In case you missed them, here are a few headlines and links to recent posts on our Global Yellow Pages blog. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed here, and the e-mail alert here.
– New Yellowbook Campaign Embraces Multiproduct Approach
– DexOne See Signs of Hope, Concern in Business Environment
– Yell Launches Targeted Facebook Ads
– SuperMedia Sees 2Q Improvement, Launches QR Codes

DexOne (the company formerly known as R.H. Donnelley) announced its first-half results this morning, and as with SuperMedia, there were signs of life amid otherwise negative results. The key number to watch for directory publishers is ad sales. DexOne’s first-half ad sales were down 13 percent, and the company says ad sales were stronger in …

Results released on July 27 show that while its revenues are still sharply negative, U.S. directory publisher SuperMedia found signs of hope in an improving ad sales trend in the second quarter. Ad sales declined 16.9 percent in the second quarter, versus 20.6 percent in Q1. Second-quarter ad sales reflect sales made in late 2009 …

Earnings results from global Yellow Pages companies are starting to trickle in, and so far, 2010 looks a lot like 2009, or worse.
AT&T Advertising Solutions posted first-half revenues of US$2,048 million, down 16.7 percent from the same period in 2009. At the same point in 2009, revenues were down 11.5 percent. The company reported …

Truvo USA, the holding company that owns the European directory publisher Truvo, has filed for bankruptcy protection, with plans to hand over the company to its senior creditors. Truvo’s European-based operating companies did not file for bankruptcy protection.
Truvo operates in Belgium, Ireland and Portugal, and it recently divested its small Romanian operation. These markets are …

While avoiding predictions of a full recovery, Dave Swanson, CEO, DexOne (formerly known as R.H. Donnelley), said on this week’s first-quarter 2010 earnings call that the company does expect the rate of decline in ad sales to improve sequentially throughout 2010, ending in the range of a 12 percent to 15 percent decline in ad …

On Thursday’s earnings call, DexOne (ex-R.H. Donnelley) leaders cautiously projected that the rate of decline in ad sales would improve in 2010, from being down 20 percent in 2009 to down between 12 percent and 15 percent this year. The company made the case to financial analysts that its performance in 2009, while dire, was …

We’ve been listening to earnings webcasts for the major global directory publishers over the past days, trying to pick up any clues for how publishers see 2010 developing. Most publishers have shortened their guidance horizon or have stopped giving it altogether. In many cases, the banks and hedge fund analysts on the calls are pressing …

The default strategy for many start-ups is to plan to be acquired by Google or Microsoft. But the M&A scene is much more complex than that. Jordan, Edmiston Group Co-President Tolman Geffs, speaking today at IAB’s Annual Leadership Meeting in Carlsbad, California, joked that Google is set to buy Oregon, Washington and Canada “just to …

Last week the Australian directory publisher Sensis released its half-year financial results, ended Dec. 31, 2009, which showed pretty strong resilience but nonetheless a meaningful decline in print revenues. For the half-year period, combined print and online Yellow Pages results were down 4.3 percent. Print Yellow Pages declined 8.7 percent. Including White Pages, the print …

IAC’s ServiceMagic reported today that it saw a 51 percent boost in 4Q revenues, growing from $25.3 million in 2008 to $38.2 million in 2009. The boost was accompanied by 21 percent growth in the number of home and trade providers that pay for its leads and a 46 percent gain in service requests. The …

Less than a month after its peer company Idearc Media emerged from bankruptcy with a new name (SuperMedia) and a new lease on life, R.H. Donnelley has done the same thing. Freshly out of bankruptcy and US$6 billion lighter on its balance sheet, RHD has shed its historic corporate name in favor of DexOne, which …

AT&T released its full-year 2009 earnings today, and its Advertising Solutions unit, which includes print Yellow Pages and Yellowpages.com, posted total revenues of US$4.8 billion, a 12.6 percent decline.
AT&T online directories unit Yellowpages.com grew 12.7 percent in Q4, compared with Q3 growth of 20.7 percent. Total online revenues for the year were US$884 million, which …

Venture capital king Frank Quattrone (the banker behind Amazon, Netscape and Cisco) has a message: IPOs have gotten too big, innovation is being stifled, exits are being delayed and firms need straight-forward advice, not Wall Street “casinos.”
“Wall Street no longer knows how to value,” he complained, during a breakfast talk before 500+  VCs and entrepreneurs …

Idearc Media, which exited bankruptcy on Dec. 31, has changed its name to SuperMedia LLC, as part of an effort to start on a fresh course post-bankruptcy. The restructured company now trades on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol SPMD.
In a recent briefing with BIA/Kelsey analysts, SuperMedia CEO Scott Klein talked about how the …

New Zealand’s Yellow Pages Group posted a net loss after tax of NZ$338 million for the financial year ended June 30, but much of the loss resulted from one-time items. The company actually managed to grow revenues 1.4 percent to NZ$297 million, with print dropping 1.6 percent (a modest decline to say the least compared …

Reuters is reporting that both Idearc and R.H. Donnelley are close to completing their bankruptcy processes, and are planning to hit the ground running with plans to transform themselves from print-centric to multiproduct businesses.
The following quote from Idearc CEO Scott Klein about sums up what the Yellow Pages industry is facing over the next couple …

Idearc announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas, a move that it signaled in its year-end 2008 earnings announcement, when it indicated some form of bankruptcy filing was likely if not inevitable.
Here is how Idearc describes the process it will go through:

Idearc also announced that it has reached an agreement in principle with the …

One day after R.H. Donnelley released its 2008 results showing a sharp drop in ad sales, Idearc followed suit today with annual results that also reflect a very tough Yellow Pages environment in the United States. The big news in the release is the acknowledgment of the possibility that Idearc may seek bankruptcy protection. From …

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,” …