One day after R.H. Donnelley released its 2008 results showing a sharp drop in ad sales, Idearc followed suit today with annual results that also reflect a very tough Yellow Pages environment in the United States. The big news in…
As debt maturities loom in a tight credit market, the directory publisher R.H. Donnelley announced today that it has retained the financial firm Lazard to "assist in the evaluation of its capital structure, including various balance sheet restructuring alternatives." On a conference…
Simmons Market Research Bureau called me at home on Saturday morning as part of a broad canvassing of Yellow Pages consumers in San Diego County. After some preliminary questions, the surveyor asked me to walk over to where I keep…
Earlier this week I went to hear an economist offer his take on the current economy and how soon it would recover. Long story short, I believe the speaker, who had outstanding credentials, was overly optimistic. (I really believe he may…
My colleague Neal Polachek and I just got off the phone with the leadership team at the Australian publisher Sensis, who walked us through its half-year results ended Dec. 31. We continue to marvel at how successful Sensis has been at…
Yesterday, I spent about three hours with Idearc Media CEO Scott Klein, who shared the vision he and his management team have for the company. Some of that vision is encapsulated in the rollout of SuperGuarantee, a major new initiative.…
Last week, Yell Group issued its nine-month earnings report (the company's financial year ends March 31) and most of the news was sobering. Organic growth is expected to be in the negative double digits in its fourth quarter, and…
Last week the Albany, New York, Common Council passed a law that restricts the delivery of telephone directories to homes and businesses. Among the provisions of the ordinance is a requirement that any phone book delivered to a home must land within 10…
Gary Campbell is among the directory publishing executives with the most experience in building a performance-based ad model in the print product. He is now hoping to leverage that experience in a new venture called Cost Per Call Solutions. The…
The movement to compel Yellow Pages publishers to make it easy for consumers to opt out of receiving telephone books and punish unwelcome distribution gained some momentum last week with legislation introduced in Minnesota and the city of Albany, New…
We got news this week of two directory publishing operations shutting their doors, a reflection of the challenges of running a competitive directory publishing company in the face of a difficult economy and intense competition from incumbent publishers and the…
Cincinnati Bell just received approval from the Public Utility Commission of Ohio to forgo delivery of print residential White Pages directories except to those who request a copy. This fits into a trend that has been brewing for some time, and was…
The Yellow Pages Association has launched its own blog, apparently to add its voice to the ongoing blogosphere debate on the future of Yellow Pages. The blog's first post from YPA President Neg Norton explains the rationale for the blog…
I won't say I agree with everything Chris Smith says in his column today in Search Engine Land, which offers 10 ideas for saving the Yellow Pages. But I do agree with a lot of it. In fact, much of…
Here is a collection of newsworthy Yellow Pages and directional media items that I've noted over the past week or so. Got this press release in my inbox from Yell Group this morning, showing some creativity in linking the print…
The following post was contributed by TKG associate Mark Temple, who attended last week’s Yellow Pages Today event in Zurich, Switzerland. The sixth annual Yellow Pages Today Conference assembled experts from the industry to give their specialist opinions around the…
Sometimes even the most clever advertising for Yellow Pages has a "been there, done that" quality to it. Take a funny situation, add a clever conclusion involving a play on words related to a Yellow Pages heading and, bam, you've…
We've written before on how media and blog coverage of Yellow Pages can't seem to find a fair balance between Pollyanna and Chicken Little. OK, in fairness, there aren't many Pollyannas writing that Yellow Pages is shipshape with not a…
Stuart McKelvey is no longer CEO of TMP Directional Marketing, a position he had held since 1998. He is leaving the Yellow Pages ad agency founded by his father, Andrew, in 1967 to join Health Diagnostic, also founded by the…
The Kelsey Group has learned that effective Nov. 1, AT&T Advertising & Publishing will become AT&T Advertising Solutions. But there is more to this than a cosmetic name change. AT&T has also reorganized the company and expanded its portfolio to…
