Though profits are up, fewer advertisers make road ahead uncertain
Yellow Media Ltd. has reported a big turnaround in its first-quarter bottom line compared with a year ago when the publisher of print and digital media directories took a massive $2.9-billion goodwill impairment charge.
Montreal-based Yellow Media said its net income in the three months ended March 31 was $53.5 million or $1.91 per share, compared with a net loss of $2.87 billion or $102.93 per share in the same 2012 period.
Revenues, however, continued to decline, falling 12.4% to $253.3 million from $289.1 million a year ago, primarily due to lower print revenues and the discontinuation of duplicate directories published by Canpages.
“On a comparable basis, excluding Canpages, revenues decreased by 10.2% versus last year’s results,” the company said in its earnings release Tuesday.
Digital revenues for the first quarter of 2013 grew to $98.9 million compared with $85.9 million in the 2012 quarter, up 15.2% and now represent about 39% of total revenues, up from just under 30% in the 2012 period.
However, “continued growth in digital revenues is currently unable to offset print revenue declines… a result of challenges associated with migrating print revenues towards digital products and services, predominantly amongst larger advertisers,” Yellow Media said.
The company also continues to experience a decline in advertiser acquisition, with the number of advertisers falling to 300,000 as of March 31 compared with 333,000 advertisers at the same point last year, excluding Canpages.
“Despite continued pressure in print revenues, our digital revenues continue to grow at a steady pace,” said president and CEO Marc Tellier, who is stepping down later this year.
“As we work towards growing overall revenues, our near-term focus lies in properly addressing the needs of our larger clients through enhanced servicing and the introduction of new digital products.”
“We will also be focused on developing dedicated acquisition channels to acquire valuable customers and address our falling advertiser acquisition rate. Execution of these projects is key in promoting Yellow Media’s long-term success,” he added.
Yellow Media owns and operates some of Canada’s leading properties and publications, including Yellow Pages print directories, YellowPages.ca, Canada411.ca and RedFlagDeals.com.
