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Changing Consumer and Advertiser Behavior to Spur Online Convergence of Newspaper Classifieds and Yellow Pages, According to The Kelsey Group

Posted on: Tuesday, 25 July 2006, 12:00 CDT

PRINCETON, N.J., July 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Search engines have changed consumer expectations for shopping and finding local businesses. Newspaper publishers have been forced to adapt their traditional media offerings for readers and advertisers. This reality, and its implications for traditional and online media, is examined in a new report by The Kelsey Group titled, "Newspapers 2.0, Part 3: Changing Directions in Newspaper Advertising." This third and final installment of The Kelsey Group's White Paper series about the future of newspapers highlights the opportunities and imperatives for online convergence with other locally serving media, such as Yellow Pages. Among the report's key findings:

* Search engines have trained users to adopt a holistic perspective that involves an expectation for comprehensive data that blurs traditional boundaries between categories of local media advertising. * New technology providers will attempt to reach a larger segment of local advertisers that don't traditionally buy space in newspapers, such as plumbers, lawyers, doctors, and other small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that traditionally considered Yellow Pages their primary local advertising channel. * Newspapers possess the advantage of local relevance and trust across news, community, event and classified categories. To compete with the search giants, they must develop better search technology for indexing and serving combined local and national news, classifieds and Yellow Pages results.

The topic of newspaper classifieds and Yellow Pages advertising will be examined at The Kelsey Group's upcoming conference, Directory Driven Commerce 2006: The Future of Yellow Pages, Sept. 18-20, 2006, at the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Sessions focused on classifieds, Yellow Pages and SME advertisers include:

* "The Future of SME Advertising." In this session, The Kelsey Group and ConStat will present the latest data from the Local Commerce Monitor(SM), an ongoing tracking study that asks local businesses how they invest in technology to promote and manage their businesses. * "Directories and Classifieds -- Will These Mashups Work?" This session will examine acquisitions of classified properties by Yellow Pages publishers as well as how online classified operations have expanded their offerings to include directory-like functionality.

For more information regarding The Kelsey Group's White Paper series on the future of newspapers, including, "Newspapers 2.0, Part 3: Changing Directions in Newspaper Advertising," contact Steve Vasil at (905) 468-8786 or svasil@kelseygroup.com.

About DDC2006

DDC2006: The Future of Yellow Pages is The Kelsey Group's 19th-annual Yellow Pages conference, attracting the widest and most diverse audience in the Yellow Pages community. Association partners for DDC2006 include Association of Directory Marketing (ADM), Association of Directory Publishers (ADP), Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO), WCA/MetroSIG and Yellow Pages Association (YPA). Conference sponsors include 1-800-Free411, Acxiom, AgendiZe, Amdocs, Call Genie, eStara, Ingenio, IT2media, Jambo, Local Matters, Local.com, LOCALEZE, Marchex, StandardCall, Verizon Information Services and YELLOWPAGES.COM. For more information about DDC2006, visit http://www.kelseygroup.com/ddc2006/.

About The Kelsey Group

The Kelsey Group is the leading provider of research, data and strategic analysis on directories, small-business advertising and online local media. Founded in 1986, the company has built a reputation as the premier analyst firm covering the directory publishing community and the emerging local search marketplace, providing advisory services (The Kelsey Report(R) and Interactive Local Media), publishing (Global Yellow Pages(TM) and Local Media Journal(TM)), consulting (more than 300 individual assignments) and conferences (64 events).

The Kelsey Group

CONTACT: Eileen Pacheco, +1-781-556-1026, eileen@tango-group.com, forThe Kelsey Group

Web site: http://www.kelseygroup.com/http://www.kelseygroup.com/ddc2006

Source: PRNewswire

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