Former Citysearch President Briggs Ferguson, who took the helm at Idearc Internet and its Superpages.com flagship about five months ago, said there is tremendous potential for the Yellow Pages industry. Speaking at DMS ’08 in Atlanta, he opined that “it should be much bigger than it is today. At the very least, we get past it as an $8 billion industry. We should see $10 billion online alone. [The whole industry should pull in] the $20 [billion to] $25 billion range.”

Ferguson cautioned that the industry has some major challenges to reach such lofty levels. Among them: how to make sure that YP advertisers get a high volume of leads, lead quality and standardization. “As an industry, we have to get into a genuine lead mind-set.” Regarding standardization: The Yellow Pages industry is suffering through the same issues as the United States did during the industrial revolution, he said.

The gap between online and print monetization also looms large. “Print YP monetizes at $1 a lead. The local search side monetizes at 20 cents,” he estimated. “We need information and data that can move from one box to another box in such a way that can happen very quickly. Without it, it creates an enormous drag on the entire system.”

Online features also need to be intelligently applied. He noted that maps are often inappropriately applied and aren’t always necessary. Moreover, the meta data that comes with listings is very inconsistent. While the incorporation of ratings has been an overall plus for online Yellow Pages, “they haven’t had the impact on the industry that you’d expect.”

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 organization continued its decline in revenues, reporting multi-product revenues of $1.53 billion for the first six months of 2008, a 5.1 percent decrease compared with the same period in 2007. Year-to-date Internet revenues reached $148 million, a 5 percent increase. While online revenues increased, one analyst pointed out that the 2008 goal was pegged at 20 percent, making the 5 percent gain less than optimal — especially compared with AT&T’s second-quarter online gain of 40.2 percent. Other peers also posted strong online results, including Yell Group, which saw a 27.1 percent first-quarter 2009 growth rate for Yell.com, and PagesJaunes, which reported growth of 21.6 percent for its Internet business during the first half of the year.

Klein’s plan of action calls for streamlining the Idearc organization, which will include reorganizing the sales force for better span of control, improving sales training, streamlining pricing approaches, centralizing operations and reducing the workforce (excluding sales reps) by 20 percent. Some announced moves include closing sales offices, walking away from selected expansion markets and abandoning the Solutions At Home magazine product.

According to Klein, as quoted in Idearc’s press release:

“It is clear that we have not made the leap from operating as a division of Verizon to being a stand alone public company. You will see us catch up quickly. … We are also changing Idearc’s management structure and focus. By centralizing and restructuring, we can eliminate complexity, maximize efficiency, and become easier to do business with. While the changes we have made, and will continue to make, will take some time to be fully realized, I am confident we will succeed.”