In true disruptive technology style, YPG is separating digital sales from print sales to allow the company to grow overall even as print continues to decline, noted YPG CEO Julien Billot, during a keynote at Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing in New Orleans Sept. 22.

Billot noted that YPG has been leaking revenues, with revenues now 3X lower than in 2008. Growth will not come from existing customers, but must come from new customers. “Ninety percent of its customers still have print products. Meanwhile, “50 percent of non-advertisers do not believe YP is a credible digital brand nor feel that their customers use YP platforms,” said Billot.

To turn things around, Billot is plotting three phases of “resetting,” which he says is different from “transformation.” Between now and 2018, there will be a “return to growth” focused on stand alone digital. The final phase will be dedicated to accelerating growth, with a sustainable digital business — one that is focused as much on media as on sales.

“We are much more in the media business today,” he noted. Much of the resetting will be oriented towards new branding to change the way that people think about YP, he added, noting that he will budget Can $25 Million for the next four years to achieve this goal.

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Last week several of the leading listed directory companies saw sizable spikes in their stock prices following their Q3 earnings announcements, though the surge seems to have died off today.

For example, Dex One announced its earnings on Nov. 3. On the call, CEO Alfred Mockett revealed that Dex will not achieve its previously stated goal of returning to growth and reaching 30 percent of revenues from digital in 2012. Yet the company’s share price doubled on Nov. 3 to 1.29 per share, up from the previous day’s close of 0.64.

SuperMedia also got a boost that day, though a less dramatic one. Its share price rose to 2.47 from 1.85 at the Nov. 2 close. Also Canada’s Yellow Media, which has experienced a dramatic fall in its share price in recent weeks, got a nice bump last week after its earnings announcement, also on Nov. 3.

So why the gains? It may be that there is increasing confidence that publishers have a chance to turn the corner with new digital products. Even though Dex announced it would not meet targets it made quite a big deal of at its February investor day meeting in New York, it did make a case that it is making real progress on the digital side of its business. The company announced on the call that digital revenues grew by 15 percent in Q3 and now represent 16 percent of revenues. Dex noted its SEM business in particular has hit its stride and grew by 30 percent.

It appears to be just a coincidence that all three companies are also at times mentioned in ongoing speculation about consolidation of the North American directory industry. At BIA/Kelsey’s recent DMS ’11 event in Denver, Joe Walsh, then the CEO of Yellowbook, said quite directly that consolidation will and should occur within the next one to two years. It’s important to note that Walsh mentioned no company by name in his remarks.

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Sieben noted that companies that integrate with the API gain access to YPG’s 1.5 million business listings and 1,200 salespeople. To date, more than 30 apps have been built with the API. A site such as “Flushfinder,” for instance, directs people to local public bathrooms.

Major partnerships have also been formed with players such as Twitter, Poynt and CBC. Sieben said the data are being used by large national brands to incorporate local Yellow API into local campaigns, such as IAMS, the pet food company. “We are mapping an API ‘Rosetta Stone,’ ” said Sieben.

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Canada’s Yellow Media announced today that it has sold its Trader Corp. vertical media business to the private equity firm Apax Partners for C$745 million. The deal lets YPG focus on transforming its core directories business and the cash helps improve the company’s balance sheet. YPG is not completely getting out of the vertical media business, at least for now. It will retain its real estate and employment operations and the online classified site LesPac.com.

Trader Corp. is particularly strong in the automotive category.

In 2010, YPG generated C$315 million from its vertical media business, compared with C$1,365 million from its directories business. The EBITDA margin for vertical media last year was C$91 million, suggesting sale multiple of more than 8 times trailing EBITDA.

Here is how BIA/Kelsey described the deal when it was announced in December 2005:

With its announcement this week that it will acquire Trader Media Corp., Canada’s Yellow Pages Group (YPG) has joined a small but growing community of Yellow Pages publishers that see classifieds not only as a new revenue source but also as a key element of their long-term content strategies.

Apparently long term amounted to roughly five years. BIA/Kelsey reported at the time that the sale price was C$435 million, which represented a multiple of 10.1 times EBITDA.

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YPG in Canada took yet another step outside its core Yellow Pages business this week with the acquisition of CanadianDriver.com, which will complement its Trader Corp. auto classifieds unit. CanadianDriver.com, which is dubbed “Canada’s online auto magazine,” is an 11-year-old consumer focused site that features new car reviews, test drives and automotive news as well as other automotive topics.

In our view, YPG’s acquisition will help its Trader unit acquire more traffic cost effectively. The magazine’s tightly focused articles should also boost its SEO ranking. In addition, the nature of the articles can assist the Trader unit in expanding its relevance to national advertisers and their agencies.

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YPG in Canada took yet another step outside its core Yellow Pages business this week with the acquisition of CanadianDriver.com, which will complement its Trader Corp. auto classifieds unit. CanadianDriver.com, which is dubbed “Canada’s online auto magazine,” is an 11-year-old consumer focused site that features new car reviews, test drives and automotive news as well as other automotive topics.

In our view, YPG’s acquisition will help its Trader unit acquire more traffic cost effectively. The magazine’s tightly focused articles should also boost its SEO ranking. In addition, the nature of the articles can assist the Trader unit in expanding its relevance to national advertisers and their agencies.

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“A lot of the conversation in blogs now occurs on Twitter and Facebook,” says cofounder Sebastian Provencher. Using social micro blog sites — the “statusphere” — is “so much easier than blogging,” he says. Provencher adds that the new move is not a 180-degree change. The company has been taking half steps toward a Needium-like product since its launch, for instance, adding real-time search.

Needium will specifically offer consumers an outlet to search for explicit things like services and restaurants, or implicit things (“what’s fun in Boston?”). It also gives merchants the ability to respond with offers after their names are “surfaced.”

Ten to 20 categories are initially being launched, ranging from obvious travel-related categories to smaller ones, such as jewelers. A consumer might ask where to fix a broken watch, says Provencher.

Praized, a seven-person outfit based in Montreal, says it will continue to support its original blogs-based “social media stack”for enterprise clients such as YPG and Examiner.com. In addition to supporting licensees, it will also eventually develop a destination site of its own.

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