One of the often asked questions we receive regarding sales from all local media sectors “is multi-product selling by a single sales force really possible.” The natural follow on question invariably is what would be the benefit of a single sales force as opposed to specialized sales teams for each product area – traditional media products and online/digital products. 

I will go on record as saying I am a strong believer in the ability of a core sales team selling multiple products combining both traditional media and online media. Solution selling is what is being demanded by the local business owner. Our Local Commerce Monitor survey has indicated over the last several waves that SMBs (small and medium-sized businesses) are trying desperately to figure out how all of their media choices fit together. Subdividing media choices into separate sales channels invariably confuses the customer and empowers individual sales force to sell against each other. PaidContent.org recently reported on this very scenario in a recent story about Hulu the online partner of NBC Universal, Fox and ABC. “Hulu, which is under increasing pressure to prove its value as a business in its own right, the battle over ad revenues (with its TV broadcast sales channel) has become more acute as its competes for ad revenue.” Channel conflict is often the case when competing sales channels within the same organization compete for ad budgets. It is rare that an online rep will rein in their recommendation so the next internal sales force has the opportunity for budget. Every sales channel has an objective and every sales person is paid on maximizing every selling situation. 

AdOperationsOnline.com revealed a recent IAB Bain & Company study providing further support for an integrated sales approach saying, “Marketers want integrated campaigns instead of platform-specific media programs.” While the IAB/Bain & Company focused primarily on brand advertisers, the same thinking certainly applies to the SMB marketplace. One of the key findings was, “Ultimately, marketers are looking for media companies to offer a true triple-play service model from direct response to awareness to high impact brand engagement.”  Advertisers are already multi-media buyers, it’s just that the sales process hasn’t yet caught up to where the advertiser is at the moment. Our ongoing survey of SMB, Local Commerce Monitor, indicates that SMBs use on average 3 or more local media to market their business with much higher numbers in categories such as retail, restaurants, and professional services.

Yes it is easier to segment the sales force from a management stand point, and it is more challenging to train a sales force in a new method of selling, but ultimately it comes down to what the advertiser wants and needs. Multi-product selling is about providing a solution to support the advertisers’ business objectives, shows how each media offering supports and relates to each other, and it demonstrates the value of the sales force to the advertiser by educating and demonstrating how the solution meets or exceeds their goals at a price that makes sense. For the organization it maximizes the investment in the core sales force, eliminates channel conflict and focuses on increasing the overall customer value. Let’s make peace with our advertisers and our sales operation. 

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.

New TKR Advisory: ‘The Multiple Layers of the European Directories-Skype Partnership’

We published a new Advisory today in The Kelsey Report that examines the recent deal between European Directories SA (which publishes print and online directories in eight European markets) and the VoIP giant Skype, with its 480 million worldwide users. (read more…)

Jeff Jarvis’ HyperCamp on New Business Models for News

A “hypercamp” dedicated to New Business Models for News was held yesterday in New York City by The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, led by Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine. We weren’t there — wrong coast — and nothing is on the site yet. (read more…)

Deloitte Research Supports Mobile Holiday Shopping; NearbyNow Gears Up

Deloitte released a report indicating this holiday season will see a bump in shopping search performed on mobile devices (in addition to social and other online media). Specifically, 19 percent of survey respondents claim they’ll use mobile search for gift shopping. (read more…)

Recommended Reading: The Smartphone Blue Sky

The New York Times’ Bob Tedeschi has a neat column today (thanks for the link, Peter) that speculates what smartphone technology will look like in two years. This comes from his recent conversations with researchers at MIT, SRI, and the iconic Xerox PARC. (read more…)

Twitter Continues March Toward Local Relevance

Twitter is getting closer to the promise of bringing location into the equation as a key component to status updates. Its geolocation support is rolling out, and it recently announced a new local trending topics feature. (read more…)

Sacramento Press’ Model Blends Hyperlocal With Social Media Management

Hyperlocal models continue experimenting with ways to make it work on a standalone basis. Networks, e-commerce and other revenue streams have all been tested. Backfence vet Mark Potts has even set up GrowthSpur as a consulting firm and national network specifically to leverage the clout of hyperlocal sites. (read more…)

HelpHive Shifts: SMBs Must Opt-In to Have HelpHive Number

HelpHive, the new Seattle-based leads provider for service SMBs, had made some changes after running into real PR problems last week from Evan Conklin, an angry (and persistent) plumber. He was irate that the company was taking SMB phone numbers and trademark info, and funneling them through its own system so it could take credit for leads. (read more…)

More on Google/AdMob: A Big Deal

Following up on this morning’s “just the facts” post about Google’s AdMob acquisition, here’s a bit more commentary. First off, this is a big deal — both in size and in what it could mean for the two companies. Google is clearly keen on replicating its online dominance to the mobile world as growing smartphone penetration drives the growth of the mobile Web. (read more…)

‘Oodle Pro’ Launches: Tying the Self-Serve Sensibility of AdSense to Social

Its not just about advertising anymore. Social media is important too. Accordingly, a number of vendors and network providers have developed tools to help them see where there best placements are and how their reputations are unfolding online, and to simplify and automate their processes for listings and other information. (read more…)

Ad:Tech/New York: Digital Marketing Is Promising, Hard to Execute and Headed Toward Mobile

Ad:Tech/New York, “the event for digital marketing,” ran Nov 4-6 at the Javits Convention Center. This event was predominantly focused on national advertising. There was some attention to international advertising and even less on local advertising. (read more…)

We’ve learned that Yell Group veteran sales, marketing and product development executive Paul Plant has decided to accept a retirement package and will leave the company at year’s end. Plant tells us that he’ll take a short holiday, but almost immediately begin seeking new opportunities in the directories and local search industry.

I’ve known Paul for many years, and have always valued his knowledge, broad experience, insight and not least of all his hospitality on visits to the U.K. over the years. Talking shop over dinner with Paul has been among the great pleasures of my career. Paul combines a genuine love for the business with the ability to accept and embrace change. In fact he’s been an agent of change for many years within Yell.

Here is what Steve Chambers, Yell’s chief commercial officer, said in announcing Paul’s departure:

“On 31st December 2009, Paul Plant will be leaving the company to pursue new personal interests, after a career of almost 24 years with Yell, spanning a number of important Sales and Marketing roles.

Paul has made a substantial contribution to Yell’s achievements since joining as a Field Sales Representative in 1986. In the mid 1990’s he successfully led the London Sales Region for five years, & after joining the Marketing team in Reading was a member of the small team that brought about the acquisition of Yellowbook USA in 1999.

He played a key role in both our European Quality Award wins in 1999 & 2004, has contributed to the development & growth of our Yell.com & 118247 products, whilst also championing new printed product development & innovation. Always an agent for change, Paul has more recently been a key contributor to the current programme of business transformation, as a member of the specialist team responsible for delivering our new Sales Model.

Paul’s ‘larger than life’ personality will be missed by friends and colleagues throughout the company, and I am sure you will all join me in wishing him well for the future.”

We published a new Advisory today in The Kelsey Report that examines the recent deal between European Directories SA (which publishes print and online directories in eight European markets) and the VoIP giant Skype, with its 480 million worldwide users.

The deal has the potentially to dramatically increase the number of leads EDSA can drive to its small-business advertisers by making the Skype calls free to Skype users. It also has a quasi-SEO element in that it can help drive more clickthroughs in Google 7 Pack for EDSA advertisers featuring the blue free calling button.

For the past several months, my colleague Mike Boland has been following the advance of Skype’s local search and small-business strategy and its growing involvement with directory publishers as strategic partners here on the Local Media Blog.

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.

Angie’s List Adds First ‘National’ Vertical: Classic and Custom Cars

Following the success of eBay Motors with special classic and custom car restoration verticals, other sites have pitched their own tents to get a piece of the $2 billion annual business, including AutoTrader and The New York Times.  Now comes Angie’s List. (read more…)

Happy Droid Day (and Recommended Reading)

Nov. 6 has been highly anticipated within gadget geek circles over the past few weeks, as the date of the public release of Motorola’s Droid. It is made by Motorola, runs on Verizon’s network, and is the first to be powered by the newest release (2.0) of Google’s Android operating system. And by the way, it looks pretty sleek. I haven’t touched one yet but plan to get my hands on it soon. (read more…)

Village Voice Rebrands National Network; Focuses on Cross Media

Village Voice Media, the large media company that includes 14 alternative weeklies, is rebranding its national network, which represents 50 alt weekly titles, as the name shifts from Ruxton Media to Voice Media Group. As part of the rebranding, it is also refocusing national advertisers on its cross media appeal, which delivers entertainment-centric young urbanites via its print properties, 100 online destination sites and verticals, e-mail and text messages. (read more…)

The Angry Plumber: ‘Don’t Misappropriate My Online Listing!’ 

A flurry of business lead services have cropped up, each a variation on the model that has been successfully developed by ServiceMagic and others. They basically provide a directory, information, leads and marketing services. One of the new crop of lead services is HelpHive in Seattle, which recently launched and was profiled here. (read more…)

MSN’s Cyrus Krohn: The New Local Focus

Microsoft’s MSN has been a good hodgepodge that gets 100 million users a month. But it hasn’t had a serious redo for 10 years. So the question posed to a new team brought in to redo the site was: How do you make the site stand out and really help users? (read more…)

Marchex Dives Into Self-Serve

Self-serve ad solutions aren’t a major part of the ad universe today. A recent BIA/Kelsey survey found few companies selling more than 10 percent of their SMB advertising via online. But self-serve meets the needs of certain online-oriented categories. And for economic reasons, of course — they are far cheaper to execute than premise sales — they remain the Holy Grail for pushing SMB sales. (read more…)

IPhone: Lots of Apps, We Get It

Apple announced its latest app milestone today; crossing the six-digit mark. The previous milestone was 85,000 during the Q4 earnings announcement last month. It’s clear that app development is accelerating: I just wonder how press-worthy these milestones will continue to be until Apple falls back to the McDonald’s-esque “billions and billions served.” (read more…)

ComScore: Smartphones Up, Touchscreens Way Up

ComScore has released data that show smartphones in the U.S. now total 33.8 million units — a 63 percent year-over-year increase. But the highlight of the report was that touchscreen devices outpace even this with 159 percent year-over-year growth to 23.8 million units. (read more…)

Millennial: Agencies Hot for Mobile

Fresh off its monthly SMART report, mobile ad network Millennial Media released a report today that reveals advertiser sentiments towards mobile marketing. Based on a survey of ad agencies; CPG, Retail, Entertainment, Travel and Restaurant categories are expected to be the top sources of mobile ad spending in 2010. (read more…)

Yell Wins Over Lenders, Raises GBP 500M to Ease Debt

The global directory publisher Yell Group has succeeded in its effort to convince lenders to go along with a plan to raise 500 million pounds through a rights issue and restructure its 3.8 billion pound debt load. Debt restructuring has become an increasingly urgent concern for Yell as the year has progressed and results in many of its key properties sagged under the weight of a global economic slowdown. (read more…)

The global directory publisher Yell Group has succeeded in its effort to convince lenders to go along with a plan to raise 500 million pounds through a rights issue and restructure its 3.8 billion pound debt load. Debt restructuring has become an increasingly urgent concern for Yell as the year has progressed and results in many of its key properties sagged under the weight of a global economic slowdown. Easing the debt burden has been a particular focus of company Chairman Bob Wigley, a former Merrill Lynch banker who assumed the post in June.

According to Bloomberg, the deal with creditors calls for extending maturity of its loans to 2014 and reducing borrowing by 300 million pounds.

Yell Group is the leading directory publisher in the U.K. and also owns Yellowbook, the leading U.S. independent publisher. Yell also operates Yell Publicidad, with market leadership positions in Spain and in the South American markets of Argentina, Chile and Peru.

Many global directory publishers have made deleveraging a priority this year, as investors and lenders grow increasingly skittish over high debt-EBITDA ratios on businesses with declining core revenues. The Swedish publisher Eniro, for example, conducted a rights issue earlier this year that raised 2.4 billion Swedish krona to reduce that company’s debt. At the end of Q3, Eniro’s leverage ratio was reduced from 4.8X at the start of the year to 3.6X, with a total indebtedness of 7.1 billion krona.

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.

ShopCity Partners With Chambers of Commerce, Local Governments

The potential of working with chambers of commerce to sell online marketing accounts to local businesses is an alluring one. They potentially can provide the highest quality, best context leads for SMBs. Initial efforts to partner with chambers, however, haven’t generally worked out due to their poor focus, lack of training, business conflicts, and several false starts from the national chamber. Still, the potential is seen as too good to pass up. (read more…)

Thumbtack: Local Leads for the Rest of the Small-Business World

I recently had a chance to talk with Marco Zappacosta, founder and CEO of Thumbtack, a newly launched online resource for trusted local businesses. Thumbtack facilitates an online marketplace for local services by offering consumers one place to easily find, compare and purchase local services, while also giving service providers verifiable reputation, transaction support, appointment management and marketing tools. (read more…)

TMP/ComScore: Local Search Patterns Vary Widely

One size doesn’t fit all in local search. And there is no reason to throw out traditional media such as Yellow Pages just to become dependent on Google. In fact, every medium still has its purpose, and should be analyzed on the basis of how it is actually used, according to a new study by TMP Directional Marketing/15 Miles, using data and analysis from comScore. The study was discussed during an Oct. 21 webinar. (read more…)

Allbritton Combines Two D.C.-Area TV Station Sites Into Local Portal

Allbritton Communications will merge its two Washington, D.C.-area TV station sites — WJLA.com and News8.net — and build a new 50-person local D.C. site behind former Washingtonpost.com editor Jim Brady, who developed the concept. The site will be run adjacent to Politico, Allbritton’s successful all-politics vertical. (read more…)
Online Now Eniro’s Top Revenue Category

The Swedish directory publisher Eniro has passed a key financial milestone, according to its third-quarter and year-to-date earnings report, released this week. Through nine months of 2009, online revenues surpassed offline (print revenues), making Eniro a majority online directory business (excluding revenues from its directory assistance operation, and a plurality with voice included). (read more…)

OMMA Mobile: Benjamin Moore and Kodak’s ‘Apps as Ads’

At OMMA Mobile, a panel is batting around the top issues and opportunities of using the mobile device as a branding medium. Specifically a good portion of the conversation is focusing on building mobile apps as brand engagement plays. (read more…)

OMMA Mobile: ESPN Mobile Is Incremental to PC

I’m at MediaPost’s OMMA mobile show today, speaking and liveblogging some of the morning sessions (forgive typos). Right now, keynoter John Zehr, SVP and GM of ESPN Mobile, is outlining the mobile opportunity as it applies to a sports media giant. (read more…)

Comcast Sees Digital YP Opportunity

The cable TV giant Comcast has begun offering a Yellow Pages-branded local search experience via its cable television network. Through the remote, Comcast subscribers can access local business listings through the television remote, and SMBs can have their information listed for as little as $8 a month. The cable company is reportedly offering premium advertising packages with price tags as high as $5,000 a month. (read more…)

Canada’s YPG Makes Big Online Moves

New Yellow Pages Group (Canada) CMO Stephane Marceau, on the job since June, is beginning to make his mark, with two big online announcements this week. The combined moves suggest YPG is stepping up its efforts to generate more traffic on its own property as well as through major Canadian traffic sources. (read more…)

Kuni BMW Leverages Local/Social: 4,690 Facebook ‘Fans’

For those who doubt social media can play an effective role in local business marketing, check out Kuni  BMW, which is based in Beaverton, OR. The dealership has a headstart with its nameplate — BMW owners are well known for their sense of community. Many still flash each other’s headlights when they pass each other. (read more…)

The Swedish directory publisher Eniro has passed a key financial milestone, according to its third-quarter and year-to-date earnings report, released this week. Through nine months of 2009, online revenues surpassed offline (print revenues), making Eniro a majority online directory business (excluding revenues from its directory assistance operation, and a plurality with voice included).

Eniro operates in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Poland. Its Norway operation has been majority online for a while, but this is the first time that online was the largest revenue component at a group level.

Through nine months, Eniro generated offline revenues of SEK 1,885 million, and online revenues of SEK 1,931 million. Voice (DA) revenues total SEK 799 million. Excluding voice, online accounts for 50.6 percent of revenues. Including voice, online represents a plurality of revenues at 41.8 percent, with print making up 40.8 percent and voice 17.3 percent. One U.S. dollar is roughly equal to seven SEK.

The Kelsey Report will summarize Eniro financial results in an upcoming Client Inquiry Brief.

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.

JD Power Roundtable: Social Media Key for Ford

All accounts from last week’s JD Power’s Automotive Roundtable in Las Vegas suggest that Ford Group VP Jim Farley laid out a really compelling picture of how a major manufacturer looks at its opportunities in digital and especially social media. (read more…)

Real-Time Search, Part II: Local

In the previous post, I promised to address the local angle of yesterday’s blitz of search engine/ social media deals. Many of the concepts apply to local: We’ve looked at a few examples in the past such as the efforts of Praized Media to marry local search with Twitter-like feeds. (read more…)

Real-Time Search: Now It’s On

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock today, you’ve heard about the deal between Google and Twitter and that between Bing and Twitter and Facebook (I know, it’s confusing). Essentially these deals boil down to Google and Bing getting access to Twitter’s (and Facebook’s in Bing’s case) feed of real-time status updates. These will be displayed alongside traditional results in some way that will likely evolve over time. (read more…)

Ex-Chicago Trib Staffers to Provide Chicago Content for NY Times

Local news blogs may have trouble making their economics work. But what if their content can be picked up and paid for by major media outlets? That’s the model behind the Chicago News Cooperative (CNC), a new organization of former Chicago Tribune staffers. (read more…)

Association Merger Agreement Finalized

The long-awaited merger agreement between the Yellow Pages Association (representing publishers) and the Association of Directory Marketing (representing Yellow Pages ad agencies, or CMRs) has been approved by the groups’ respective boards. Now the deal faces membership approval, which appears all but certain before the end of November. (read more…)

Cablevision’s Newsday Goes Behind the Firewall

Cablevision has made good on its threat to put the online version of Newsday behind a firewall, accessible only by print subscribers or online-only users willing to pay $5 per week. Classifieds will remain free. (read more…)

Poynting the Way: A Conversation With Multiplied Media

Today I had the chance to talk to Multiplied Media, the company behind the fast moving Poynt mobile search product. In the past year, it has planted its stakes as the most popular mobile local search app for BlackBerries. (read more…)

Mary Meeker: Mobile Will Save Our Souls (and Much Love for iPhone)

Morgan Stanley Managing Director Mary Meeker gave her annual brain dump to the Web 2.0 Summit yesterday, painting a picture of a mobile-centric media world on the horizon. At the heart of her argument was the contention that location (mobile device’s inherent portability and location awareness) will drive much of this innovation and value. (read more…)

BIA/Kelsey Research: 9% of SMBs Using Twitter

A BIA/Kelsey press release today reveals data from Local Commerce Monitor, indicating that 9 percent of small businesses use Twitter to market themselves. Thirty-two percent of SMBs meanwhile intend to use social media in their marketing in the next 12 months. (read more…)

Apple Earnings Rise on Strong iPhone Sales

Apple announced fourth-quarter earnings today with profits of $1.67 billion ($1.82 per diluted share). This is up 47 percent year over year from $1.14 billion ($1.26 per share), beating analyst expectations of $1.60 per share. (read more…)

Motorists in Melbourne, Australia, can now navigate their city in 3-D using the Whereis navigation system, produced by Sensis, Australia’s leading directories publisher. Whereis is rolling out 3-D city models this week. The product focuses on Melbourne’s central business district.

While different in several important aspects, this product brings to mind the broader emerging category of immersive experiences in directory and mapping applications. (The differences include in-car device versus online, 3-D versus actual photos, navigation versus local business search.)

We’ve seen directory publishers, including European Directories, launch street level navigation experiences in their IYPs using actual photos and the ability to pan 360 degrees. Of course Google has street view (where I was able to virtually drive to the front door of my house — a bizarre experience), and in Canada, Canpages has launched its own street level experience.

Everyscape offers technology that media companies can use to build their own immersive directory products.

It Italy, Seat SpA was a bit ahead of its time with its Visual product. But now, as consumers are trained to expect street views and satellite photos, perhaps they will embrace a similar experience in local search, assuming the process is seamless and it adds real value to the search result.

European Directories SA has named Ben Legg as its new chief operating officer. Legg comes to EDSA from Google, where he was COO of European operations. EDSA is a major directory player in Europe, with market leadership positions in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands and Slovakia, and strong competitive positions in Poland and Sweden.

The announcement would appear to be a coup for EDSA, luring a high-profile exec from Europe’s dominant search player. EDSA, like others in the space, is busy transforming itself into a lead generation rather than a directory company. No doubt Legg’s experience at Google will help in this transition.

According to his LinkedIn profile, Legg joined Google in January 2007 as director of operations. Prior to Google, Legg spent several years with Coca-Cola bottlers in Greece and India. He began his career in 1999 at McKinsey, where he worked until 2002, and before that, he spent 10 years in the British Army as an engineering officer. He is a civil engineering graduate of Cranfield University.

I participated in a webinar sponsored by DataXu discussing how the development of display ad exchanges will make real-time bidding for display ad units and impressions similar to the current SEM process by making it more open, targeted and technology driven. I attended the webinar because of the increasing interest of local media publishers in how they might take advantage of these emerging platforms to offer display advertising similar to how they offer SEM. 

Bruce Journey, DataXu’s chief revenue officer, pointed out that “the available inventory of online display advertising is growing exponentially based on the number of outlets and the number of available impressions. As of today, on a monthly basis, there are 300 billion impressions available, which will grow to 1.5 trillion by 2010 indicating a tremendous amount of inventory that could be sold.” 

Companies like DataXu and others are adding behavioral and segmentation analysis to the process to better target potential customers and to have a better understanding of buying intent. As Journey explained, “highly researched categories such as automotive have a significant cookie trail to indicate areas of interest and intent. The new behavioral research allows agency buyers to look for patterns and make smarter buying decisions.”

While most of the inventory being sold via ad exchanges is the basic banner and leader board units, the ability to place ads across a number of sites and ad networks makes this an appealing segment to build revenues either for a publisher or an agency.

Mike Baker, CEO of DataXu said: “The greatest value to a publisher in an ad exchange is the ability to move inventory in order to maximize revenue potential on their sites. By enabling a larger pool of buyers via a real-time bidding platform, publishers increase their ability of moving and selling inventory at a higher price point.” 

The real question in my mind is can this automation and decentralization of display unit buying be offered to the local small and medium-sized business interested in brand or promotional advertising. Adoption of SEM has certainly increased at a rapid pace thanks in part to directory and newspaper publishers, begging the question, could directory, newspaper or other local media sales teams get into the real-time bidding game by offering display advertising to their existing advertisers? Leveraging existing relationships with Yahoo and Google and partnering with real-time bidding platforms could create this very scenario. As these systems mature and the measurement becomes more refined, display ads from the local plumber and florist could be viewed side by side with major brands.   

From the department of transparent marketing ploys comes an effort by 192.com, a UK Internet directory service, demanding an opt-in regime for phone book distribution in Britain.

This is neither a unique nor an indefensible position. Many environmental groups around the world are actively pushing for various flavors of opt-in or opt-out programs to reduce the number of unwanted phone books. And BIA/Kelsey believes the industry needs to embrace opt-out programs because it’s the right thing to do and it might help stave off a more severe consumer/environmentalist backlash. But when a competitor to the phone book takes up this mantle, it takes on an aura of self-serving shamelessness that diminishes what might otherwise be a useful debate.

The main unnamed target of the 192.com campaign is Yell, the leading print directories publisher and also a key player in  IYP, the field that 192.com wants to play in.

For a little color, see this article in The Sun, one of Britain’s more exuberant tabloids.

The Nordics directory publisher Eniro last week announced a reorganization to a “more rational corporate structure.” The new plan divides the business into three functions that cut across all the company’s national operating units — Products and Services, Operations and Sales. Previously, these functions were managed from within each of Eniro’s country-level units. Eniro operates in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway and Poland.

The reorganization appears to end a structure created by previous CEO Tomas Franzén that divided print and online operations and sales into two distinct operations. In an interview with BIA/Kelsey in February, Eniro CEO Jesper Karrbrink suggested Eniro may move away from the dedicated print and online approach in favor of a blended model that Karrbrink acknowledged would be more efficient and more in keeping with a multiproduct strategy.

A key element of the reorganization is naming Peter Kusendahl senior vice president of sales, with group responsibility. Sales leadership had previously been pushed down to the country level. Kusendahl had previously been in charge of all “offline” or print operations. He is the executive most responsible for the success of Din Del, Eniro’s Swedish local directories operation.

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.

NPR Gets $3 Million for Local Initiative

NPR will work with a pilot group of a dozen NPR stations to create multimedia local news that will work online and on radio, thanks to new grants from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting ($2 million) and $1 million from the Knight Foundation. (read more…)

Yellow Pages and SMB Odds and Ends

For a bit of insight on how small businesses in a meat and potatoes category (Tire Dealers) view the evolution of their ad spend, see this article from TireBusiness.com (I only get it for the articles). One observation is how little performance measurement enters into the discussion of where to invest ad dollars. (read more…)

Pay-Per-Call Transparency: A Conversation With Yext

I’m slowly getting around to catching up with all of the local search companies that received accolades at the TechCrunch50 show earlier this month. Rounding out the list is Yext, a company that characterizes itself as a “pay per action” provider. (read more…)

Aloqa Launches API, Lowers Barriers for Mobile Publishers

In our last writeup on Aloqa, one of the features highlighted was the ability for businesses to create a branded “channel” within the Aloqa app. The benefit here is that it’s much cheaper than building your own iPhone app and could even get found easier, given the increasing amount of noise (85,000 apps) in Apple’s App Store. (read more…)

Dinan: PPC Will Dominate but Coexist With Subscription Pricing

Caught up with Bill Dinan after our Directional Media Strategies event last week, where he sat on a panel that I moderated called “Fixing the Yellow Pages Business Model.” Much of the session content centered around pay-per-call models. (read more…)

San Diego Hyperlocal Site Launches ‘U.S. Local News Network’

The San Diego News Network announced ambitious plans to expand its template for local news, sports, events, lifestyle and entertainment, to 40 North American cities in the next 30 months. The company, renamed  The U.S. Local News Network, already has sites in San Diego and the southwest portion of adjacent Riverside County. It is set to launch in Orange County before the end of the year. The company has raised close to $2 million. (read more…)

Facebook’s Tim Kendall: What Works in Social Advertising

Facebook is tweaking its approach to advertising, given the realities of what’s effective in social media, according to Facebook Director of Monetization Tim Kendall, who was speaking at TargusInfo’s Online Lead Quality Summit last week in Las Vegas. The problem is people who are visiting social networks are not explicitly in “consideration mode,” he noted. (read more…)

Can Pandora Be a Local Play?

I missed this until now but Sarah Lacy at TechCrunch has an interesting post on Internet radio business models. This is told through the story of Pandora, which had a few brushes with fatality, since being alleviated by grassroots action, funding and a favorable RIAA settlement. (read more…)

Bookshelf: Stibel’s ‘Wired for Thought’

There has been kind of a disconnect for me in former Web.com head Jeff Stibel’s twin identities as a top local executive, and as a brain scientist. Not anymore. In a provocative and valuable new book, “Wired for Thought,” Stibel lays out a solid case that the development of the Internet parallels the development of the human brain — only the Internet doesn’t suffer from poor memory and slow processing speeds. (read more…)

One Newspaper’s Revenue Strategy: Hard-Core Focus on Local, Print

Newspapers can still win with a hardcore community focus in their journalism and advertising, and a renewed emphasis on print. Or at least, that’s s the message delivered by Ed Moss, the newly installed publisher of The San Diego Union-Tribune, which was sold a few months ago at a fire-sale price to Platinum Equity, a buyer of troubled properties. (read more…)

Here are some interesting directory and small-business advertising related items I’ve plucked from recent news alerts.

For a bit of insight on how small businesses in a meat and potatoes category (Tire Dealers) view the evolution of their ad spend, see this article from TireBusiness.com (I only get it for the articles). One observation is how little performance measurement enters into the discussion of where to invest ad dollars.

I also came across this piece from the Rochester, NY, Democrat and Chronicle that talks in anecdotal terms about the trend for consumers and small-business owners to tackle repair and remodeling projects on their own. What is notable is the scale of the projects, many involving complex and possibly dangerous plumbing and electrical work. This may stand to reason in a deep recession, but it isn’t good news for contractors or the local media that sell them advertising.

Interesting counterintuitive take on small-business advertising from The Wall Street Journal’s small business advice column. The basic message is don’t overlook unsexy media choices like door hangers, Yellow Pages or the local church newsletter. They are often more targeted and effective than given credit, depending on the product and the target audience.

Interesting report here on how Yellow Pages in New Zealand is struggling with its decision to offshore its DA call center. Having been to NZ a couple of times, I can see how an offshore agent might struggle with some of the Maori words, which come in handy given so many towns have Maori names. The larger issue raised is how much of a business is call-based DA in the era of the Internet and mobile phones?

The traditional print directory has been under fire over the past few years, but panelists at DMS ’09 feel there is new life in the print book as it moves from its stagnant 1.0 version to become more usable and consumer focused. It’s important to point out that while the perception remains that directories are dying, they are still a dominant leads source and business driver for small and medium-sized businesses. Directory revenues remain on average 80 percent of publisher’s revenues, and directories are the dominant media source driving the highest number of calls and visits.

As Michelle Sherwood, GM of marketing for Sensis put it, “we are not seeing the death spiral many have predicted for the print directory.” 

The print directory is slowly evolving into a new YP2.0 format that is more flexible and hyperlocal to address the changing needs of consumers and localized businesses. Publishers are seeking ways to make the directory access points more relevant to the local consumer.

Sherwood pointed out, “The key to relevance is offering consumers a choice on how they want to access the book or the content whether that is in the form of a local book or a smaller size directory, or one designed for use in the car. It’s a matter of getting the right book to the right people who have a desire to use the content.” 

Abram Andrzejewski, CEO of HomePages Directories, said, “directories can address the geographic needs of consumers who want localized information not easily found online since hyperlocal data might be very limited.”

Hyperlocal books seek to meet the needs of smaller geographic neighborhood or sections of cities in a way that offers true local content that builds a more intimate relationship with consumers since it delivers content such as local ordinances, profiles of local leaders, events not generally covered elsewhere and other content generated by local entities.

YP2.0 is characterized by more simplified headings that may reflect how people are searching on other forms of media such as online or mobile. In hyperlocal books, the product set is more limited and offered at a price point that reflects the distribution and a geography that makes sense to localizes businesses that may have a single location or limited trading area.

According to Andrzejewski, “larger directories in major urban markets could do the same thing by breaking down their books into more hyperlocal books and let the advertiser choose the postal codes that make sense to them and link to the communities where they are known and relevant.” 

Both panelists concluded that directory organizations need be willing to experiment and invest in their print products.

As Sherwood put it, “we need to keep investing in the product, looking for ways to innovate based on consumer research, and promote the successes of advertisers so publishers set the perception of success rather than rely on others to downplay its ability to effectively bring buyers and sellers together.”

One other key conclusion was that leads needs to be the new local media currency with the caveat that directory organizations need to be the most effective leads source if they hope to dominate. If directories fail to move on to YP2.0, they may very well continue to follow the downward path. But those that embrace the new 2.0 innovations may be those that see revitalization of their marquee product.  

The local media marketplace continues its rocky road through the current economy, but many companies are bullish on their futures given the moves they have made in diversifying their product portfolios with new digital offerings to balance their core media products. 

In order to maintain leadership positions in the small and medium-sized business marketplace, the key it seems, is  developing and maintaining the sales agent and customer relationship. Smart media companies are using their sales approach as a competitive differentiator as they move to more consultative multimedia approaches.

As Kevin Payne from Local Insight Media said: “We want to own the customer relationship to keep out other local media competitors. Our goal is to be the best, most customer-focused agent they meet with. We want to own the local media relationship.”

Adding on to this thought, Jim Smith, a senior advisor to Yellow Pages Group New Zealand, supported the idea that “the added value not only comes from the sales interaction but the entire chain from customer support, product fulfillment, and data reporting that builds customer loyalty and satisfaction and sets a local media company apart from the rest of the pack.” 

Data also seem to be part of the reason for being optimistic. Advertisers are becoming more conservative with their marketing budgets and measurement and ROI data are becoming incredibly important.

Eric Webb, president of Marquette Group, hammered this point home: “We need to get our clients addicted to data because we can deliver deep data that shows the value of their marketing dollars. This is very different from other local media who are not as focused on driving leads and calls.”

According to Nick Veronis, managing director of Veronis Suhler Stevenson: “It is difficult to duplicate the depth and quality of the database and local base of SMB customers directories have created. This is a factor that makes it difficult for other local media players to compete against.” 

Looking into the future, many of the panelists felt that some level of consolidation will occur, but not on a massive level as some might have thought. Mat Stover, CEO of Local Matters, said: “Those players who do not have a strong digital presence may be most at risk and are key targets for consolidation. The flip side is that there is too much competition for the market to consolidate into just a few key incumbent players.” 

All the panelists felt moving to a multimedia organization was a must, and that the time to build out this portfolio of products is a priority to compete and thrive. Webb received a round of applause saying, “multiproduct portfolios need to be developed, but local media needs to stop selling on price alone.” His point was that the value of the media solution needs to be stressed to SMBs so they understand what they are buying and what they will receive in return.

Asked if there will be massive turnover if they retrain their sales force on multiproduct selling, most felt a sizable portion could make the transition, if they are supported. Smith added, “the companies that manage the transition well will train reps on the value of a better customer experience and show how each of their offerings addresses SMB needs on their own and in combination.” 

The final burning question was about the value and viability of self-service purchasing of local media. While most felt that local media is sold rather than purchased, Chris Spanos, GM Local & Search Verticals AOL, brought up the point that, “self-service helps to on-board new clients particularly if the focus is on supporting services such as reputation management to help get them linked to your company for upselling opportunities.”

Webb also added, “local media companies need to look at ways to use self-serve as a way of automating part of the sales process to increase productivity and efficiencies.”

Change is under way in the directory space with most feeling there is no time to wait to make the change because customers and the local competition are demanding a better approach to supporting their needs and delivering multimedia solutions that make sense.    

Few companies have seen the ups and downs of the media industry like R.H. Donnelley. BIA/Kelsey President Neal Polachek asked Directonal Media Strategies Day 2 keynote Speaker Dave Swanson, RHD chairman and CEO, to speak about what’s happened and what’s ahead for his company and the industry. The audience was treated to an honest, passionate and extremely eloquent perspective.

“We are in an industry where the definition of good is doing less bad,” Swanson said. His view is the good news today is that because of how far and fast the industry has fallen, the opportunity is now greater for everyone in the directional media business.

RHD was one of the first media companies to tell analysts in their quarterly reports that the economy was in trouble. There was scoffing at the time, but RHD clearly had identified an unfortunate leading economic indicator. To make his point about the current economy, Swanson referenced a Goldman Sachs report that he said showed the average sales of S&P 500 companies were down 16 percent in the second quarter. That was on top of a 14 percent drop in Q1, according to Swanson.

There were three major bubbles that contributed to our economic woes: the well-known housing bubble, the lesser-known advertising bubble and the all important credit bubble. Nevertheless, “I don’t regret choosing the growth strategy we pursued,” said Swanson, adding that he really didn’t have an alternative if he wanted RHD to survive.

For media companies, it is the downturn of the economy that overshadows any other changes. Besides the economy, secular changes in shopping habits, the growth of print competitors (according to Swanson, the number of books being distributed has doubled) and overall media competition, including a new set of online companies, have combined to hurt the Yellow Pages industry. Every one of these competitors promises to give businesses better results at a significantly lower price. “It’s a darn good thing that our products work as well as they do,” Swanson said.

At that point, he looked at the audience and admitted that as he reread his remarks, he sounded like he was whining, but the fault lies within as well. “The fact is that technology and our execution has been a huge disruptor for us,” he said. Systems conversions are painful both for employees and for customers. To meet competition, we have created a shiny new set of digital offerings where we too often overpromised and underdelivered.

Importantly, Swanson said, “for RHD, the worst is behind us. Our systems are burned in; our cultures are melding together. We are learning how to better execute print, online and local search products.” He said that Yellow Pages will never dominate directional media as we have in the past and that RHD is investing money in those myriad places where consumers begin their search. He reminded the audience that there is a big difference between good and not so good traffic, so RHD is investing in technology that shows how successful leads are.

Finally, RHD is focusing on “how we can help merchants. We are building service-centric models focused on the needs of local businesses. We want to be the No. 1 provider of directional marketing services.” He admitted that we’re in a transition right now, but the model works because there are no incremental sales costs because of the channel and the relationships. RHD is looking at micro strategies for growth and focusing on geo-verticals (i.e., lawyers in Denver).

Swanson was upbeat despite the fact that “main street is not participating in Wall Street’s rally yet.” This is a position that BIA/Kelsey has stated several times in the past. The recession has a way to go before we start to see job, housing, advertising and credit growth. Swanson has been on a wild ride since he became CEO of RHD in 2002, but his look at what happened was honest and his perspective of what’s ahead sounded reasonable and doable.

Marquette Group CEO Chris Cummings gave a familiar call for industry change today at DMS. He stressed the need to communicate value to advertisers through data toward the end of instilling trust.

“In the end our advertisers will gravitate towards the product that they trust,” he said. “Our responsibility is to prove how accountable we are to drive value to our advertisers.”

The rules have changed, he said, and the industry finds itself in the unfamiliar position of not being in the driver seat. That position has been taken over by the user. And if you can’t beat ’em join ’em.

“Consumers have the control and we have to provide what is right for them. What is the best locally oriented information to make decisions,” he said. “One thing is clear, tough times will determine who has the fortitude to look to new models.”

Among other things, this will mean leaner and meaner sales staffs, he said. And despite the losses and PR hits the industry has taken, it’s this sales force that stands among a unique and underrated set of assets. Realizing and shifting the emphasis of the business toward those assets will be a survival imperative

“There are lots of people out there, including Google, that would kill to have this data and this access,” he said.

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Update: From the Q&A session (Cummings on CMRs): “The job in 1979 was to make chicken manure into chicken salad. Today that job is to provide demonstrable value to every advertiser…because you are now dealing with metrics.”