ComScore Video Metrix announced today that December saw 10 billion online video views -- the largest number to date. There were meanwhile 141 million total unique users to video sites. Google sites led in both categories. This general trend has…
Yellow Pages Group in Canada made another small step toward complete coverage of the Canadian directory market by acquiring the directory business from TBayTel, a leading telecommunications company in Thunder Bay and Northern Ontario. This means YPG will now be…
Local.com, which has previously relied on third-party sales, is going direct in a big way. The company has outsourced contracts for 50 salespeople, up from 10. “We plan to ramp sales staff to several hundred this year,” says CEO Heath…
I liked the 2003-2007 concept of a “local info hub.” The idea was to think beyond the original business boundaries of newspapers (and Yellow Pages). Now that concept has been fancifully enlarged to a “local info and connection utility." The…
Website Pros is taking the name of Web.com, a company it merged with in late September 2007. Company officials say the name change will occur by mid-2008. They note that it reflects the company’s increasingly broad mission, and is easy…
A new national newspaper network has been set up by Gannett, Tribune, New York Times Co. and Hearst Newspapers, representing 37 of the top 40 U.S. markets. The network, Quadrant One, will compete (or extend) McClatchy’s RealCities; the NAA’s National…
When veteran newspaper design consultant Alan Jacobsen called last year to tout his new classified video site, Real People Real Stuff -- “the marriage of Craigslist and YouTube” -- I thought it was kind of fun but didn’t have very good…
Idearc Media announced today that Kathy Harless has been replaced as CEO of the directory publisher by board chairman John Mueller, a former CEO of Cincinnati Bell Yellow Pages and Valor Communications. Harless' departure follows a substantial decline in the…
Andrew Day, CEO of European directory publisher Truvo (formerly World Directories), took the stage with Charles Laughlin yesterday at TKG's one-day local search summit in London. His message can be summed up in one sound byte that was repeated a…
Perry Evans, CEO of Local Matters, took the stage with Neal Polachek today at Local Online Media: London 08, to sift through some of the key issues in the quickly changing local search environment. Evans, as one of the ground-floor…
This morning I noticed something vaguely different about Google. Just like when a friend or significant other changes something like a haircut, and you get an overall sense that something is different but you can't pinpoint it. Finally I saw…
The New York Times' David Pogue writes this morning about some of the outcroppings of new innovation at Microsoft, apparent through the newest version of Office Live for Small Business. The product takes the "Webification" issue to heart by allowing…
Not so many years ago, major Yellow Pages publishers in developed countries reported revenue and earnings growth (or occasionally declines) that were generally very consistent. The advent of serious competition in several markets has had somewhat of an impact on…
AOL and Citysearch announced a deal today wherein Citysearch content will be distributed throughout the AOL network. According to what AOL told us, this will play out in a few different ways. AOL will infuse Citysearch editorial reviews, user reviews,…
This year’s National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco, Feb. 9-12, reflected the tough times that have hit the industry. Themes at the show didn’t go much beyond the convention’s official title: “Focus on Profitability.” But a sub-theme at…
Newspapers increasingly see an opportunity to sell SEO/SEM solutions to local advertisers. Such efforts probably began in earnest last year with members of the Yahoo! consortium using Yahoo!’s platforms. Others have been working with WebVisible and other resellers on a…
On the Yellow Pages Group (Canada) fourth-quarter earnings call today, CEO Marc Tellier was asked whether YPG had any interest in making acquisitions in the United States. The question was prompted by the steep sell-offs last week of Idearc Media, R.H.…
I recently attended the Photo Marketers Association annual convention in Las Vegas. The PMA has been around since 1924 and has extended its reach to address an international mix of sub-verticals including photo retailers, professional photographers, mass merchandisers, professional labs,…
Lately there has been a noticeable rise in the amount of attention and investment paid to online video sites that specialize in generating "how-to" videos. These include: ExpertVillage (acquired by Demand Media last June) VideoJug (received $30M last May) HowCast…
“Free one touch directory assistance” from Google’s free directory assistance service, Goog-411, is being advertised in Office Depot’s newspaper circulars as a main feature on GE Dect 6.0 Digital Cordless Phones. The ad copy spells it out: 1- Use the…
