The Future of Yellow Pages
What do the largest Yellow Pages company in the world and an independent privately held directory business have in common? Quite a lot it seems. In seeking a way to convey the thinking of the keynote speakers at our upcoming conference on the Future of Yellow Pages (DDC2006, Sept. 18-20 in Los Angeles), I interviewed each of them over the past few weeks. You can hear the five-to-seven minute discussions on podcasts that have been set up on our Web site. Just go to this link and click on Listen Now.
Most recently I spoke with Denny Payne, president and CEO of AT&T Directory Operations, and Sieg Fischer, who holds the same titles at Valley Yellow Pages. Today AT&TDO is about 20 times the size of Valley, and that is before BAPCO is integrated into the AT&T business. However, the podcasts make it clear that both leaders are focusing on what the customers want. As Sieg told us, Valley is "dedicated to producing a quality product at a reasonable price." Denny's goal is to provide the highest quality print and online products that will meet his customers' needs.
The following is an advertisement. Besides the five keynoters, there will be 40 other speakers from across the industry participating in 19 sessions. There are still rooms at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza at the conference rate. Join more than 400 industry leaders from every major Yellow Pages publisher and industry supplier in the best networking opportunity of the year.
Great interviews but the sound quality could be a little better.
Thanks for the feedback. We agree about the sound quality and have learned a valuable lesson in podcasting. Being that this is our first attempt at this, there were many things to learn. The greatest of which was that we should record calls on a bridge line where each participant can be heard equally from the perspective of the person recording the call who happens to be one of the people on the call. These podcasts by comparison were recorded by a third party in a 3 way call that was initiated by the interviewer. So the interviewee’s voice was faint in many cases from the perspective of the third party (person recording). We’ve learned our lesson and will strive to hone in on quality standards in subsequent podcasts. Look forward to seeing (hearing) more in advance of our November ILM conference.
Thanks again for the comment.