The Praized Blog

I’m just coming out of the last session of this year’s DDC conference organized by the Kelsey Group. Again, a very good conference with interesting topics and multiple networking opportunities. Here are some random data points from the various speech and panels I heard in the last two days.

• Print media still represents 90% of total directory industry revenues
• 60% of SMEs do at least half of their business with other businesses
• 21% of SMEs have embraced cell phones and VOIP lines (instead of the traditional phone company land line)
• 34% of SMEs ad budget is dedicated to online media (including web site expenditures)
• Automotive represents 60% of Trader Corp’s revenues (Trader Canada)
• Jingle: at least 90% of their revenues come from national advertisers. 5% of their queries are category-based. They have close to 100,000 advertisers.
• White Directory Publishers will generate $3-4M in online video revenues in 2008.
• The optimal length for an online local video ad is 45 seconds.

The Kelsey Group’s blog reports on a possible sale by Sensis of their Trading Post classified property.

After being one of the first directory companies to enter the classified market, Telstra’s Sensis has placed its Trading Post property for sale. According to a report in The Age, “Sensis paid $636 million for the fading publication three years ago, but after continuous revenue declines and senior executive departures, The Trading Post is back on the block for a price believed to be no higher than the telco paid in March 2004.”

The motivation to sell the property seems to have come after the departure of John King, who appeared to be the last major supporter of the venture. This is startling news given Sensis’ much touted strategy of bringing together businesses and consumers in an open trading environment. Sensis has had the golden touch with most of its ventures, so the failure of The Trading Post seems at odd with the company’s goal of being the local media of choice in Australia.

The The Age article adds:

It it is clear that revenue from the publication has been declining, despite growing revenue in the wider $10 billion Sensis empire. Sensis said revenues at The Trading Post were down 7 per cent in the six months to December. The sale of The Trading Post will be the latest in a long line of unsuccessful attempts by Telstra to diversify, including a number of dot-com ventures and troubled joint ventures in Asia. (…) Sources close to the company said attempts to centralise management functions at the previously independent publication had backfired. Broking analysts believe the group did not have the management skills to shift customers online from the weekly print publication.

James Kirby, editor of Eureka Report, adds in an editorial: ” With the planned sale of The Trading Post, Telstra is acknowledging it does not have the expertise in traditional media to recreate the publication as a successful print/online hybrid, which it must become to survive.”

What it means: in a really surprising move, Sensis seems to be interested in selling back their classified division they bought just a few years ago from Trader Corp. It’s a move I don’t understand. Did they paint themselves in a corner by promising to double revenues by 2010, a tall order indeed? In any case, in a world where the winner will be the
one who controls the data, this is, IMHO, not necessarily a good move by Sensis.

Yellow Pages Group (in Canada) has just released a new content feature in their main local search site YellowPages.ca. Buyers can now access Autotrader.ca dealer inventory content via merchant listings and merchant pages.

When searching for car dealers, users are able to view the inventories of thousands of auto dealers throughout Canada by clicking on the “Auto Inventory” in-listing link. See the following example:

• In-listings: Metro Motors in Port Coquitlam, BC
• Merchant page: Metro Motors

Yellow Pages Group acquired Trader Canada in June 2006.

What it means: it’s a powerful combo for both users and advertisers and it marries perfectly business directories content (long shelf-life) and classifieds content (short shelf-life). (Disclosure: I work part-time for YPG)