Keep It Simple When Selling SEM
I read with interest a recent blog post on the Utah Web Services site that really hit home with me on how SEM and SEO are being sold and how they should be sold. SEM and SEO are inherently technical…
More From Seat on Future Strategy
More detail has come out on Seat Pagine Gialle’s proposed sale of its foreign properties. The goal, according to an interview with Reuters, is “to shift its attention back to Italy to mine a boom in Internet use in the…
Yell Cites Tough Times in Dividend Cut
Yell Group announced results today that showed all its operating groups generated top-line growth in its 2007-08 financial year (ended March 31), with almost all the growth coming from the Internet. The company emphasized that it hit its EBITDA guidance for…
Local Matters Lands European Directories
Denver-based Local Matters announced a major deal with European Directories "whereby Local Matters will develop and enhance the online white and yellow pages websites across European Directories’ 8-country publishing operations," according to the press release issued today. European Directories is a…
Thomson Directories for Sale in U.K.
Thomson Directories owner Seat Pagine Gialle has put the U.K. directory publishing group up for sale, according to an article in the Times Online. According to the article: “Thomson, which has been hit by competition from the web and reduced…
Truvo Goes Mobile in Belgium
European Directory Publisher Truvo (formerly World Directories) has extended its mobile search product to the Belgian market. The product utilizes mobilePeople's Java-based Liquid Maps platform, which powers several mobile search platforms being rolled out by directory publishers in Europe. The…
Selling SEM to SMBs: Service Must Come With Sale
Elizabeth Gage of PCM International posted a well thought out blog on the challenges small and medium-sized businesses face when purchasing search engine marketing campaigns, either on their own or through Yellow Page publishers. After reading her thoughts on the…
Yellow Pages Today (Part 2): Selling White Pages
The Yellow Pages Today April workshop featured a divergent view of how best to sell the White Page product line. While some differences exist, due in part to the products offered in the core White Pages product such as those…
Yellow Pages Today Focuses on White Pages (Part 1)
The focus of the Yellow Pages Today April workshop was on White Pages with the underlying theme of how the product can survive and the regulatory environment that will either help or hinder its growth or decline. The opening session…
Does the Economy Hold a Silver Lining for Yellow Pages?
I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the Easter holiday talking with friends and family about the economy and how they are dealing with the budget crunch we are all experiencing. One of the common threads of all these…
Interinfo Yellow Pages Holdings Sold
Norwegian-owned Interinfo was purchased by BaltCap, the leading private equity investor in the Baltic states. Interinfo represented the last directory holding of Texas Pacific Group, previous owners of Norway’s Findexa, now owned by Eniro. Terms of the deal were not…
Yellow Pages – It’s About Leads
It was interesting to see the Yellow Pages Association release its usage data showing print usage was stable at 13.4 billion and IYP usage had increased to 3.8 billion in 2007. While the overall usage figure is a 3 percent…
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…
More Retailers Lack Brick-and-Mortar Locations
According to a recent Direct Marketing Association survey, “The absence of a brick-and-mortar store is becoming prevalent among retailers, since 41 percent of survey respondents don't have a physical store.” This is quite a surprising finding and certainly has significant ramifications…
More Web 2.0 Ideas for Local Search Sites
OK, so I’m on a Web 2.0 kick. I guess I’ve made it my New Year’s resolution to get more publishers and local search companies thinking about the broader meaning and business opportunities Web 2.0 presents beyond consumer reviews and…
Linkedin as New Age Yellow Pages
Linkedin has become a valuable resource for connecting business professionals. Recently Linkedin has added a professional services feature that allows members to share their business contacts in specific service categories. The new “Services” tab allows users to find people via…
PagesJaunes Takes Huge Online Risk
Pagesjaunes France has announced it will take a dramatic pricing approach in its largest urban markets where it will cut print costs by 20 percent while raising online costs on average by 50 percent. The goal of the pricing program…
Shopping With Yellow Pages
'Tis the season for shopping and at times endless aggravation finding stores that actually have the items you want in stock. I’m all about anything that can help ease the stress of the shopping experience. And one thing I rediscovered…
Day: Consolidation Best for Dutch Market
My colleague Michael Taylor and I spent part of this week in London, making the rounds among some of the key players in global directories based in that wonderful and surpassingly expensive city (sorry, kids, no souvenirs). One of our…