Global Yellow Pages Blog
The U.S. Yellow Pages industry is set to see its first batch of syndicated usage data in a number of years. Later this month, according to a press release issued today by SRI/Knowledge Networks, 2005 usage data for 45 U.S.…
Spoke yesterday with Robert Rath at Sensis about a range of issues. One was to learn more about Platefood, a London-based joint venture that is majority owned by Sensis. The other partners are Norway-based Fast Search & Transfer and Schibsted,…
Had a discussion this morning with Marc Tellier at Yellow Pages Group about his company's acquisition of Trader Media Group, a Canadian classifieds publisher. We will cover the whole idea of directories and classifieds in greater detail within the TKR…
Last week Yell Group conducted a detailed investor presentation in which it revealed for the first time online revenues for Yellow Book, its U.S. subsidiary. We will cover the details of the presentation within the TKR program, but here are…
In a transaction unlikely to alter the delicate balance of power in the global Yellow Pages industry, Swedish publisher Eniro announced earlier this week that it has sold its 75 percent stake in Belarus directory publisher JV Eniro Belfakta, for…
Telecom Directories (New Zealand) is showing more aggressiveness in business development under its new leadership (GM Dudley Enoka). We recently noted in Local Media Journal that Telecom Directories has acquired a company that publishes a retirement guide for Kiwis over…
Just got around to reading this item on the Motley Fool. It offers a bullish take on Yellow Pages, which contrasts with a lot of recent coverage in the wake of the Verizon IS sale announcement. Much of the coverage…
When a company as large as Verizon decides to shed its directory business, a reliable source of cash for so many years, questions inevitably arise over what such a move says about the future of Yellow Pages. I've been scanning…
This from an article yesterday in a Norwegian newspaper: Cornel Riklin, who has been CEO of the Norwegian directory publisher Findexa for the past 11 months, is leaving his post now that the company is part of Eniro AB, which…
As noted in Greg's post, last night, Verizon Corp. posted an announcement on its Web site that it is "reviewing strategic alternatives for the domestic operations of the company's wholly owned directories publishing business, Verizon Information Services." You can review…
An interesting story just appeared on Bloomberg that reports Australian publisher Sensis, a unit of telecom Telstra, will be spared from a massive job-cutting program because it represents a critical component of Telstra's growth plans. Telstra CEO Sol Trujillo has…
The Canadian Finance Minster issued a ruling yesterday on the taxation of income trusts that has left Yellow Pages Group President and CEO Marc Tellier breathing a sigh of relief. The government decided to reduce the tax on dividend income,…
It's nothing new to observe that big markets are disproportionately important to Yellow Pages publishers and that they are often the most in distress. The recent spate of nine-month conference calls among European directory publishers has reinforced this point and…
Interesting Q&A with SBC CFO Richard Linder in the latest issue of BusinessWeek. He discusses the possibilities for selling advertising on IPTV using the directory sales force. It's an indication of the strategic importance SBC is placing on its Yellow…
Here is one item of interest from our notes of Dex Media's recent third-quarter earnings conference call. Dex President and CEO George Burnett was asked how the publisher planned to monetize the traffic it is buying for its Dex Online…
The Spanish publisher Telef³nica Publicidad e Informaci³n (TPI) has expanded its presence in South America with the acquisition of Telinver, Argentina's largest directory publisher. The enterprise value of the deal was US$74 million. TPI already owns the market leaders in…
Canada's Yellow Pages Group is working with magazine publisher Transcontinental Media to publish home improvement guides that combine magzine-like editorial with directory information. YPG's Ezana Raswork talked about this initiative at our recent DDC2005 conference. Transcontinental will provide the content…
Here are some interesting items we've come across in the European search and directory world:* Eniro has announced a partnership with Internet telephony player Skype to include Skype addresses in Eniro's online database of names and numbers. Skype is launching…
Interesting article in USA Today yesterday on BellSouth and its reluctance to jump into the M&A game as aggressively as SBC and others have. The article recounts how, after the wireless company Cingular acquired AT&T's wireless business, SBC CEO Ed…
The French directory publisher PagesJaunes issued its third-quarter and year-to-date figures today. The highlights include a 3.1 percent print growth rate in France through the first nine months of 2005 and a 13.5 percent online growth rate for the same…
