Thomson Local
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Thomson Local is a local business telephone directory published in the United Kingdom by Thomson Directories Ltd. It is the principal rival (and for the 1980s and some of the 1990s the sole rival) to the Yellow Pages (published by Thomson as the Thomson Yellow Pages until it was sold off to the privatised BT).
Thomson Local is a focused local area directory which has continually innovated with features such as colour and knock-out white advertisements. It was the first such directory in the UK to contain added value features such as local maps, local guides, and additional useful information beyond the actual business listings themselves.
Thomson Directories Ltd was originally formed to publish the Thomson Local in 1980 by The Thomson Corporation (after it had sold off its Thomson Yellow Pages business) and Dun & Bradstreet, in partnership. After trials in several areas, the Thomson Local was first published throughout Great Britain in 1981. After a series of sales and buyouts over subsequent years, as of 2005 Thomson Directories Ltd is owned by Seat Pagine Gialle S.p.A. of Italy.
The directory is still distributed to households in printed form. In the 1990s the company expanded its operations to include its own online directory and a range of partner implementions supplying classified and keyword based listings to companies such as Tiscali, MSN, Toucan, UpMyStreet, BlueYonder, Skype, Daily Express and many others.
Thomson Directories has also been a pioneer in the small business search marketing arena developing pay-per-click advertising solutions that don't require a web site. They are currently one of the worlds leading Google resellers.
