Yahoo! announced that it will make a considerable change to its result pages, and the content it will allow Web sites to provide in organic listings.

According to the Yahoo! Search Blog:

Site owners will be able to provide all types of additional information about their site directly to Yahoo! Search. So instead of a simple title, abstract and URL, for the first time users will see rich results that incorporate the massive amount of data buried in websites — ratings and reviews, images, deep links, and all kinds of other useful data — directly on the Yahoo! Search results page.

Yahoo! calls out Yelp specifically as being a beneficiary of this move, in being able to have direct links to its reviews for specific businesses when searches are done for those businesses (users are a primary beneficiary too). Yelp’s deep review content currently makes it very SEO friendly and it often does rank well in result pages for local businesses with lots of reviews.

But what’s different about this is the structured presentation of organic listings, in the spirit of the “blended” search results users are coming to expect. In that way, this is yet another move toward universal search, blended search, whatever you want to call it. I’ll be at SMX West tomorrow where Yahoo! has a big presence, and I’ll find out as much as I can.

Before & After (care of the Yahoo! Search Blog):

The 19-company Yahoo! newspaper consortium is set to launch beta tests with two newspapers of Content Match, an AdSense-like product. The beta tests are expected to be followed by a launch throughout the entire consortium in September, according to Lee Enterprises VP of Interactive Media Greg Schermer. Schermer, a frequent spokesperson for the consortium, made his comments during a panel discussion at the NAA Marketing Convention this week in Orlando.

While there has reportedly been some tension in the consortium as many newspapers sought shorter terms and opt-in, opt-out rights — and some newspapers missed deadlines — Schermer reflected on its overall progress. The consortium has imposed a real discipline on the newspapers that are participating, and they have improved their response rate, commitment and time to turn around, he said.

It is also making money. Lee, for instance, raised its online rates for recruitment by fivefold. “We thought we’d get more pushback from customers,” but the value of the technologically superior platform, and improved traffic volume, has quickly proved itself, he said.

The consortium deal has always been about much more than HotJobs, Schermer added. “We signed with Yahoo! because we thought there were other possibilities.”

And in fact, three additional contracts have been signed since HotJobs – a graphics ad (i.e., banner) alliance, which he predicted would lead to a national network; a shared content deal across Yahoo! that inserts newspaper headlines and other content into many Yahoo! channels; and the new Content Match product.

As Yahoo! and the consortium have gotten to know each other better, they have gotten the deals done much faster. The HotJobs deal took 18 months to negotiate. That’s not surprising, since there were 18 sets of customers that overlapped. The consequent deals took six months. The consortium has also brought greater commitment to online and discipline among its newspaper members.

But it hasn’t always been easy. “The toughest thing is the data handling,” Schermer said. “It required lots of heavy lifting by the IT staff. Another challenge was setting up financial reporting across the 19 participating companies. There are three, five accounting firms involved,” he noted. Creating an outbound telemarketing team was also a challenge. “[Rival] CareerBuilder is the gold standard.”

But the ease of pricing and training turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Going forward, Schermer expects to see future deals with the consortium to be “less formalistic and more flexible.” The work in developing the Yahoo! tie was also used to good effect in the consortium’s real estate deal with Zillow, which has required data standards to be set for listings, premium listings and EZ Ads.

Schermer did not discuss, however, why the consortium is working with Zillow instead of Yahoo! for real estate, which would appear to have been logical, given the broad relationship. Conflicting reasons have been provided by insiders.

The Yellow Pages Association released new usage data showing that U.S. print directory usage was stable in 2007 at 13.4 billion print lookups, while online directory references climbed 15 percent, from 3.3 billion searches in 2006 to 3.8 billion in 2007. Combined, U.S. Yellow Pages usage was therefore 17.2 billion searches in 2007, a 3 percent increase.

Last year the YPA reported a 7.6 percent decline in print lookups, the second biggest drop since usage has been measured. The methodology used to measure usage is such that a big one-year swing may not be as significant as the trend over time.

One ongoing question is whether there is a floor for PYP usage, based on the limits of Internet penetration and the advantages of PYP, at least in certain categories. The pattern over time has generally been periods of stability followed by periods of decline. So rather than a single floor, there may be a series of floors as the mix of users and media choices evolves over time.

Ultimately, the declines in usage experienced over the years are dependent on a few factors, some of which are within the control of publishers, while others are not. Publishers cannot control the emergence of new technologies that supplant the print product (though many have embraced them), nor can they alter the demographic mix of users, or changes in retail patterns. Publishers can affect the outcome by investing in their products, promoting them, maximizing their usability and content, and improving distribution.

The fact that online is growing gives publishers a good story to tell, assuming advertisers, investors, the media and other audiences are receptive to the multi-channel argument. We suspect many of these constituencies will continue to evaluate the health of Yellow Pages based on the health of the print product, which makes it all the more critical for publishers to invest in and promote their core product. All that while competing effectively online against a growing array of very smart and nimble competitors. No one can say Yellow Pages CEOs won’t have to work for their money, but their task is achievable.

Sensis, Australia’s largest directory publisher, recently released first-half results from its 2007-2008 financial year (ending June 30), which show solid growth of its print products. White Pages in particular grew 9.9 percent in the first half, an improvement over its 8.1 percent growth a year earlier. Print Yellow Pages also showed a real turnaround, growing 0.2 percent, compared with a 2.5 percent decline a year before.

Sensis credits a number of factors in improving print results, including a major emphasis on proving the value of print Yellow Pages, backed up by 4,000 metered ads provisioned throughout Australia.

Although TKG’s recently issued forecast projects an overall decline in print directories, Australia is one market where we expect modest growth in print. While Sensis faces relatively little print directory competition, it still grapples with many of the same issues as other publishers, including online competition and challenging major metro markets. One caution on these first-half print results is that much of the publisher’s major metro titles are recognized in the second half of the financial year.

That said, Sensis’ results demonstrate how paying attention to sales skills and proving value can move the needle in print. Publishers that decide to harvest print and focus all their energy online will likely accelerate migration faster than they can manage, risking negative overall growth. Publishers that see value in investing in print as they build out their online business, even if only to reduce the rate of decline, will have a better chance of experiencing positive multi-product revenue growth.

When a local team headed by ad agency and PR veteran Brian Tierney bought The Philadelphia Inquirer and related holdings 18 months ago, it was seen as a possible model for how “new thinking” could transform the newspaper industry.

Since then, Tierney and his team have had a tumultuous time, with major union problems, declining circulation and advertising shortfalls. But appearing at the Newspaper Association of America’s Marketing Conference in Orlando this week, Tierney laid out how he is righting the ship, bolstered in part by solid results from Philly.com, the online site headed by MediaNews Group veteran Eric Grilly.

Freed from corporate-wide deals made by Knight Ridder, Philly.com, which is “anything and everything Philly,” has been able to go its own way, signing with Monster.com for recruitment and building out community services. The site has doubled its page views and boosted unique visitors by 7 percent, says Tierney.

The goal is to attract new audiences online, and be realistic about print readership, which isn’t about young people. “We’re targeting women 35+,” says Tierney. “We’re being very, very tactical” with beach promotions, etc.

One of the biggest challenges faced by the company is that ads are bought by “32-year-old” account reps. “We know we’re a little bit uncool,” says Tierney. To counter such perceptions, Tierney is investing heavily in a media lab concept. “Agencies want to do TV,” he says. With broadband, Philly.com will counter that by creating TV shows, along with magazine-style stories and radio content.

For instance, the site has Philly Uncorked, a “wacky wine show” produced by the Philadelphia Wine School and sponsored by The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. Looking forward, Tierney sees real opportunities in e-commerce via Zeppy, an Amazon-like site that hopes to provide more of a local look and feel.

But first he needs his team to appreciate the economic challenges that lie ahead. “There will be economic literacy courses for everyone,” he says.

MediaNews Group CEO Dean Singleton is well known within the newspaper industry as one of the least sentimental businessmen among all the publishers. He’s taken a hard line against journalistic “excess,” resulting in products that have been highly profitable but not critically acclaimed. At the same time, in search of new revenue streams, he’s been a leader in online and niche experimentation.

At the Newspaper Association of America’s Marketing Conference this week in Orlando, Singleton gave a clear-eyed view of where he sees the industry’s challenges, and how he thinks it can recover its footing, especially on Wall Street, where newspaper stocks have taken a brutal beating.

Singleton noted that online has got to become a big part of the revenue picture, but that the core print product remains central to the industry’s future. Five years from now, for instance, he hopes to see MNG getting 20 percent of its revenue online, up from 8 percent today. Since online has higher margins, he would expect online to account for half the company’s operating cash flow.

The core product, meanwhile, will drop from 85 percent to 65 percent of revenue, and account for 35 percent of the company’s profit. Niche products, meanwhile, would get around 15 percent.

“We have to be very aggressive to get to 20 percent” for online, he said. “Especially since a lot of online is based on employment” and needs to become more diversified.

But he believes the target is achievable. “Some newspapers are close to that now, “ he said. Two MNG titles, for instance, get 15 percent online and 17 percent niche. “That’s not a bad business. That’s the kind of business that Wall Street can applaud. We’ll have core readers, and online, there will be niche, targeted consumer groups.”

Singleton’s bottom line is that while the new revenues will be valuable, supporting the core is job No. 1. Consequently, sales hiring and retraining is a core part of the company’s credo. He will also continue to spend on maintaining circulation levels so his newspapers remain the No. 1 source of geotargeting.

“The new world we’re in … it is restructuring time,” he said. “We have a pretty tough deck of cards right now.”

While Singleton anticipates new revenue growth from online and niche, he personally believes the newspaper industry will get its biggest boost from something that produces almost no revenue today: wireless. “Wireless is the biggest opportunity in 20 years,” he said. “Consumers pay for relevant information 24/7. It is tailor made for newspapers.”

A couple of weeks ago, Citysearch formed a distribution deal with AOL that pushed its content and ads throughout the AOL Local Network. As we wrote here, this had a close resemblance to the December deal the company formed with Local.com.

The formula is: Citysearch gets extra distribution for its content and ads (a better value proposition for its advertisers), while the distribution partner gets extra content to boost its user experience (and a rev share). Because of Citysearch’s related efforts over the past year, this content includes video and reviews — both rapidly increasing in value in the local space.

So it comes as no surprise when the company announced a similar deal today with Marchex to distribute its content throughout Marchex’s network of 150,000 local sites. This isn’t to say Citysearch is exercising tired business deals; these are rather beneficial arrangements for the city guide and its advertisers.

And speaking of recent parallels, this also resembles the deal Marchex formed with Idearc Media last month to plug Idearc’s ads into Marchex’s network. Both will work toward beefing up the huge network of local search sites and geodomains the company launched last June.

Of course each distribution deal isn’t a carbon copy of the next, but they have similar formulas. In today’s deal, for example, it will be interesting to see how Citysearch’s content integrates with Marchex’s OpenList — a powerful review and content aggregator in its own right. We shall see.