Earlier this week I went to hear an economist offer his take on the current economy and how soon it would recover. Long story short, I believe the speaker, who had outstanding credentials, was overly optimistic. (I really believe he may have been on vacation on some secluded island for the past year.) In fact, his …

My colleague Neal Polachek and I just got off the phone with the leadership team at the Australian publisher Sensis, who walked us through its half-year results ended Dec. 31. We continue to marvel at how successful Sensis has been at growing revenue across all  its channels, while most publishers around the world struggle to maintain …

Cablevision bet big on synergy (and ignored the CW about the newspaper industry) when it bought Newsday from Tribune Co. last summer for $650 million. Today, less than eight months later, it concedes that it has written off $402 million of that investment (a significantly worse investment than Stephen Marbury of Cablevision’s Knicks).
Whether the economics …

Last fall, a report from Sequoia Capital was widely circulated, strongly suggesting that companies sit on their capital and wait out what was sure to be a very slow and painful period. Now it’s gotten worse.
For the past several weeks, other analyst reports have been circulating. They suggest that we’ve entered a period of “deleveraging,” …

European local business review site Qype has undergone the redesign we alluded to in the yesterday’s post (note the new logo).
Head of marketing Andrew Hunter told us last week in London that the new design has usability and functional improvements that are in step with the site’s growth strategy in its top markets (U.K., Germany …

Last week, while touring London and Paris, Charles Laughlin and I had the chance to meet with Qype, a local business review site whose popularity in Europe has matched that of Yelp in some U.S. markets. Our first order of business was to finally get confirmation on the site’s proper pronunciation. The argument was settled: …

R.H. Donnelley has flipped the on switch on the new DexKnows.com Internet Yellow Pages platform. We wrote extensively about this new platform while it was in beta, in a blog post as well as an Advisory from The Kelsey Report.
We have commented that the new site (a tangible outcome of the acquisition of Business.com and …

Sears will try to leverage its identity with home improvement and repair with ServiceLive, a new leads provider for service pros that is being pitted against ServiceMagic, Angie’s List, DoneRight and others. The tagline for the service, which begins a marketing campaign next week,  is “Your price. Your time. Your way.”
Its basic concept is a …

Cazoodle, a new listings-based service, has launched from the incubator at The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (yes, Marc Andreeson’s former territory). The site currently crawls for apartment listings and shopping. Additional vertical categories such as events are anticipated, notes Professor Kevin Chang, who is supervising seven graduate students on the project. “We have the …

Today we’re launching a new formal practice area that will focus on the rapidly evolving mobile media space. As is core to The Kelsey Group’s DNA, the main angle here will be local: how the growth of the mobile Web will specifically hold opportunities for locally targeted content and ad delivery.
Mobile Local Media will launch …

MapQuest today announced a new feature for its MapQuest 4 Mobile application, which will let users save and share personalized maps and routes. Known as MyPlaces, the feature will be part of the free MapQuest 4 mobile download on select BlackBerry models (more devices coming soon).
The main point is to drive usage by extending the MapQuest …

AOL Local has teamed with Oodle to launch AOL Classifieds in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, AOL is launching a U.K. classified site at the end of the week. Oodle aggregates listings from more than 250 partner sites (including MySpace, Facebook and Wal-Mart).The timing might be especially useful for used person-to-person goods, as people …

ESPN, which is 80 percent owned by Disney and 20 percent owned by Hearst, has been a leader in verticalizing its brand and content, with dozens of properties covering everything from the core network to ESPN Desportes to the retail stores. Web sites and online radio have played prominently in the vertical mix.
Now The Wall Street …

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.
Local.com Revamps Site; Profitability Expected by Year-End
Local.com has made its first substantive changes to the site in over a year. CEO Heath Clarke says the changes make it easier to find all the varied …

Local.com has made its first substantive changes to the site in over a year. CEO Heath Clarke says the changes make it easier to find all the varied content on the local portal. It will also make it easier for the site to add more data to profiles and incorporate user-generated content, such as reviews, …

The Los Angeles Times today debuted “Mapping L.A.,” an online effort to map 87 distinctive neighborhoods in the sprawling Southland. For the paper, the designation of neighborhoods goes beyond civic duties. Not only does it intend to base news stories around them, but also hyperlocal marketing, advertising and blogging effortsl.
The initial cut of Mapping L.A.’s …

One of the homespun stories of interactive local media is the rise of HelloMetro, a city guide company that started in 1999 as an entrepreneurial effort in Louisville, Kentucky, and has since grown to include 15 staffers, including five direct salespeople.
The company, which has hundreds of Hello(City name) city guides, made $7.5 million in 2008. …

Yesterday, I spent about three hours with Idearc Media CEO Scott Klein, who shared the vision he and his management team have for the company. Some of that vision is encapsulated in the rollout of SuperGuarantee, a major new initiative. Other clues are found in several enhancements to the core Superpages site. My biggest take-away: …

Clearly, SMB marketing is no longer just about local search and directory listings. While search remains an important piece of the pie, display is emerging in its own right.  Marchex, AdReady, Cobalt’s Admission, MediaTraks, Mixpo and Jivox are among those companies that have been targeting SMBs and others for display (and rich media) solutions.
Now, ReachLocal, …

TripAdvisor was one of those rare Web 2.0 breakthroughs where the power of the crowd created a viral energy all its own (and enough traffic to sell advertising).
Now Stephen Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor, along with Dan Saul, founder of Smarter Travel Media, hope to repeat the magic in the wedding category via WeddingBook.com. …