Our merger with the Association of Directory Marketing (ADM) crossed an important milestone yesterday with ADM’s board approval of the merger. Our board gave its approval in a meeting last week, and now the proposal goes to a vote of our respective members. I’m confident they will see the value in this effort.
Our industry is amidst a dramatic and exciting transformation. For 130 years, we have changed and adapted to advertiser and consumer trends. Today, our members are evolving from single-product to multi-platform advertising companies that help local and national businesses generate relevant sales leads across print, digital, mobile, social and other mediums. With the changes in our industry, it only makes sense for us to also transform the associations that represent them.
With final approval of memberships, our combined association will become the largest local search trade organization in the world, representing 90% of the United States and Canadian Yellow Pages industry as well as key players in 29 countries worldwide.
As one association, we’ll speak with a stronger and more consistent voice that fully represents the point of view of all the participants in the Yellow Pages business; publishers, Yellow Pages agencies and suppliers. YPA and ADM have worked together in a number of areas in the past, but I’m excited that we’ll soon be an integrated team with a common purpose and mission.
As you can expect with any integration of two organizations, a significant amount of planning and work has gone into this from both organizations. I’d like to thank staff members at both YPA and ADM, our board members, and all of our members who’ve provided valuable input and assistance in making this happen.
The local search space is ripe with new opportunities. With this merger, our industry is in a stronger position than ever has been to take advantage of them.
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