Canada’s Yellow Media has named Solocal executive Julien Billot as its new president & CEO. Longtime CEO Mark Tellier departed in August and was replaced temporarily by company chairman Robert McLellan. Billot is expected to take the helm at YPG on January 1.

Billot joined the French search and directory company Solocal (formerly PagesJaunes) in 2009 and served most recently as executive vice president and head of the media group. Before joining Solocal, the 45-year old Billot was CEO of French multimedia publisher Lagardere Active‘s digital and new media group.

Solocal executive Julien Billot has been named as the new
CEO of Canada’s Yellow Pages Group.

Tellier, who ran the Canadian directory publisher for more than a decade, was replaced when the board decided the company needed “fresh eyes,” as McLellan put it, to complete its transformation.

Yellow Media made meaningful strides under Tellier, consolidating the Canadian directories market and building the company’s digital base to 40 percent of total revenue. However, on its Q2 earnings call (Tellier’s last as CEO), company executives were unable to predict when growing digital revenues would offset accelerating print declines.

Solocal is often held up as the global directory company that has most successfully transformed itself from traditional to digital. Therefore recruiting a top Solocal executive to run YPG should come as no surprise.

The Montreal-based company’s next CEO was also expected to be a French speaker, to replace the francophone Tellier.

Julien Ampollini, currently CEO of Solocal Network, will reportedly succeed Billot as head of the media group.

The post Yellow Media Hires Solocal Vet as New CEO appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

CTOs are having the most interesting conversations at legacy media companies – or at least, that would be the conclusion of a stimulating dialog that took place last week at Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing between BIA/Kelsey’s Charles Laughlin, Warren Kay, YP CTO Darren Clark and YPG CTO Paul Ryan. Why? That’s where the reality of sales force transformation takes place.

Clark said that Digital started as YP’s “guest house.” Digital accounted for 1/6 of revenues just five years ago. But now, “the guest house is (about to) get bigger than the main house.” He noted that the company is providing three main digital products. Presence, Performance and Leads. They’re all focused on how we send people relationships, not just leads. We need to get them to connect and build and manage their lists.

Another huge issue is productivity. “How do you get someone to be two or three times more productive?” said Clark. The answer is to manage channels and decision support systems. In fact, the company still plays a vital role for the simple reason that most SMBs aren’t really ready for Do It Yourself. “We have a role to play, and capabilities,” he said.

YPG’s Ryan similarly noted that YPG is about to cross the line where digital accounts for the majority of revenues. “We can’t just make it as a reselling channel,” he said.

The traction in digital has caused the company to rethink it as more of a “strategic advantage” instead of simply erasing all the information every year and starting anew “We are the listing providers in Canada for Google, Yahoo and others,” he said. “We know about these businesses.”

It has been something of an uphill battle, however. “The pace of change really hasn’t been there,” notes Ryan, who has been with YPG for about a year. To change the culture, YPG has been launching products every two weeks. “That is the DNA we need in this space in order to compete with well-funded startups. “We are not just screwing around. We believe we can win.”

The post SMB Digital Marketing: Yellow Pages CTOs Talk about Winning at Digital appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

Online revenues for Canada’s Yellow Pages Group grew 30 percent in 2011, offsetting declines in its domestic print business as well as its U.S. operations, according to the company’s recently released earnings. Revenues decreased to C$1.3 million in 2011 compared with C$1.4 million in 2010 due to lower print revenues in traditional markets. The digital component of YPG is a considerable bright spot for the company, with online revenues now representing 29 percent of total revenues.

But the Montreal-based directory publisher is making some difficult choices to get out in front of its $1.5 billion debt load. In a bid to save millions and redirect funds to debt repayment, YPG cut off dividends to its preferred shareholders just months after canceling dividend on common shares. YPG reduced its total debt by $800 million in 2011, mostly through its sale of Trader Corp., which publishes AutoTrader magazine. Earlier this month, YPG announced that it would scale back its Canpages print division due to underperformance.

In 2012, the company plans to continue to focus on the execution of its 360 solution strategy, enhancing online and mobile product offerings, targeting larger advertisers and improving its cost structure.

YPG recently added three new board members as it reviews strategies to refinance its debt, including Bruce Robertson, a restructuring expert who formerly worked for Brookfield Asset Management Inc., and David Leith, former head of investment banking at CIBC World Markets.

The post YPG 2012 Outlook: Digital Hopes and Debt Woes appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

This decision was all but inevitable, given the increasing obsolescence of residential White Pages, particularly in large metro markets. YPG signaled it was moving in this direction back in 2005, when it moved to a 24-month distribution cycle for print residential White Pages.

On a related note, The New York Times reported recently that Verizon is asking New York state regulators for permission to discontinue production of residential White Pages, which it says is only used by one in nine consumers. The move, if approved, would save about 5,000 tons of paper annually.

These examples reflect the broader industry trend of eliminating residential White Pages as quickly as regulators will allow, largely to reduce costs, but also to diffuse some of the bad press telecoms and directory publishers receive for pushing too much unwanted paper into the marketplace. For Yellow Pages publishers, the risk is that eliminating White Pages will only embolden those who want to see the same thing happen to print Yellow Pages and business White Pages.

Currently, the industry is fighting a bill in California that would impose very strict opt-out rules on residential White Pages. The industry has argued that the measure is too harsh and imposes criminal sanctions for violations. The directory industry has also followed a strategy of combating all such legislation, while offering self-regulation as an alternative to legislation.

The post YPG Going Request Only for Residential White appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.