For the past few years, the U.S. Yellow Pages industry has been playing a nationwide version of the arcade game "whack a mole" -- beating down one opt-in or opt-out legislative initiative after another with a metaphoric sledgehammer. For the…
Today brings two meaningful announcements in the answers space from SuperMedia and MerchantCircle. Answers is an area that seems to be getting more attention as a way for local merchants to differentiate themselves online and for local online media sites…
Directory publisher SuperMedia has appointed Sandra Crawford Williamson as the company's new EVP and chief marketing officer. She recently ran her own brand and sales strategy consultancy, and previously was COO of True.com, a relationship site. She has also had…
AT&T has unveiled a new version of its Yellowpages.com online directory, complete with a new name (YP.com); a new algorithmic approach to search; updated maps; and a set of vertical integrations with leading partners in cars, hotels, events and movies.…
The French directory publisher PagesJaunes has made a significant move by acquiring 100 percent of the Austrian people search site 123People, which has a global audience of more than 40 million unique visitors in 11 countries, according to the PagesJaunes…
Quietly, SuperMedia is rolling out a new approach to online search. If you look on Switchboard.com today, you'll notice that search results are presented differently from before. Now, Switchboard's top results based on relevancy are plotted on a map (this…
Leaders of the U.S. independent directory publishing industry were passionate in their defense of print media at this morning's opening session of the Association of Directory Publishers meeting outside Houston, Texas. Jim Hail, the outgoing chair and head of Idaho-based…
I finally got around to viewing Yellowbook CEO Joe Walsh's recent appearance on FoxBusinessNetwork. The line of questioning presumed the obsolescence of print, which Walsh certainly anticipated. He made a few assertions that one might expect -- that people still…
It's nearing the end of earnings season for the global Yellow Pages industry, and my program, The Kelsey Report, will soon issue a detailed roundup of 2009 results across all the companies that report publicly. In general, the news has…
On Thursday's earnings call, DexOne (ex-R.H. Donnelley) leaders cautiously projected that the rate of decline in ad sales would improve in 2010, from being down 20 percent in 2009 to down between 12 percent and 15 percent this year. The…
Philadelphia-based 7Mainstreet cofounder Andy Leff got the idea for his company about four years ago while driving to the grocery store. "I was listening to something on the radio about the success MySpace was having with helping rock bands promote…
We've been listening to earnings webcasts for the major global directory publishers over the past days, trying to pick up any clues for how publishers see 2010 developing. Most publishers have shortened their guidance horizon or have stopped giving it…
SuperMedia has announced a new program that extends its SuperGuarantee idea into the autos vertical. The SuperGuarantee Autos program gives anyone who buys a car on SuperMedia's EveryCarListed.com automotive vertical a free limited powertrain warranty good for up to $3,000.…
Last week the Australian directory publisher Sensis released its half-year financial results, ended Dec. 31, 2009, which showed pretty strong resilience but nonetheless a meaningful decline in print revenues. For the half-year period, combined print and online Yellow Pages results…
Following a significant court decision, Yellow and White Pages content is not entitled to copyright protection in Australia. Assuming the case is upheld, any entity can legally copy the content from a Sensis directory, even to build a competitive local…
Canpages, the leading competitive directory publisher in Canada, appears to be making a play for the CanWest media properties, which would greatly expand and diversify Canpages' operations. According to a story this week in the Globe and Mail, Canpages is…
Yell, the U.K.'s largest directory publisher, announced today that it will move 100 percent of its print directories onto a compact print format by the end of June this year. Yell bills the announcement as the "biggest design revamp for…
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…
AT&T released its full-year 2009 earnings today, and its Advertising Solutions unit, which includes print Yellow Pages and Yellowpages.com, posted total revenues of US$4.8 billion, a 12.6 percent decline. AT&T online directories unit Yellowpages.com grew 12.7 percent in Q4, compared…
Here’s a question: How long would directory publishers sit back and let new companies such as RedBeacon, AlikeList and others disrupt the leads economy for SMBs with search and socially driven features such as Twitter and Facebook? Or Google, with…