Yell Group announced results today that showed all its operating groups generated top-line growth in its 2007-08 financial year (ended March 31), with almost all the growth coming from the Internet. The company emphasized that it hit its EBITDA guidance for the year.
Yell CFO John Davis announced Yell will cut its dividend in half, calling it …

Denver-based Local Matters announced a major deal with European Directories “whereby Local Matters will develop and enhance the online white and yellow pages websites across European Directories’ 8-country publishing operations,” according to the press release issued today.
European Directories is a London-based, private-equity-owned publishing holding company with operations in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, …

Thomson Directories owner Seat Pagine Gialle has put the U.K. directory publishing group up for sale, according to an article in the Times Online. 
According to the article: “Thomson, which has been hit by competition from the web and reduced spending by financial clients, is expected to achieve earnings of £25m this year and could …

European Directory Publisher Truvo (formerly World Directories) has extended its mobile search product to the Belgian market. The product utilizes mobilePeople’s Java-based Liquid Maps platform, which powers several mobile search platforms being rolled out by directory publishers in Europe.
The downloadable search app will pull listings from Yellow Pages (Pages d’Or) and White Pages (Pages …

Elizabeth Gage of PCM International posted a well thought out blog on the challenges small and medium-sized businesses face when purchasing search engine marketing campaigns, either on their own or through Yellow Page publishers. After reading her thoughts on the subject, I couldn’t help but realize that the focus of current SEM efforts has been …

The Yellow Pages Today April workshop featured a divergent view of how best to sell the White Page product line. While some differences exist, due in part to the products offered in the core White Pages product such as those published in Germany, most companies agreed that White Pages needs its own unique sales approach …

The focus of the Yellow Pages Today April workshop was on White Pages with the underlying theme of how the product can survive and the regulatory environment that will either help or hinder its growth or decline.
The opening session with Stephanie Verilhac, EADP EU affairs officer, covered the current state of the EU privacy directives …

I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the Easter holiday talking with friends and family about the economy and how they are dealing with the budget crunch we are all experiencing. One of the common threads of all these conversations has been the need to stay close to home, combine shopping trips and call …

Norwegian-owned Interinfo was purchased by BaltCap, the leading private equity investor in the Baltic states. Interinfo represented the last directory holding of Texas Pacific Group, previous owners of Norway’s Findexa, now owned by Eniro. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. 
Interinfo’s Yellow Pages operating properties are located in Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia with an …

It was interesting to see the Yellow Pages Association release its usage data showing print usage was stable at 13.4 billion and IYP usage had increased to 3.8 billion in 2007. While the overall usage figure is a 3 percent increase from 2006, which is encouraging, zeroing in solely on usage may be taking away …

As I noted in a blog about The Kelsey Group’s Local Online Media event in London last week, analysts, speakers and the audience were positively upbeat about the Yellow Pages business. The feeling by all was that the stock market has overreacted to some negative information about Yellow Pages. This has been exacerbated by bloggers …

Nearly 100 executives in The Kelsey Group community participated in a half-day session that we hosted in London titled Local Online Media. The panel I moderated was “The Financial Future of Directories and Local Search in Europe.” The panelists were Paul Gooden, equity analyst, ABN AMRO, and Paul Kuipers, director, media and telecom corporate finance, …

According to a recent Direct Marketing Association survey, “The absence of a brick-and-mortar store is becoming prevalent among retailers, since 41 percent of survey respondents don’t have a physical store.” This is quite a surprising finding and certainly has significant ramifications for local media sales representatives who continue to identify and pursue new business opportunities.  
In the past, …

OK, so I’m on a Web 2.0 kick. I guess I’ve made it my New Year’s resolution to get more publishers and local search companies thinking about the broader meaning and business opportunities Web 2.0 presents beyond consumer reviews and online video.
I came across a terrific post from LDPodcast. While not a business-focused Web site, …

Linkedin has become a valuable resource for connecting business professionals. Recently Linkedin has added a professional services feature that allows members to share their business contacts in specific service categories. The new “Services” tab allows users to find people via recommendations from colleagues. You choose someone from your network, select which category you’re recommending them …

Pagesjaunes France has announced it will take a dramatic pricing approach in its largest urban markets where it will cut print costs by 20 percent while raising online costs on average by 50 percent. The goal of the pricing program is to move more revenues into online while reducing the revenue growth risk created by …

‘Tis the season for shopping and at times endless aggravation finding stores that actually have the items you want in stock. I’m all about anything that can help ease the stress of the shopping experience. And one thing I rediscovered as an essential shopping tool is the Yellow Pages (thanks to, of all things, a …

My colleague Michael Taylor and I spent part of this week in London, making the rounds among some of the key players in global directories based in that wonderful and surpassingly expensive city (sorry, kids, no souvenirs). One of our last calls was to see Andrew Day, CEO of Truvo (ex-World Directories), who walked us …

European Directories and Truvo announced the possibility of a merger of their respective De Telefoongids and Gouden Gids directory operations in the Netherlands. According to the news release:
Cornel Riklin, CEO of European Directories, said “We are very excited about this proposed combination which will accelerate our plans to be a leading search company in The …

Charles Stubbs, president of Yellowpages.com, was a surprise guest this morning at ILM:07. Stubbs came to discuss AT&T’s recent acquisition of Ingenio and its implications for Yellowpages.com and AT&T Advertising & Publishing.  
AT&T purchased all Ingenio’s assets, intellectual property and technology. According to Stubbs, ”The acquisition provides us with the opportunity to create a common business …