print version was no longer viable, a spokesperson for the Cosby Harrison company told AVweb last week.
In addition to Trade-A-Plane, two other advertising publications the company owns in the construction field, Rock & Dirt and Tradequip, will also cease print in favor of digital formats. For many years, Trade-A-Plane was printed three times a month at the company’s Crossville, Tennessee, headquarters. But for at least the last two years, the spokesperson told AVweb, the printing has been done offsite.
As explained in this AVweb feature article, a fire in 2013 darkened the press room for several weeks, but the company resumed printing until it became no longer economical to do so. Increasingly, Cosby Harrison has been concentrating on digital advertising, giving both buyers and sellers more rapid information delivery and flexibility. It also owns the popular WeatherTAP online weather service.
Trade-A-Plane was famously launched in 1937 by Cosby Harrison after he crashed a Laird Swallow and found no ready sources to buy repair parts. It began as a simple broadsheet newspaper with just classified ads and no editorial. Some years later, it evolved into the familiar tabloid format.
The last print issues will be delivered in December, with the full digital transition completed for January 2020 advertising.
I will really miss Trade-a-Plane print. It has been my dream sheet for 50 years. I still have many advertisers clipped from the “Yellow Sheet” I use when my little swift needs a part or service. Maybe we will have memorial ceremony at our little non-towered airport if we can a December issue!
There is now going to be a worldwide surplus of yellow paper.