If I Can Just Put on My Sneakers
At Princeton's Fourth of July fireworks last night, I got into a discussion with a friend who is concerned about his son who works as a journalist for a small N.J. newspaper. I referred him to a "tell it like it is"…
Merrill Brown and the Internet: Still the Visionary
"Extraordinary change means extraordinary opportunity," Merrill Brown, founder and principal of MMB Media, told the audience at last month's Drilling Down on Local conference. Few people are more knowledgeable about the impact of new technologies on society than Brown. Before…
Driving Relevant Content to Targeted Consumers
There is a tendency for speakers at a large conference to want to sell (they would say "educate") the audience about their companies' products and services. I know I'm guilty of it. Nevertheless, it is refreshing when a person making a presentation…
Positive Evidence for Yellow Pages PR
The communications plan outlined by Neg Norton at the YPA convention last week is already paying dividends. Like most people in our industry, I have a Google Alert for the term “Yellow Pages.” The April 16 summary edition is shown…
New Tools, New World
Earlier this week, my colleague Charles Laughlin posted an entry about the beginning of the YPA annual conference titled "YP Industry Pledges Counteroffensive." That headline pretty much captures what was an upbeat event that attracted 600 attendees. As YPA President…
PagesJaunes se Porte Très Bien, Merci
One of the most significant announcements in the past year about the Yellow Pages business was made by PagesJaunes. In order to get in front of the faster migration from print to online that is occurring in France's major cities,…
The Power of Public Relations for Yellow Pages
As I noted in a blog about The Kelsey Group's Local Online Media event in London last week, analysts, speakers and the audience were positively upbeat about the Yellow Pages business. The feeling by all was that the stock market…
Can Print Yellow Pages Publishers Turn Digital?
Nearly 100 executives in The Kelsey Group community participated in a half-day session that we hosted in London titled Local Online Media. The panel I moderated was "The Financial Future of Directories and Local Search in Europe." The panelists were…
The Innovators’ Dilemma Redux
Not so many years ago, major Yellow Pages publishers in developed countries reported revenue and earnings growth (or occasionally declines) that were generally very consistent. The advent of serious competition in several markets has had somewhat of an impact on…
Fresh Produce or Google?
Quick, what industry gets the highest customer service quality ratings from U.S. adult consumers, according to an August 2007 Harris Interactive poll? No. 1 is supermarkets with 92 percent giving them a good rating, No. 2 is online search engines (84…
The Battle for IYP Market Share
A year ago, my colleagues Neal Polachek and Charles Laughlin predicted that Internet Yellow Pages as a percentage of total U.S. Yellow Pages revenues would climb from about 6 percent in 2006 to 24 percent in 2011. While the base is higher in most…
Reading the Tea Leaves
Since at least 1997, when we gave a presentation at the YPA annual conference titled "Six Trends that Will Change the Yellow Pages Industry," we have been making forecasts and predictions about our market coverage areas. Tomorrow the program directors…
A Holiday Wish
One of the many reasons the Internet has bloomed in the U.S. is that the administration, under the leadership of Ira Magaziner, former head of U.S. Internet policy, allowed the World Wide Web to grow without putting unnecessary restrictions on…
Independent Local Media: It’s All About Blocking and Tackling
Jonathan Weber started his career in traditional media as a writer and editor at the Los Angeles Times, but the new media bug got hold of him. He was the cofounder and editor in chief of the Industry Standard, which…
Independent Local Media: It's All About Blocking and Tackling
Jonathan Weber started his career in traditional media as a writer and editor at the Los Angeles Times, but the new media bug got hold of him. He was the cofounder and editor in chief of the Industry Standard, which…
It All Comes Down to the Culture
Executive Interview: The Leading Edge: Auto Advertising in Transition had very much the same ring to it as yesterday's session on real estate in transition. At The Kelsey Group's ILM:07 event, the final panel each day was on two of…
NCI: ‘We Can Work With Zillow’
Those were the words of a Network Communications Inc. CEO Daniel McCarthy as he announced that "we will have a deal with Zillow in the next 14 days." McCarthy made this statement during an executive interview, The Leading Edge: Real…
NCI: 'We Can Work With Zillow'
Those were the words of a Network Communications Inc. CEO Daniel McCarthy as he announced that "we will have a deal with Zillow in the next 14 days." McCarthy made this statement during an executive interview, The Leading Edge: Real…
Yellow Pages: More Than Just ‘Get An Idea’
The circulation at the nation's largest newspapers dropped again over the past six months by an average of 2.6 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America. To try to fight the perception that newspapers are of less interest or…
Yellow Pages: More Than Just 'Get An Idea'
The circulation at the nation's largest newspapers dropped again over the past six months by an average of 2.6 percent, according to the Newspaper Association of America. To try to fight the perception that newspapers are of less interest or…