There are some interesting bits in this article on Telecom NZ’s plans to spin off its Yellow Pages Group business for an estimated NZ$1.7 billion (US$1.1 billion). The telecom is expected to update its plans for the Yellow Pages unit when it releases its first-quarter results at the end of this week.
Most intriguing …

In all likelihood, it was just a coincidence. Even if it weren't, it may be the smart thing to do. When I opened my home-delivered edition of The New York Times this morning, out fell a piece of white bond paper with a one-page letter that started, "Dear Home Delivery Subscriber." The senior vice president …

Many of the world's leading directory operations have released their third-quarter and year-to-date earnings, and as usual the results show a mixed picture. We report these in some detail in our Local Media Journal, as well as in summaries that we post for clients on the Client Inquiry Briefs section of our Web site.
But here …

I am in the process of moving and somehow AT&T knew about it. A packet came in last week’s mail branded as "AT&T Mover's One Source." I'm still not sure how the company knew I was moving. As a current AT&T DSL subscriber, perhaps they took note when I moved my service exactly a year …

Yesterday I had the chance to talk to Jigsaw CEO Jim Fowler. Part LinkedIn, part Wikipedia and part Hoovers, Jigsaw compiles user-generated contact information for business professionals. These data are invaluable to salespeople and recruiters who wish to bypass the gatekeepers that stand in the way of their targets, according to Fowler.
Fowler contends that …

In the past, financial analysts covering the newspaper industry haven't paid much attention to online results. They're more focused on quarterly results, which don't have much to do with online. Indeed, despite several years of strong growth from online services, newspapers are still, typically, just getting 5 percent or so from online.
A new report from …

Yell Group has hired a new chief marketing officer, Helen Stevenson, a veteran marketing executive with experience in banking and consumer products.
Stevenson replaces Anne Franke, the CMO who left the U.K. directory company earlier this year, after serving as Yell’s first CMO from early 2004. Franke reportedly left to run her own start-up business. …

This isn't officially confirmed, but Yahoo! is apparently close to finalizing a major deal that would pair its lagging HotJobs recruitment site with a consortium of "non-CareerBuilder" newspapers. The deal has been in the works since at least July. Apparently, it has become a high priority for new Yahoo! listings head Hilary Schneider, who was …

Next time you refer to your cellphone, pause and ask yourself, "Is this a Sprint phone or a Nokia phone?" Seems a bit trivial, but how wireless phone subscribes think of their phones will become an increasingly material matter in coming years. Today's Wall Street Journal carries an article about Vodaphone's sourcing a Chinese company …

Since there have only been 13 unassisted triple plays in the history of major league baseball, it's highly unlikely that we will see one in this World Series. Nevertheless, a lot of the talk recently has been about a different kind of triple play, consisting of voice, data and video services. Throw in wireless and …

We recently learned that Teléfonos de México (Telmex) has acquired Enlace Spanish Yellow Pages, the largest independent Spanish-language Yellow Pages publisher in the U.S., for an undisclosed price.
Telmex, Mexico's leading telecom and owner of that country’s dominant Yellow Pages publisher, announced earlier this week that it has purchased an 80 percent controlling interest in …

In the online shopping space, the only differences between the players are on the surface, in their branding and marketing. Typically, shopping engines list retail feeds in search results on a pay-per-click basis, which means consumers find the same results from the same feeds across most of the major sites. This has created a lack …

Are most of the businesses in your address books ones that you would endorse? How about the mentions in your calendar of restaurants where you are meeting colleagues? How about the businesses in your photo software that you have bothered to tag? Or the ones you mention in e-mails, various Web sites and other …

Hearst Corp. is listed as a lead investor in Jingle Networks' new US$30 million financing round, along with Goldman Sachs. Jingle is the two-year-old provider of 1-800-FREE411, an ad-supported, "free" directory assistance service. Other investors are repeaters from earlier rounds. They include Comcast Interactive Capital, Liberty Associated Partners, IDG Ventures Boston and First Round Capital. …

Online classifieds revenue is OK. But since it typically represents just a fraction of a fraction of existing print dollars … you'd rather base your growth on display ads. Especially, targeted, premium-priced ads that represent "new dollars" for the company.
That's the problem with yesterday's earnings reports from several newspaper companies. To be sure, online remains …

The San Diego Union-Tribune has used Citysearch as the default city guide for its SignOnSanDiego Web site since 1999. The arrangement, one of several Citysearch struck with newspapers in that time period, gave The UT exclusive rights to sell Citysearch advertising in San Diego and also gave it default traffic whenever someone types in "San …

Local online shopping site NearbyNow (which we wrote about here) is expanding. The company announced today that it will extend its service to 20 U.S. cities, including Portland, San Francisco, Virginia Beach, Tucson and Spokane. This will happen through an expanded partnership with the Westfield Group.
It also announced that its mobile search application will …

I’ve been hearing more and more, and becoming more and more intrigued, by the multi-player game-like virtual world of Second Life. This Popular Science article literally dives into the phenomenon and alludes to some of its local advertising potential.
Here are a few notable excerpts from the article:
… Although no major brick-and-mortars are …

This just in. Verizon has OK’d the spin-off of its Yellow Pages unit, Verizon Information Services, as a separate public company. We knew this was coming, but now it is official. If you thought Verizon was an unusual name, try "Idearc."
This is from the Reuters write-up:
Oct 18 (Reuters) – Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ.N: …

Canada’s Yellow Pages Group has launched its second hybrid vertical product — a mixture of magazine editorial content and Yellow Pages headings — this one for the family-care vertical. Here is a link to YPG’s press release announcing the new product. YPG’s partner in this venture, and an earlier effort in the home improvement …