Yellow Media Scales Back On Canpages

Yellow Media is cutting jobs in its Canpages print directories division but says it will keep its Canpages online business.

“From an online and mobile perspective, the Canpages brand will continue to exist,” said Yellow Pages Group Treasurer Anne-Sophie Roy. Roy gave no word on how many jobs would be lost or which Canpages city directories would be cut.

Yellow Media bought Vancouver-based Canpages in 2010 for $225 million. At that time, the Canpages website had 3.5 million uniques. Yellow Media’s strategy post-acquisition was to operate Canpages as a separate business, as Canpages also had its own print directories. Both companies had their own different scope and price points.

Shares in the Montreal-based company dipped more than 10 percent in morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange after rumors of the news broke out. Canpages publishes directories in Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Alberta, Yukon and the Northwest Territories. It also owns and operates Canpages.ca.

Increased digital offerings are springing up to offset the sting from print advertising revenues that dropped at 13 percent in Q3 2011. Also in Q3, Yellow Media logged a $2.9 billion writedown to the value of its business. The company stopped paying dividends last year to improve its financial position. Although it may be stripping jobs among the Canpages print division, Yellow Media advertised on Twitter and LinkedIn that it’s hiring for Mediative, its digital marketing agency. Some Canpages employees are receiving employment offers at Yellow Pages Group in areas where there is no duplication.

Last year Yellow Media sold Trader Corp., home of AutoTrader magazine, to London-based private equity firm Apax Partners for $745 million to help reduce its debt. Yellow Media will release its Q4 2011 results next week.