Published 29th July
Study Shows Double Digit Growth of Local Mobile Usage, Unlocking Access to Younger, Wealthier, On-the-Go Consumers
“A US report published today by Comscore and the Yellow Pages association has shown that Consumers looking for local businesses are increasingly turning to their mobile devices to access Internet Yellow Pages and local sites, while similar local [...]

Published 24th March
Guest post published on mSearchGroove 
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mobile advertising is certain the hot topic at CTIA, where Mobile Web And Apps World Forum (Ajit Jaokar’s CTIA partner event) was standing room only. (Well done Ajit!) Players from across the ecosystem are anxious to explore new models to monetize inventory, apps and services. However, as I [...]

Published 23rd March
In the space of just a month (March) US directory publisher Dex One (DexKnows.com) announced what I would consider two progressive online partnerships – Is this a sign of things to come to help them develop their fixed online ambitions?
The first gives them Depth – a deal with Yelp, the second Distribution – a deal [...]

Published 22nd March

According to investir.fi and a number of other reliable sources the world’s leading people search engine 123people, from Austria, has been acquired  by the leading French yellow pages company Pages Jaunes.
Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Although rumor is from EUR 10 to 15 million. 123people was profitable, but they will not reveal specific financial [...]

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 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 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 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 [...]

Published 25th August
In-Brief: Local focused mobile advertising will present significant revenue opportunity and will be one the few channels to buck the downward trend in advertising spend over the next few years. In looking to reap rewards the single biggest challenge will be about providing an offer that is simple, accessible and delivers value to [...]

Author: Martin Wilson
Despite so much doom and gloom about local advertising in general – across newspapers, direct mail, TV, radio, yellow pages, outdoor, magazines and fixed online – collectively forecast by BIA Financial Network (BIA), parent of the Kelsey Group, to decline to $144.4 billion by 2013 from $155 billion last year.  The decline is [...]