The Nordic directory publisher Eniro announced somewhat disappointing results for the first quarter, with weaker than expected print results not fully offset by online revenues. Eniro President and CEO Tomas Franzén noted that the first quarter is seasonally weak for its online…
Truvo announced today that CEO Andrew Day will step down June 1 and assume the role of chairman, allowing current Truvo Belgium Managing Director Donat Retif to take over as CEO. Retif has been with Truvo since 2005. He previously served…
The Yellow Pages Today April workshop featured a divergent view of how best to sell the White Page product line. While some differences exist, due in part to the products offered in the core White Pages product such as those…
The focus of the Yellow Pages Today April workshop was on White Pages with the underlying theme of how the product can survive and the regulatory environment that will either help or hinder its growth or decline. The opening session…
One of the most significant announcements in the past year about the Yellow Pages business was made by PagesJaunes. In order to get in front of the faster migration from print to online that is occurring in France's major cities,…
I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the Easter holiday talking with friends and family about the economy and how they are dealing with the budget crunch we are all experiencing. One of the common threads of all these…
Local Matters has announced a new publisher platform called Guidespot. The company works with a global who's-who list of publishers to power their IYPs and online sites. This move extends its capability include community and UGC-driven local guides. This comes…
S&MM online columnist Robert Grede shared some interesting insights in a recent article on how local advertisers can survive in a down economy and what local media sales reps should be communicating to their advertisers and prospects. While many of…
U.K. directory publisher Yell has launched a new syndication product called netReach, which serves search contextually relevant results from Yell.com onto a network of syndication partners. The product is launching with a half-dozen partner sites, including the Manchester Evening News, Multimap…
Sensis, Australia's largest directory publisher, recently released first-half results from its 2007-2008 financial year (ending June 30), which show solid growth of its print products. White Pages in particular grew 9.9 percent in the first half, an improvement over its 8.1…
Yellow Pages Group in Canada made another small step toward complete coverage of the Canadian directory market by acquiring the directory business from TBayTel, a leading telecommunications company in Thunder Bay and Northern Ontario. This means YPG will now be…
Idearc Media announced today that Kathy Harless has been replaced as CEO of the directory publisher by board chairman John Mueller, a former CEO of Cincinnati Bell Yellow Pages and Valor Communications. Harless' departure follows a substantial decline in the…
On the Yellow Pages Group (Canada) fourth-quarter earnings call today, CEO Marc Tellier was asked whether YPG had any interest in making acquisitions in the United States. The question was prompted by the steep sell-offs last week of Idearc Media, R.H.…
Thursday was a very rough day for publicly traded directory companies. With Idearc and Yell announcing results that show more weakness in print directories, the two companies' shares moved sharply downward. As of this writing Thursday afternoon, Idearc shares had lost…
After writing about the cautious progress of publishers adopting Web 2.0 tools and approaches, I came across the introduction of a "wiki" approach to directories recently launched in the U.K. called Brownbook. Officially launched this week, Brownbook describes itself as…
Local Insight Regatta Holdings and AT&T announced the acquisition of L.M. Berry's Independent Line of Business unit. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. According to the press release: The transaction will combine two industry-leading organizations responsible for selling, producing…
European Directory Assistance has launched a new English-language directory assistance site in Belgium called 14-14, which offers residential and business search, with the latter available by name and category. Part of the new service's positioning is that during business hours, consumers…
I read with interest a recent post by Jennifer Osborne on Search Engine People regarding how Millennials fundamentally search for products and services differently as compared with those 30 years old and older. One of the fundamental differences Osborne points out: Millennial Brains…
According to a recent Direct Marketing Association survey, “The absence of a brick-and-mortar store is becoming prevalent among retailers, since 41 percent of survey respondents don't have a physical store.” This is quite a surprising finding and certainly has significant ramifications…
Yellow Pages Group Canada has signed an agreement with Copernic, owners of Mamma.com, to supply local Canadian advertiser listings to the mamma.com search engine. According to the press release from Copernic, "The agreement means local search queries will be served…
