Andy Sims of Skype shed some light on its new partnership with European Directories in which European Directories sells advertisers in its seven European countries a subscriptions package to deliver calls to that advertiser. Anywhere the advertiser's phone number shows…
In a wide-ranging interview this afternoon at ILM:09, ILM Program Director and conference chair Matt Booth tried several times to pin the Yelp COO, Geoff Donaker to the mat. But the unflappable and diplomatic Donaker just wasn’t going to go…
MySpace and Citysearch today confirmed the launch of MySpace Local, a new local city guide using functionality and feeds from Citysearch, including its taxonomy of categorization, geography structure, search functionality and content. A beta version of the site launches this…
LiveDeal, under new management, has moved away from its roots in Yellow Pages and classifieds, and begun a strategic focus on high-end SMB services. As part of its strategy, the company has been selling off many of its directory-related accounts,…
The Yahoo Newspaper Consortium is seeing new ad dollars coming in, primarily for its behavioral targeted campaigns, which account for 90 percent of its business, per Yahoo VP Lem Lloyd. Lloyd oversees the program for Exec VP Hilary Schneider. (Both…
Clearly, SMB marketing is no longer just about local search and directory listings. While search remains an important piece of the pie, display is emerging in its own right. Marchex, AdReady, Cobalt’s Admission, MediaTraks, Mixpo and Jivox are among those…
One area that is thought to be doing comparatively well in the poor economy is coupons, both in print and online. Valpak, the blue envelope coupon company put on the market by Cox Enterprises last August, reinforced that mind-set today…
BIA, which is Kelsey’s parent company, works closely with radio station groups and other traditional media players in finance, operations and strategy. Mark Fratrik has been watching Google's efforts in radio sales (“Google Audio Ads”) from the inside. In the aftermath of…
Online coupons are getting more attention, and even adding mobile channels. But no single company has really broken through at the local level. They’re largely for national franchises. Longtime Move.com execs Adam Leff and David Bay clearly recognize the challenge,…
IAC Vice President Kara Nortman, speaking at Interactive Local Media 2008, provided both a dose of reality and a glimmer of hope about where media companies in the local marketplace are headed. Nortman’s view of what is working well included sites…
AT&T Advertising Solutions has announced a partnership with Hispanic publisher Seccion Amarilla to sell Hispanic advertising into select Seccion Amarilla directories. "AT&T is always focused on enhancing our directories to best serve our business and residential customers in the diverse…
Spot Runner announced that it is laying off 115 people, or less than 30 percent of its staff. It confirmed that a big chunk of the layoffs are coming from its local sales division, formerly known as Weblistic. Company officials say…
We’re just about ready to go with Interactive Local Media 2008, which is Nov. 19-21 in Santa Clara, in the heart of Silicon Valley. It should be a very important, game-defining event -- and the first one for The Kelsey…
MerchantCircle today announced that it will tap into its base of merchant listings to aide in selling its local marketing services. This comes with the notion that these 630,000 businesses are already entrenched in the community and selling their own…
Neighborhood-level intelligence isn’t always easy to find, for residents, travelers or resettlers. We have neighborhood boundaries, courtesy of the sociologists and mapmakers at Urban Mapping. But other information can be scant. Now we have another view from the real estate…
OK, we’ve got the format(s) and “best and brightest” speaker roster set for Interactive Local Media: Extending Local Channels, which is Nov. 19-21 in Santa Clara, California, next to San Jose. At the top of the list is Angie Hicks,…
Hispanic Yellow Pages of America has ceased operations, according to a notice distributed on Monday via ELINC, a Yellow Pages Association’s electronic newsletter providing updates on the directory industry to the CMR community. Chicago-based HYPA had grown primarily through acquisitions…
Yellow Pages Group of Canada, which is widely considered as one of the best positioned Yellow Pages companies in the world, will continue to focus on manning its sales channel, resisting efforts to rely too heavily on self-serve solutions, according to…
The theme of actively evolving local ad sales forces, touched upon by Charles Laughlin this morning, continued at DMS in a session titled "From Perception to Performance: The Sales Channel Revolution." "Multi-product selling is becoming a means to survival," said…
To kick off DMS, Charles Laughlin, Kelsey Group program director and conference chair, presented a general state of the industry and the main issues it faces. First and foremost on this list is a general move toward evolving the local…
