Thomson Local has gone bust!!!!!

By : Administrator
Published 15th August 2013 |
Read latest comment - 1st November 2013

Blimey, Thomson Local has gone into administration!!

Sacked and left stranded: phone book staff called to HQ, fired and told to hand over company cars | Mail Online

Hundreds of workers were left stranded and in tears yesterday after they were called to their company head office, unexpectedly made redundant and then told they could not use their company cars to get home.
Sales representatives for telephone directory Thomson Local received a mysterious email late on Tuesday afternoon ordering them to attend a meeting at head office at noon yesterday.

Well I never!! I remember me and Clive being invited down to Thomson HQ a few years ago, thinking they might consider buying us, they in fact tried to flog us their database.

It was a surreal experience and I remember at the time seeing the army of basement workers trying to cleanse their data and watching the hard copy book get thinner, it was only a matter of time with the sheer amount of overhead they must have. Then there is the army of sales guys in their company cards, proper old school hard sell directory model.

So with Yell up to it's eyes in debt, and Thomsons exit stage right, is this an opportunity or a worry??

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn
Comments
Well it seems within a few hours of going into administration, they have been bought by the founders of 118 Information and Market Location.

Be interesting to see what happens to them now.

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn

Strange, but I expected that something like this will happen. Let`s wait and see the outcome

Fixed Fee Legal Services | Bespoke Document Drafting | Document Templates

Well that's several cold calls a year I'll no longer be getting
The trouble is with these directories, is nobody wants them anymore and they are classed as being nothing more than junk mail landing on your doorstep. I very rarely see either a Thomson or Yell directory in peoples properties these days, so for me there is no point in advertising in them. They use to make really good door wedges, but now they are so thin (probably due to lack of advertisers) there not much cop for that either.
Personally I think they should have ditched the directories 10 years ago and just concentrated on the internet..

Thanks,
Barney

Well that's several cold calls a year I'll no longer be getting

Don`t be so sure

Fixed Fee Legal Services | Bespoke Document Drafting | Document Templates

Do you think 118 Information and Market Location have just brought the database?

Thomson Local are a big well known brand, so I would imagine they will keep it running, they'll just absorb their database. But as Barney says, I can see them ditching the publishing side.

Physical directories have been a dead duck for a long time, and look at the sheer amount of debt Yell is in. I don't think I actually got a yellow pages this year, maybe they have dumped it all ready?

That said you still see very localised paper directories, or at least you do round our neck of the woods, so maybe it's viable for smaller niche publishers?

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn

How sad
If a huge company like them goes into administration, what can the little ones expect? How can they survive?

Thanks,
Elisabeth

That said you still see very localised paper directories, or at least you do round our neck of the woods, so maybe it's viable for smaller niche publishers?

There probably is some mileage in them. There's a woman who runs a stationers and printers not far from me who publishes a monthly printed ad. booklet. It's two colours, 4 or 5 pages of A4 folded in half and stapled. I reckon she probably runs off two thousand copies at a time, and she distributes them via petrol stations, chip shops etc. who give them away free. The advertising probably pays for the paper and ink (with a bit left over), and there's a plug for her business on every page. She's been doing this for two years now, so it must be working.

Local Trader

She's been doing this for two years now, so it must be working.

Or has too much time on her hands!

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
My Local Services | Me on LinkedIn

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