Business News
Yellow Pages Industry Faces Economic Challenges, Bankruptcy Woes, According to New Report From Simba Information
Thursday 16. July 2009 - The yellow pages industry has been rocked in the last few months by economic woes resulting in two major publishers -- Idearc Media and R.H. Donnelley -- filing for bankruptcy protection and one international yellow pages publisher -- Yell Group (London), the publisher of Yellowbook in the U.S. -- announcing that it had begun a process to refinance its debt in the hope it could extend the maturity dates and change terms.
So, what went wrong with the two RBOCs which filed for bankruptcy and the independent publisher going back to the banking world with a refinancing attempt? Well, it wasn’t the industry, according to “The RBOC Bankruptcies 2009: The Impact on the Future of the Yellow Pages Industry,” a new report published this week from media industry forecast and analysis firm Simba Information.
“Does this mean the end of the yellow pages industry? Some have touted the demise as imminent. The news media is rampant with opinions about the end of the yellow pages world and some analysts forecast gloom and doom for all but Google, Yahoo! and the like. And bloggers jump to their computer keyboard and pound out a call for the outright ban of books for the good of the people whether they want them or not and toss in the good of the environment as well,” said David Goddard, senior analyst of Simba’s Yellow Pages Group and lead author of the study.
The overview looks at the actions behind the scenes that led to bankruptcy court and projects where the companies and the entire industry — both independent and incumbent — are likely to find themselves in the future. “The RBOC Bankruptcies 2009” includes industry revenue forecasts, industry usage figures and comprehensive profiles of leading companies.
As a special offer, Simba will be hosting a free webinar on July 28, 2009, for buyers of “The RBOC Bankruptcies 2009.” Simba yellow pages senior analyst David Goddard will present findings from the report and will be joined by directory publishing executives Frank Jules (president & CEO, AT&T Advertising Solutions) and Scott Pomeroy (president & CEO, Local Insight Media), who will answer attendees’ questions and address the state of the yellow pages industry as they see it from their roles at the head of two of the top five U.S. directory publishers.