Yell falls back on internet advertising as profits slump

Yell.comThe internet is now the only source of advertising revenue growth for Yell as advertisers desert its printed directory.

The directories company revealed that pre-tax profits dropped by 44% from £155.9m to £87.2m for the six months to 30 September. But in the UK, it reported a 3% increase in revenue to £351.6m, which was driven entirely by Yell.com.

It saw its income rise 67% to £42.9m with the number of advertisers up 14.5% to 182,000. There was also a 41% increase in revenue per advertiser, as they paid for higher value products.

Yell also reported that the number of unique users of the website was up by almost 35% in September but the number of searches was only up 16%, which it claims shows that the site is more effective and users make fewer searches.

In contrast, it says the number of print advertisers fell by 3.7% to 235,000 in the UK.

US revenues are also growing with a strong performance by its online operations. Overall it grew by 23% to £455m with online revenues up 69% to $29.7m.