The Wall Street Journal today wrote about the challenges that newspapers have in trying to sell to small local businesses. Beth Lawton at the Newspaper Association of America kindly asked us to add some context to the article (subscription required). Here is our piece.
… As The Wall Street Journal article highlights, many newspapers are looking “downscale” …

The U.K.-based online directory Brownbook, which recent announced international expansion, sees itself as something of an anti-Yellow Pages. The company operates on a shoestring, with fewer than a dozen employees, while taking a decidedly user-generated approach to building an online local business directory. The company isn’t following a shoestring approach out of necessity as much as …

The economy isn’t doing too well, but that hasn’t hurt the hiring picture for Yellow Pages and local search sales pros, according to YP veteran Ken Clark, who put out an interesting promo for his recruitment firm, Hawthorne Executive Search.
Clark says hiring via Hawthorne is up 25 percent in 2008. Publishers continue to expand in …

R.H. Donnelley posted its first-half results today. While ad sales are clearly trending negative, the company was able to report modest revenue and EBITDA growth. Ad sales, however, are the best indicator of how the business is performing.
The following are some highlights from this morning’s earnings call.

RHD posted a 6.7 percent drop in advertising sales …

Frank Jules believes there is a clear shift from print to online taking place. And the best way for publishers to make a successful transition is to move from selling individual products to selling a bundle of products based on the number of calls or leads they can be expected to deliver.
As president and CEO …

This just in: Microsoft’s flagship search engine unveiled a new home page interface that will include rotating background images with embedded “hot spots” that direct users into various vertical searches when moused over.
This is essentially a visually driven discovery engine for various topics of interest. Live Search now more explicitly blends search and discovery — …

To save costs and reduce reading time, many newspapers have begun to downsize the daily print edition, cut back pages and delete stock tables. They’ve also downsized editorial. Now, several have begun to fold in dedicated sections for various verticals, including business and real estate. (At the same time, other verticals continue to be developed, …

The 32-company-strong Yahoo Newspaper Consortium, which covers 41 percent of Sunday newspaper circulation, has 700 to 900 reps selling Yahoo inventory, with a couple of the newspapers selling more than $1 million in annual inventory, reports Yahoo’s Lem Lloyd, who we know from previous stints with Oodle and Knight Ridder Digital. We talked to Lloyd …

Marchex has announced the launch of Marchex Connect 2.0, an updated version of its private-labeled local ad platform that is used by local ad resellers such as AT&T and Yellowpages.com.
The new version’s highlights include integration of call tracking (from the company’s VoiceStar subsidiary) and a new templatized landing page offering that can be customized and …

Michael Rogers, The New York Times Co.’s futurist-in-residence, told Inman Real Estate Connect attendees last week that over the next few years, “mobile [will be] the most important piece of the interactive space.” Largely driving the adaption of mobile will be the integration of GPS, and its ability to know location.
“It is incredibly important, especially …

New media pioneer Deanna Brown, who is running Scripps Networks Digital after stints at CondeNet, AOL and Yahoo, told Inman Real Estate Connect attendees last week that their responsibility is to make sure real estate brokers are “on mobile, the Web, on TV. … Go where the audiences are.”
Brown says a lot of people are …

New CEO Scott Klein presented Idearc Media’s first-half results and previewed his plans for reorganizing and reenergizing the company. The main theme of the presentation was a “Journey of Transformation,” which is truly what Idearc needs based on the results of Klein’s eight-week evaluation of the organization and its second-quarter results released today.
Financially, the …

Google Maps has rolled out a new look and feel, which involves larger maps and “less clutter.”
From the Google LatLong blog:
“With the new look for Google Maps, you can do all of the same things, but without the extra clutter. Find businesses (creamery near palo alto), addresses (6605 Delmar Blvd, St Louis, MO), and more …

CityVoter has partnered with SFGate to power the online newspaper’s new lifestyle section. Called the BayList, at its center will be CityVoter’s signature “best of” local pics from users of the site. This will include voting on 1,100 businesses in 80 categories, beginning Aug. 4.
SFGate is the online presence of the Hearst-owned San Francisco Chronicle, …

Google and Salesforce.com are using some of their market power to help local cultural institutions. Last week, while in San Francisco for Inman, I found “Tartuffe” by the African-American Shakespeare Co. when I searched “San Francisco” and “Theater.”
It was a great play, but it was a small production off the beaten path on the tip …

On Friday, we released a report that looks at the 3G iPhone and new App Store. One overall theme is how the iPhone’s new features and lowered price tag will combine with easy availability of mobile apps to bring new mobile search standards and mainstream appeal to the market for the first time.
There is also …

One of the hard and fast truths about print Yellow Pages advertising is that the ads at the front of the heading almost always generate more calls and leads compared with those further back. The current trend is for small-business advertisers to move some or all of their directional media budgets from print to online believing …

Here are the highlights from the TKG blog over the past week, in case you missed any posts. Click below to read each post in full.
Mixed Earnings for Yell, PagesJaunes
Yell Group saw an 11.3 percent rise in its share value yesterday (to 79 p) following its first-quarter 2009 earnings (its financial year ends March 31) announcement, …

Yell Group saw an 11.3 percent rise in its share value yesterday (to 79 p) following its first-quarter 2009 earnings (its financial year ends March 31) announcement, in which the publisher topped its U.S. guidance, fell a bit short in the U.K. and held steady guidance for Spain and Latin America. Yell continues to trade slightly …

One of the most challenging aspects of speaking to the geodomain industry was the diverse backgrounds of the people in the industry. They come from media companies, technology firms, the music industry and the real estate business. What they have in common is a strong competitive streak (not unusual in entrepreneurs) and an incredible desire to …