The Association of National Advertisers Directory Committee has used a very public method to challenge North American Yellow Pages publishers to do more on research and transparency. The committee issued an “open letter” today urging directory publishers to expand syndicated usage research, commit to audit circulation, end directory extensions, and stop the “forced bundling” of primary and companion directories. The ANA Telephone Directory committee is made up of a who’s who of large national Yellow Pages advertisers, among them ServiceMaster, Allstate, Ford, Enterprise and Domino’s Pizza.

Many of the issues the ANA raised in the open letter are perennial complaints that national advertisers have about directory publishers. And many of the gripes are legitimate. We agree that Yellow Pages needs to be seen as a medium that is measured and accountable. What seems new is the use of an open letter and press release, clearly intending to shame publishers into taking action on their agenda.

However, not all the arguments the ANA uses hold water. For example, the ANA compares directory extensions to a magazine publisher failing to publish an issue and billing the advertiser anyway. While we won’t offer a blanket defense of extensions, this argument ignores the basic differences in the roles the two media play. A directory that sits in the home an extra month is still a useful resource for the homeowner when the washing machine breaks down. A magazine tends to be much more perishable.

We believe syndicated research plays an important role in helping advertisers decide among competing players. However, the real momentum in research should involve more precise call measurement and ROI data. Similarly, calling for circulation audits strikes us as fighting last year’s war. Certainly, publishers should audit their distribution (a more accurate term than circulation), but the ultimate measures of value have to be the number of calls the publishers can generate across all distribution channels — print, online and mobile — and ROI.

The ANA represents a significant portion of Yellow Pages advertising, and its issues need to be heard. However, its open letter might have had more impact had it acknowledged how measurement is changing — from establishing usage share to measuring actual calls and clicks.

Spot Runner has gone into the local reseller channel in a major way by acquiring Weblistic, a company headed by Ketan Shah (and whose president is Yellow Pages Commando Dick Larkin). The company has 50 employees and is headquartered in Fremont, near San Jose, with additional offices in Carlsbad, CA, near San Diego and Chicago. It also has sales staff in the New York metro area and Denver. Its employees will be combined with Spot Runner’s 300 employees.

No price was disclosed but it’s an all-stock transaction. Going forward, Weblistic will be marketed under the “Spot Runner” brand.

Most of Spot Runner’s prior emphasis has been on providing largely prepackaged video production and media planning to national organizations as a way to offer localized video to franchisees and other national advertisers, including Realogy, Century 21, Steak & Ale, Diamond Jewelers and Warner Independent Pictures.

More recently, however, the company has been steadily building up its local capabilities, first by acquiring a videographer network a couple of months back — a step that put it in competition against companies such as TurnHere and Denver Multimedia, both of which are being resold by city guides, Yellow Pages and other local resellers.

Spot Runner also has opened 30 local sales offices in different parts of the country, all of which will now use the Weblistic software platform. The platform had its origins in the old Yellowpages.com platform, pre-AT&T (Shah had been Yellowpages.com’s CTO).

Spot Runner cofounder David Waxman says the company is now going to focus on providing a true multimedia capability. “TV is the best option for some. For others, some search is a better option.” Advertisers are “increasingly asking for other media” including radio, outdoor, print, he adds. “They are clamoring for a full-service offering.”

It doesn’t appear likely that Spot Runner will underestimate the considerable challenges of local advertising. One of its top sales executive is local sales vet Tim Lambert, who previously worked with Yahoo!, HotJobs, Knight Ridder Digital and Pac Bell Yellow Pages (although he is currently more focused on national sales efforts). But it will still need to get good interactive sales pros. They’re in very short supply.

Another challenge will be to differentiate itself among the glut of resellers, which include ReachLocal (valuation = $300 million), WebVisible, Yodle and Orange Soda. Each claims various advantages in software, algorithms and systems, but to a layman, the differences are slight.

The final challenge will be to truly leverage its existing relationships. Spot Runner investors include CBS and ad agency giant WPP. Moreover, former AOL President Bob Pittman sits on its board.

Google’s Print Ads program, which sells contextual display space in print newspapers, is now working with 750 newspapers, according to Stephanie Davis, Print Ads head of publisher development. Davis was speaking on a panel at this week’s NAA Marketing conference in Orlando.

Other than Davis’ appearance, Google had a low-key presence at the conference, with (at least) two lounges on separate floors of the conference hotel that were available by invitation only.

In her remarks, Davis said newspapers and Google need each other. The implication was clear, however, that perhaps newspapers need Google more (even if CPC rates may be peaking for Google and display is a much needed growth channel). Davis noted that Print Ads pays out 60 percent revenue shares on average – although she didn’t provide any guidance as to their overall gross.

Basically, there are five key areas to gauge a Google/newspaper relationship, said Davis: “Technology,” “Search,” “Lower cost of site,” “Brand” and “ROI.” In her estimation, the main advantage newspapers bring to the table is “brand.” The others are probably more oriented toward Google’s strengths. Left to their own devices, for instance, she noted that newspaper content is only “found” by customers rather than delivered to them.

The 19-company Yahoo! newspaper consortium is set to launch beta tests with two newspapers of Content Match, an AdSense-like product. The beta tests are expected to be followed by a launch throughout the entire consortium in September, according to Lee Enterprises VP of Interactive Media Greg Schermer. Schermer, a frequent spokesperson for the consortium, made his comments during a panel discussion at the NAA Marketing Convention this week in Orlando.

While there has reportedly been some tension in the consortium as many newspapers sought shorter terms and opt-in, opt-out rights — and some newspapers missed deadlines — Schermer reflected on its overall progress. The consortium has imposed a real discipline on the newspapers that are participating, and they have improved their response rate, commitment and time to turn around, he said.

It is also making money. Lee, for instance, raised its online rates for recruitment by fivefold. “We thought we’d get more pushback from customers,” but the value of the technologically superior platform, and improved traffic volume, has quickly proved itself, he said.

The consortium deal has always been about much more than HotJobs, Schermer added. “We signed with Yahoo! because we thought there were other possibilities.”

And in fact, three additional contracts have been signed since HotJobs – a graphics ad (i.e., banner) alliance, which he predicted would lead to a national network; a shared content deal across Yahoo! that inserts newspaper headlines and other content into many Yahoo! channels; and the new Content Match product.

As Yahoo! and the consortium have gotten to know each other better, they have gotten the deals done much faster. The HotJobs deal took 18 months to negotiate. That’s not surprising, since there were 18 sets of customers that overlapped. The consequent deals took six months. The consortium has also brought greater commitment to online and discipline among its newspaper members.

But it hasn’t always been easy. “The toughest thing is the data handling,” Schermer said. “It required lots of heavy lifting by the IT staff. Another challenge was setting up financial reporting across the 19 participating companies. There are three, five accounting firms involved,” he noted. Creating an outbound telemarketing team was also a challenge. “[Rival] CareerBuilder is the gold standard.”

But the ease of pricing and training turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Going forward, Schermer expects to see future deals with the consortium to be “less formalistic and more flexible.” The work in developing the Yahoo! tie was also used to good effect in the consortium’s real estate deal with Zillow, which has required data standards to be set for listings, premium listings and EZ Ads.

Schermer did not discuss, however, why the consortium is working with Zillow instead of Yahoo! for real estate, which would appear to have been logical, given the broad relationship. Conflicting reasons have been provided by insiders.

A new national newspaper network has been set up by Gannett, Tribune, New York Times Co. and Hearst Newspapers, representing 37 of the top 40 U.S. markets.

The network, Quadrant One, will compete (or extend) McClatchy’s RealCities; the NAA’s National Newspaper Network; Centro, which is independently run and includes a wide range of local media; and Yahoo!, which trickles down its display advertisers to its consortium members.

Smaller papers link up via the Suburban Newspaper Network and TownNews’ Dot Connect Media. Other efforts include BlackBox Media, a boutique agency working with a number of mid-tier papers.

QuadrantOne has apparently been in the works for a year. While its reach is impressive, two of the owners’ premier titles — Gannett’s USA Today and The New York Times’ flagship – are excluded. As “national” titles, they’d presumably compete for the same advertising.

Mostly, the effort seems like an extension of Tribune’s titles, which have been selling as a national buy for some time. Two executive leaders – Interim CEO Dana Hayes and VP of Sales Donna Stokley – are longtime veterans of Tribune.

BlackBox Media’s David Teitler, a longtime national ad exec for newspapers, is supportive of the national network concept. Media are still too hard to buy. But he is concerned that there aren’t other types of local media companies involved beyond newspapers – “a silo within a silo.”

He also wonders if “there is a strategic objective in place beyond ‘smiling and dialing’ to sell into top agencies. What is the strategic objective in the next three to five years?

“Is it to provide proof that local online media helps marketers achieve their brand and commerce goals better than other media options?” he continues. “What is the inflection point between brand and commerce that local online media can do better than anyone else?”

Newspapers increasingly see an opportunity to sell SEO/SEM solutions to local advertisers. Such efforts probably began in earnest last year with members of the Yahoo! consortium using Yahoo!’s platforms. Others have been working with WebVisible and other resellers on a custom basis. But things seem to have been heating up, prior to the NAA Marketing conference in Orlando at the end of the month.

Some high-profile (and well-respected) industry execs have recently left their posts and are apparently consulting to the newspaper industry on local solutions. Scripps Interactive VP Bob Benz and former Belo Interactive President Wes Jackson have teamed up with former WebVisible employees Chris Tippie and Charity Huff to sell solutions via a recently formed company named Maroon Ventures. Tippie, 36, left WebVisible one-and-a-half years ago to move to Crested Butte, Colorado, a resort town that is now headquarters for the company.

Maroon already claims to provide “daily operational oversight” of the far-flung Yahoo! consortium to 21 of its members, including Hearst, E.W. Scripps, Philadelphia News Holdings, Media General, Lee Enterprises, MediaNews Group, Cox Newspapers, New York Times Regional Group, Belo, McClatchy and Morris Communications. It also claims a relationship with Metrix4Media, a little-known search firm in which Hearst has a financial stake.

In a press release, Maroon is described as “a professional services firm that connects emerging business opportunities with media companies to help them execute in local markets. Its members draw on extensive operational and strategic experience to drive innovation throughout the business lifecycle.”

Looking at the big picture, we’re pondering Yahoo!’s role in newspaper SEO/SEM. If the deal with Microsoft is consummated, is the consortium solid enough to convey? After all, it was mostly founded to partner with HotJobs, which accounts for the bulk of the deal’s revenue. But banner advertising, behavioral targeting and SEO/SEM are also being added on a tiered basis with some of the consortium members.

Basically, the Yahoo! consortium is entirely a pick-and-choose affair. And sometimes it won’t even end up with Yahoo!. Last year, for instance, in real estate, it chose to work with Zillow.

Theoretically, a combination between Yahoo! and Microsoft and its aQuantive properties would aid the display piece, which is highly coveted by newspapers – especially in building creative capabilities. But that will probably be treated separately from the search equation, where newspapers might want a more independent role.

WebVisible head Kirsten Mangers won’t comment on the development of Maroon Ventures. But she tells us her company has had some success with newspapers in selling SEO/SEM solutions, especially for new advertisers that haven’t previously worked with newspapers. WebVisible has ongoing relations with companies such as MediaNews Group, McClatchy and New York Times and some Gannett-owned properties.

Mangers says the company does best when substantial sales and marketing resources are provided to the partnership. Strong results are being recorded in markets such as Minneapolis, where a dedicated salesperson has been allocated to The Star Tribune. Traditional newspaper sales reps tend to have a hard time focusing on the new SEO/SEM opportunities, due to the fact they carry so many products in their bag, she notes.

Mangers adds that newspapers may be working with several different vendors … even at the same company. Freedom Interactive President Michael Mathieu notes that The Orange County Register, for instance, works with both RHDinteractive’s LocalLaunch and WebVisible. “There is no ‘approved’ vendor” for the industry or for the consortium, she says.

Ultimately, Mangers expresses confidence that her 64-person company has the software, know-how and commitment to be a strong contender in the space. Several newspapers and Yellow Pages companies have gone with other solutions only to come back to WebVisible, she notes.

Other newspaper execs have left their companies also to provide consulting, although they have not specified that they’ll zero in on SEO/SEM solutions. These include MediaNews Group VP Teresa Lawler and Maine Today President Joe Michaud. Similarly, longtime Tribune Interactive head Tim Landon has left Tribune — but that probably has more to do with the change in Tribune’s ownership.

A panel of national agency representatives (”National Advertisers Going Local”) delivered the message that more local revenues would flow to local sites, including IYPs, if the focus were more on making their properties easier for national advertisers and their agencies to work with.

“The search value proposition has been established. We are feeling no sales pressure from the IYP companies for national clients. They need some research, and a framework for placement of ads,” says Shawn Riegsecker, chairman and CEO of Centro, which helps national clients and agencies buy online media at the local level. “We place a ton of display ads, and no one has explained to us why we should place at local level on IYPs or local sites. The industry has to get smarter about how they are selling it, and investing in research.”

Another interesting point of agreement was that most national advertisers are in no hurry to embrace user rating and reviews.

“There is a high degree of discomfort with user-generated content,” said Riegsecker, adding that national brand advertisers still look for “safe” environment to promote their brands.

Alicia Morga, CEO of Consorte Media, said her agency, which specializes in Hispanic media, has found that “social networking sites do not perform as well as we would like.”

An audience member asked whether national advertisers were bidding up local keywords to crowd out truly local keyword advertisers. The panelists pushed back on this, arguing that local accounts were the ones bidding up the local keywords.

“It tends to be local advertisers that drive costs up,” said Jeff Hughes, media director of GM Planworks.

Stuart McKelvey, president and CEO of TMP Directional Marketing, gave ILM:07 attendees a second look at their online user study to help clarify its results and provide insight on how this can serve to help more effectively plan both online and offline media. National advertisers drove the demand to track this information for both online and offline purchase influences to better understand how to appropriately balance their media spending.

One of the main findings of the research, conducted in partnership with comScore, is that local search happens at the end of the buying process after consumers have figured out what they want to buy and move on to where they want to purchase the product or service. “The local search process seems to broaden as consumers begin to narrow who they want to purchase from and how much they want to pay,” McKelvey said. Local price promotions, sales, coupons, financing options are considerations in the local search process — and how can they get to the business offering quickly (are they close and at the best price). The business location and service area is critical information for advertisers to include in their online advertising.

One of the more surprising findings is that brand awareness greatly influences where consumers search. “General search site usage increases with high brand awareness,” according to McKelvey. “In the absence of brand awareness then proximity becomes the major driving force for consumers in their purchase decision.”

While there is a great focus on moving advertisers online, the reality, based on the research, is that the majority of purchases take place offline either in a store visit or in a phone call. Post-search activity is the same across general, local and IYP in that the majority either go to the store or make a phone call — advertisers simply can’t rely on an online-only transaction model in local (80 percent of post-search activity is offline). Surprisingly, of those who had an unsuccessful local search, the print Yellow Pages remains the top resource.

The bottom line is that advertisers need to better measure where customers are coming from in order to maximize their media budgets. This has been the mantra of publishers for years, but the TMP/comScore study clearly indicates advertisers must take advantage of multiple measurements to be sure they are getting high ROI and value.

McKelvey concluded by saying “Online and offline tracking is needed to fully realize the value of each media, thus assisting in the proper alignment of media mix and investment.” Print and online continue to complement each other, and it is important for media companies and advertisers to understand this synergy and spend on media appropriately to drive the best ROI and cost of sales goals.

Last week Bebo, the global social network, announced its new OpenMedia platform partnerships. The network has partnered with major media brands to deliver premium content to its 40 million users.

Partnerships include CBS, MTV Networks, ESPN, the BBC, Channel Four, ITN, Yahoo! and BSkyB, as well as emerging media companies like Music Nation, Next New Networks, Crackle, Ustream, Last.fm and JibJab.

The launch of OpenMedia allows users to create libraries of their favorite content. Users can then rate, post and forward it to friends.

As audiences have started to demand higher quality programming online, this move will satisfy the crowds while providing partners with an opportunity to reclaim their fragmented audiences.

With regard to advertising, many brands look to align themselves with premium content especially when trying to reach the elusive teen (Bebo attracts the 13- to 24-year-old target audience). This move will make it easier for major national brands to make the leap toward advertising on the social network.

Interestingly, the partners will not be charged for access to the platform and are able to distribute their content using their own video players, which can carry their own advertising and allow them to retain 100 percent of the related ad revenues.

Interactive Local Media: 07 is ready to roll Nov. 28-30 in L.A. That’s next Wednesday through Friday!

The show, which is being produced in partnership with SES Local, has attendees from all over the world. One exec told me he is coming on Wednesday, taking the red eye to New York that night due to a prior commitment, and flying back on Thursday night for the final day.

Attendance-wise, we have the biggest sign-up list for a Kelsey event since the mid-1990s. Almost everyone that we have slotted will actually be there. While the agenda has been tight for some time, with 70-plus speakers, here are some last minute adds:

• Christophe Maire, a cofounder of Nokia’s Location-Based Experience Development, is set for Day 3. HOT DISCUSSION TOPIC: Nokia’s $8.1 Billion purchase of NavTeq.

• Laurel Gilbert, from Microsoft’s Atlas division, is speaking on our localizing national advertising panel. HOT DISCUSSION TOPIC: How Microsoft will use Aquantative to transform itself into a true Web advertising giant.

• Doug Kilponen from MerchantCircle is speaking on the localized shopping panel. MerchantCircle just received a $10 million cash infusion from IAC and others. HOT DISCUSSION TOPIC: Best Practices for Signing up Small Businesses.

• Claudia Poepperl from mobilePeople is set to provide a demo of the London-based company’s cutting-edge social mobile technology.

We are also expecting a drop-in from a top executive of a company that’s been in the news, but we can’t say much more about it. And speaking of news, there are lots of interesting news announcements that will drop around the show as well. So, will we see you in L.A.? Here is the registration page.