Author: Peter Krasilovsky

In case you haven’t seen any of the materials, The Kelsey Group’s new parent company, BIA, is launching Winning Media Strategies, its first full-fledged conference. The developer of the conference is BIA’s Rick Ducey, who previously was head of research…

Every time we turn around another local-oriented Web site says it's targeting rural and exurban audiences. So far, we’ve got Center’d, Topix, MerchantCircle, WeddingMapper.com and others zeroing on the rurals (are we missing any?). All these sites are drawn by…

Best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, the man behind top business tomes such as "The Tipping Point," "Blink" and now "Outliers," spoke today at the Yellow Pages Association conference in San Diego, suggesting that Yellow Pages publishers' advantage over Google and others…

National Yellow Pages advertisers appearing on a YPA conference panel moderated by The Kelsey Group’s Charles Laughlin reiterated the importance of Yellow Pages to their businesses. While they were open-minded about experimenting with new types of directional advertising, including Yelp,…

Arguing that local and state “opt-out” requirements for Yellow Pages delivery would cripple local businesses and force industry layoffs, the Yellow Pages Association has successfully fought and beat back opt-out requirements this year in some states, reports YPA President Neg…

Keynoting at the Yellow Pages Association Convention in San Diego today, R.H. Donnelley CEO Dave Swanson acknowledged “the worst local media environment this country has seen since the Great Depression.” But the YPA’s outgoing chairman also noted that “the will…

Clickable, a third-party online search manager, says local search packages are too heavily marked up, with too little emphasis on conversions. It is re-aiming to fix these problems with a “highly scalable” local solution for publishers and resellers. The "Clickable…

Fresh from the annual convention of the National Association of Broadcasters, it is clear that local TV stations should continue to extend their advertising and programming on -- and for -- new media platforms, including the Internet, cable and mobile…

Cox’s AutoTrader.com, which reaches 15 million unique visitors per month, bills itself as the Google of auto search. For the most part, the visitors come from the URL, plus various affiliate relationships. But now it is reaching out to potential…

Citysearch’s strategy of winning wider distribution for its user reviews, editorial content and business profiles, “and living wherever consumers want to be” has becoming closer to reality as it has announced back-to-back partnerships with Idearc's Superpages.com and AT&T Interactive's Yellowpages.com.…

American University’s J-Lab, which is funded by The Knight Foundation, has announced new grants for eight hyperlocal sites as part of its New Voices competition. All of the sites are focused on geographic communities, with many of them appearing to…

ReachLocal has launched ReachLocal XChange, a local business ad exchange, with Fox Audience Network, Ask Sponsored Listings and others. By doing so, the company moves beyond its initial reliance on search packages to small businesses.The introduction of an ad exchange…

Intuit has purchased BooRah, a rating and review site, and will add its functionality to the Intuit small business platform, which has also incorporated the old StepUp e-commerce site and Homestead Web site construction services. The companies aren’t talking much…

Apartments are in the vanguard among online marketplace verticals, as more apartment owners take advantage of Web and mobile features to target prospects -- especially younger prospects. Indeed, apartment owners are increasingly leveraging video to show off floor plans and…