TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap

Here is the highlight reel from the last week in TKG Blogging. Click below to read each post in full.

Kill the Innovators: San Diego U-T Lays Off Online Leaders
These are tough, fast-changing times for newspapers, and many of them are taking severe measures to get back on track. Sometimes, it means putting the innovative online guy in charge of print too, as Bay Area News Group has done with online advertising head David Prizer. But sometimes, it means consolidating power under the old print hands that believe they need to “own” the online efforts because that is where the action is. (read more…)

Truvo Goes Mobile in Belgium
European Directory Publisher Truvo (formerly World Directories) has extended its mobile search product to the Belgian market. The product utilizes mobilePeople’s Java-based Liquid Maps platform, which powers several mobile search platforms being rolled out by directory publishers in Europe. (read more…)

Yell Launches Media Portal
U.K. directory publisher Yell has launched a new Web site designed to help agencies and media buyers evaluate its multichannel products. Yell additionally has dedicated a team of specialists to work directly with agencies. Large accounts are widely viewed as a channeling segment for Yellow Pages publishers, and more tools and resources need to be devoted to this segment to make a better case that the full suite of directory products offers good value to large, national accounts. (read more…)

AdBrite Teams Up With Live Nation
Ad network AdBrite has announced it will power a new ad management dashboard for concert promoter Live Nation. The eFan Finder application is an extension of the existing relationship between the companies that placed geotargeted event ads throughout AdBrite’s network of 50,000 sites. This now brings campaign management and reporting down to the band manager level. (read more…)

AgendiZe Powers Local Video
AgendiZe announced today from the EADP conference in Spain that it will partner with Videoagency to power its video ads with call to action features. This brings AgendiZe’s signature click-to-call and save and share features (profiled in a past post) to video for the first time. (read more…)

MojoPages Claims Traction; Announces Deals With Key Players
Despite some traction by sites like Yelp — OK, specifically Yelp — the hybrid IYP/rating-and-review segment remains something of a question mark in the industry. It remains to be seen whether such sites can attract a large number of frequent reviewers and users — and not just recent college grads and/or mothers. It also remains to be seen whether they can cross the chasm out of restaurants and bars into the gold mine of services traditionally mined by Yellow Pages. (read more…)

Selling SEM to SMBs: Service Must Come With Sale
Elizabeth Gage of PCM International posted a well thought out blog on the challenges small and medium-sized businesses face when purchasing search engine marketing campaigns, either on their own or through Yellow Page publishers. After reading her thoughts on the subject, I couldn’t help but realize that the focus of current SEM efforts has been on getting the appointment and making the sale. Gage’s post, however, highlights the challenges after the sale is made. (read more…)

Spot Runner Raises $51 million
Online video production company Spot Runner announced today that it has received $51 million from Legg Mason, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), Grupo Televisa, and Groupe Arnault/LVMH. The company will use the funding to continue growing its capacity to deliver video advertising, both online and off. These investments are also strategic in nature, involving a collaboration of international media assets with Spot Runner’s video production platform. (read more…)

Idearc Gets Boost From Q1 Results
At this writing, Idearc Media‘s stock was trading higher (up about 28 percent at noon Eastern) after an earnings announcement that shows the company has managed its costs well enough to grow EBITDA, while its revenues continued to slide. (read more…)

New Look, New Campaign From Yellowbook
Yellowbook has unveiled a new television ad campaign, replacing the kinda cheesy Kung Fu ads (sorry, David Carradine, you did what you could) with a much slicker campaign that focuses on promoting use of Yellowbook’s online directory (which is also sporting a new look and feel, modeled closely after its sister IYP Yell.com). (read more…)