Stover Joins SuperMedia as CMO

SuperMedia announced today that Local Matters CEO Mat Stover will join SuperMedia as its chief marketing officer, effective on March 7. Stover will report to SuperMedia CEO Peter McDonald.

Stover and McDonald go way back, having served together on the Yellow Pages Association board of directors back in the 1990s. One possible rationale for Stover’s selection is he has a stronger digital resume than McDonald, who has a reputation for being more focused on the core print product. Stover may be looked to for a vision on how SuperMedia can compete in the increasingly fragmented and multiproduct local environment.

McDonald and Stover both have a challenge ahead of them in restoring SuperMedia to growth. Its just released earnings showed a 20.3 percent 2010 revenue decline. The secular shift in print is one thing. What may be more troubling is that SuperMedia has also struggled to grow its online revenues in recent years.

SuperMedia’s directory peer Dex One laid out a plan to investors in New York yesterday that it says will get the company back to positive revenue growth by the second half of 2012. If Dex can pull that off, which is far from a sure bet, it will certainly create pressure on SuperMedia to follow suit.

Stover has a long history in Yellow Pages, having run Bell Atlantic Directory Group, which was later folded into what is now SuperMedia, and the independent publisher ypOne. He joined Local Matters as its CEO in January 2009, but has been involved with the company as a director since 2005. Stover also serves as a director of Telmetrics, a leading provider of call measurement solutions to the local search industry.