DexOne has made online video a standard element of its Enhanced Pack online advertising bundle as a way to encourage wider adoption of online video, according a release issued today. "Online video advertising has become an increasingly important tool for…
While avoiding predictions of a full recovery, Dave Swanson, CEO, DexOne (formerly known as R.H. Donnelley), said on this week's first-quarter 2010 earnings call that the company does expect the rate of decline in ad sales to improve sequentially throughout…
Less than a month after its peer company Idearc Media emerged from bankruptcy with a new name (SuperMedia) and a new lease on life, R.H. Donnelley has done the same thing. Freshly out of bankruptcy and US$6 billion lighter on…
One day after R.H. Donnelley released its 2008 results showing a sharp drop in ad sales, Idearc followed suit today with annual results that also reflect a very tough Yellow Pages environment in the United States. The big news in…
As debt maturities loom in a tight credit market, the directory publisher R.H. Donnelley announced today that it has retained the financial firm Lazard to "assist in the evaluation of its capital structure, including various balance sheet restructuring alternatives." On a conference…
R.H. Donnelley has flipped the on switch on the new DexKnows.com Internet Yellow Pages platform. We wrote extensively about this new platform while it was in beta, in a blog post as well as an Advisory from The Kelsey Report.…
In a significant move, AT&T Interactive and Idearc Media announced today that they will extend each other's reach by allowing business profiles on one site to be distributed on the other. Here is a quote from the press release: "Cross…
The movement to compel Yellow Pages publishers to make it easy for consumers to opt out of receiving telephone books and punish unwelcome distribution gained some momentum last week with legislation introduced in Minnesota and the city of Albany, New…
R.H. Donnelley has recently opened up the beta version of its new DexKnows IYP platform (the new search box is above right), known internally as DK2, which TKG previewed last week with Brian Barnum, president of RHDi, and Jeff Porter,…
Here is a collection of newsworthy Yellow Pages and directional media items that I've noted over the past week or so. Got this press release in my inbox from Yell Group this morning, showing some creativity in linking the print…
Dex announced today that it is packaging its local search functionality into a series of widgets. This will allow users to plant mini search boxes in different places where they might prefer to do local searches, other than the IYP…
The development of verticals is an obvious growth strategy for newspapers, Yellow Pages, search engines and as standalones. The Kelsey Group projects that verticals and classifieds will make up 25 percent of interactive local revenues by 2012. But nothing happens…
R.H. Donnelley posted its first-half results today. While ad sales are clearly trending negative, the company was able to report modest revenue and EBITDA growth. Ad sales, however, are the best indicator of how the business is performing. The following…
The headlines from this week’s edition: GE: The Heat on Immelt Google: Weathering the Storm? The Future of Fannie and Freddie Anheuser-Busch’s Troubled Brew This wedding tradition of something old and something new is appropriate for BusinessWeek’s leading online stories…
Today R.H. Donnelley unveiled a new local feature called City Pages within its DexKnows.com Internet Yellow Pages site. The aim of these landing pages is to aggregate listings and consumer reviews for local businesses in key metros. A prominent feature of…
R.H. Donnelley announced today that President and COO Peter McDonald, a 35-year industry veteran, will retire in September. The company also announced that George Bednarz, its current senior vice president for enterprise operations, will take on the new role of executive vice…
Like Idearc Media earlier this week, R.H. Donnelley received a boost in its share price today after unveiling first-quarter results that showed market conditions are about as bad as expected, but not any worse. The company also unveiled a refinancing plan that…
Citing data from the latest Industry Usage Study, the Yellow Pages Association is trying to overcome some of the myths and misperceptions about who uses print Yellow Pages, how often and why. In a press release issued today, the YPA…
The leadership of the Yellow Pages Association came out swinging against its growing number of critics and doubters at yesterday's kickoff of the group's annual conference in Las Vegas. Chairman Dave Swanson (also CEO of R.H. Donnelley) gave a passionate…
Since our founding, The Kelsey Group has been committed to delivering our unvarnished view of the dynamics of the ever changing and evolving local advertising market. We have been criticized by some in traditional media who suggested we have overstated…