What's in a Name?

In the past, RHD has described itself as €œa leading Yellow Pages publisher and directional media company.€ That was the term used in the press release for both Dex and RHD. However, the current earnings announcement describes RHD as €œa leading Yellow Pages publisher and local online search company.€

Curious about this change, I called COO Peter McDonald to ask him if it was deliberate and if it reflected a new emphasis by the company on online services. Peter emphasized that revenues are growing in RHD's markets without Internet revenue included. But he said RHD execs changed the descriptor because they wanted to €œget the message out that we are in the online business.€ He said that €œlocal online search€ is more relevant to what RHD does, and it is something both advertisers and consumers clearly understand.

McDonald did state emphatically that RHD expects to continue to grow the core business but that online clearly represented a future opportunity.