Yellow Pages cutting 300 positions in digital shift
by The Canadian Press
The company is focused on its digital offerings, which now account for more than 57 per cent of overall revenues
MONTREAL—Yellow Pages is cutting about 300 positions, or about 10 per cent of its workforce, as it continues its shift to digital media advertising.
The Montreal-based company best known for paper telephone and advertising directories said Thursday that the affected jobs are mainly management positions, with about three-quarters located in Quebec.
Over the past 17 months, Yellow has focused on growing its digital offerings, which now account for more than 57 per cent of overall revenues.
The job cuts to be completed by the end of November are expected to save nearly $30 million a year. That’s in addition to between $20 million and $25 million in annualized savings from past efforts.
Yellow said the corporate realignment will boost its efficiency as it integrates acquisitions and technologies.
Old systems, platforms and processes continue to be “decommissioned,” paving the way for the job cuts in the IT, marketing and strategy departments. However, it will continue to hire to support its digital transformation which has seen nearly 400 position added over the last two years.
Analyst Aravinda Galappatthige of Canaccord Genuity said the re-alignment shows that Yellow’s digital transformation is on track and provides greater confidence about its future financial performance.
He expects adjusted pre-tax operating earnings will level off in fiscal 2016 after falling about 25 per cent from the prior year in each of the past two quarters.
