ZipLocal, the U.S. independent directory publisher, has launched a new “hyper local” leads-based advertising model called Local Leads that taps into a distribution network featuring 18 properties and 80 billion monthly impressions, according to ZipLocal execs who briefed us last week. The main players in the network are CityGrid, SuperMedia, Chitika and DiscoverOurTown.

ZipLocal is the publisher that comprises the former Phone Directories Corp. and DataNational. The two entities were combined earlier this year when Canada’s Yellow Pages Group acquired its rival Canpages.

According to ZipLocal execs Olivier Vincent and John Eliott, the model will be a pay-for-performance model with a cap, so local advertisers will only pay for qualified calls that their ads generate. The price per lead is segmented by category so an attorney pays more for a lead than a restaurant.

Vincent told us that ZipLocal itself has 700 sales reps and 200,000 advertisers. By tapping into its network of Immersifind (IYP platform) partners, Local Leads could potentially be represented by more than 1,700 reps and have access to 300,000 advertisers.

Clearly Local Leads represents an opportunity for distribution partners looking to monetize more local content.

Additionally, providing smaller publishers, those with just a few print books and a small sales force, with a viable online offering is another huge opportunity (one also being pursued by CityGrid). However, the challenge in training up small print-focused salespeople to sell a performance-based product cannot be underestimated. Given his background running independent directory publishing companies, Vincent understands this as well as anyone.

Interestingly, ZipLocal will use human operators, aided by technology, to provide call qualification. Increasingly, we are seeing call qualification as table stakes in leads-based models, either involving speech-to-text technology that produces transcripts that are mined for keywords or direct human intervention. This enables the provider to charge a premium for leads of certified quality while avoiding arguments about paying for worthless calls.

Before the Canpages acquisition in March, YPG owned DataNational, while Canpages and PDC (later renamed ZipLocal) were owned by the same private equity group (Hicks Capital). Immersifind, the platform provider developed by Canpages, was paired with ZipLocal as part of the deal.

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Canpages, the leading competitive directory publisher in Canada, appears to be making a play for the CanWest media properties, which would greatly expand and diversify Canpages’ operations. According to a story this week in the Globe and Mail, Canpages is one of two companies bidding on 46 newspapers owned by the financially troubled CanWest Global Communications. The report values the assets at C$1 billion. Canpages would make the bid along with its owner, Hicks Capital, and Paul Godfrey, president of CanWest’s National Post.

If successful, the deal would leapfrog Canpages into a leadership role in Canada’s media landscape, and make it an even more formidable competitor to Canada’s leading directory player, Yellow Pages Group, which announced its year-end earnings yesterday.

Canpages also recently announced its first foray south of the U.S.-Canadian border via its relationship with U.S. independent Phone Directories Corp., where PDC will rebrand its PDC Pages IYP as Ziplocal.com (which is owned by Canpages) and rebrand itself as Ziplocal. This move is similar to Hearst’s decision to rebrand its independent directory property White Directory Publishers as LocalEdge Media. Ziplocal was a Canadian local search platform acquired by Canpages in 2009. This arrangement certainly begs the question of whether some deeper connection between Canpages and PDC looms in the future. PDC once owned Canpages’ predecessor company in Canada and the two are both Hicks Capital (formerly Hicks Muse) portfolio companies.

On the year-end earnings call, YPG CEO Marc Tellier said the company plans to make changes to its brand to keep pace with the changing media environment. ”We’re going to look at repositioning our brand, repositioning the logo to be more representative of this new digital universe,” Tellier said.

For the full year 2009, YPG’s directories division grew .9 percent to C$1.4 billion. Fourth-quarter revenues were down 2.6 percent to C$345 million. The company’s vertical media division had a very tough year, dropping 22.8 percent to C$248 million.

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