Published 5th February
Key for Traditional media owners to succeed in THE NEW NEW Media world is to determine their unique strenghts and essential characteristics and then focus.
If the relevant organisations can understand their unique strengths and the essential characteristics to their offer then there is the possibility of mapping a sustainable future. Digital has changed the landscape [...]

Published 15th December
In 2007, co-founder of Microsoft, Bill Gates said yellow-pages use among people under 50 would drop to zero in five years.
The trend in the decline in usage of paper directories certainly suggests this is going to be a reality, potentially even quicker than Gates suggested.
Visit any apartment building or business centre lobby the [...]

Published 26th November
First of Martin’s Inside track columns on mobile. Directly from leading online site mSearchgroove.
 
Local focused mobile advertising is shaping up to be more than a revenue opportunity. There is every indication that it will be one the few channels to buck the downward trend in advertising spend over the next few years. Where’s [...]

Published 19th November
Yesterday French yellow-pages publisher PagesJaunes said growth was more important than balance-sheet concerns as it wanted the freedom to be part of an expected consolidation among local information providers.
Chief executive Jean-Pierre Remy told an investor conference the group had no debt due until late 2013, and headroom on its debt covenants of more [...]

Published 2nd November
The past week or so has seen some interesting developments in the European Directory sector. Take three of the largest publishers; Eniro, Pages Jaunes and Yell.
Last week the Swedish Directory publisher Eniro passed a key financial milestone, according to its third-quarter and year-to-date earnings report. Through nine months of 2009, online revenues surpassed [...]

Published 16th October
The Italian newspaper Milano Finanza reports this morning that the three private equity funds that jointly owns the 50% of Seat PG, owner of Thomsons Directories in the UK,  under a joint shareholding agreement have initated negotiation to sell their stakes.
The newsapaper also mentions two possible buyers, two Italian businessmen (Virgilio Degiovanni and [...]

12 October, 2009 
 The Board of Yell today announces that Toby Coppel has been appointed an independent Non Executive Director with immediate effect.
 Toby (aged 37) was, from April 2007 to December 2008, Managing Director of Yahoo! Europe. He joined Yahoo! in 2001 as Senior Vice President, Corporate Development. He was Chief Strategy Officer from 2006 to 2007.
 Toby [...]

Published 5th October
Partnerships and Joint ventures have to be a way forward.
I previously wrote about how the market opportunity in the new media world will be realised by the those that have grown up around the digital environment – the indigenous – as they are the ones that are most likely to get it and [...]

Published 29th September
Touch Local have acquired from ITV 100% of the share capital of Enable media who operate Scoot and AskAlix in the UK. Established in 2004, TouchLocal is backed by Balderton Capital, the leading Venture Capital Firm.
 The key benefits of this acquisition are as follows:
 1. A combined paying customer base in excess of 25,000 local [...]

Published 23rd September
Yell Group (LSE: YELL.L – news) , the company behind the Yellow Pages directories, will launch an equity offering in a bid to raise at least £500m to pay down debt.
The group, which is currently struggling under a £3.8bn debt burden, aims to take that down to £3.3bn with the equity raising, before [...]