Yellow Pages

Yell Group just posted solid numbers for the first nine months of its financial year, which ends on March 31. Its U.S. unit, Yellow Book, continues to post double digit gains, even when acquisitions are taken out of the picture.…

Not long after completing its acquisition of Phone Directories' Canadian operations, U.S. buyout firm Hicks Muse is pushing an aggressive expansion into bigger Canadian markets. Next week, Canadian Phone Directories, the Hicks-backed company led by industry veteran Olivier Vincent, will…

AT&T Yellow Pages has contributed to the debate over syndicated research by releasing its own assessment of how it has done so far in its markets measured as part of the ongoing third-party syndicated usage program.AT&T Yellow Pages (formerly SBC)…

Yellow Book announced today that it has acquired Click Forward, a Coral Gables, Florida-based search engine marketing company. Terms were not disclosed. Yellow Book plans to use the assets gained through the acquisition to develop a local search product to…

One of the more controversial issues in the Yellow Pages business is the subject of companion directories. At last year's Directory Driven Commerce event, Joe Walsh spoke adamantly against the increasing number of mini directories and their impact on the…

Swedish search and directory company Eniro has signed an agreement with Woize International to use the U.K.-based firm's technology to offer a click-to-call feature on its online product porfolio. You can read the press release here. Eniro plans to offer…

Recently I found myself "stuck" with some extra tickets for a Coldplay concert in Sacramento. So I did what everyone told me to do — put them up on Craigslist. Not a nibble. At the same time I posted the…

As expected, the merger of R.H. Donnelley Corp. and Dex Media closed today. Dex Media is no more, and RHD is now the third-largest U.S. directory publisher, with combined revenues of roughly US$2.5 billion. You can read more about the…

YellowPages.com has launched its long-awaited advertising campaign to generate awareness and organic traffic. The site is jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth, and the agency handling the campaign, GSD&M in Austin, also does work for AT&T Yellow Pages (formerly SBC).…

It was reported late last week that Verizon has settled the strike by 300 CWA workers in upstate New York. Here is an article with details.

Having just returned from a Yellow Book "summit" with the national ad community, it is fair to say that the national agencies are viewing the company in a new light. The reason? Yellow Book showed significant strength in the first…

It's official. The RHD-Dex Media merger has been approved by shareholders. Here is the release. The deal, which combines two of the top five U.S. incumbent publishers, is expected to formally close at the end of this month. Here is…

This article appeared today in the Guardian Newspaper in the U.K., regarding the ongoing review of the rate cap imposed on Yell in the United Kingdom. The Competition Commission has issued a report indicating it may extend or expand the…

Striking Verizon Information Services workers in upstate New York found an interesting way to express their displeasure at the pace and manner of negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. You can read about it here. The two sides have…

Verizon Information Services was out of the gate quickly with a press release touting its usage share leadership position in Manhattan, Washington, DC, the Bronx and Brooklyn, citing data from the Yellow Pages Market Reporter, a new syndicated usage service…

The Australian is reporting that Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is planning to challenge Sensis' growing position in Australian directories, classifieds and local search with its own "listings" product. The product will be powered by News Corp.'s latest asset, Australian Local…

Back in the not-so-old days, the rule of thumb for a Regional Bell Operating Company was that Yellow Pages accounted for approximately 10 percent of revenues and 20 percent of net profit for the corporation. This meant an RBOC could…

Blogger David Galbraith is being credited as the first to discover that Google is beginning to offer blue "Adballoons" on maps, which for now appears limited to hotels in New York City. One of Galbraith's basic conclusions is that this…

BusinessWeek has an interesting take on the benefits of spin-offs, which is apropos given the likelihood that Verizon will go the spin-off route with its Information Services directory publishing unit. A BusinessWeek study conducted by Dealogic found that " ...the…

Clarke Directory Publishers, an established and well-regarded niche independent publisher operating in Southern California, apparently has decided the time is right to cash in. Yellow Book issued a press release today saying it has acquired Clarke for an undisclosed sum.…