• by Wendy Davis , April 27, 2005

Monster Worldwide, the parent of online classified site Monster.com, said Tuesday it is considering shedding its directional marketing business, which consists of a Yellow Pages advertising agency; direct marketing interactive business--including search engine optimization and management services; and direct response units.

"Given our corporate strategy of focusing our energy and resources on growing the Monster franchise across key local, national, and global markets, we believe it is an appropriate time to evaluate strategic alternatives for our Directional Marketing business while considering what's in the best interests of our shareholders and other stakeholders," said company CEO Andrew J. McKelvey in a statement.

Spokesman David Rosa added that the directional marketing business was "not a very good fit" with Monster's core job search business. "We looked at all of our companies across all of our services, to make sure that they were all feeding the monster, if you will."

Monster's directional marketing arm accounted for 11 percent of the company's 2004 revenues, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Although Monster's directional marketing businesses posted a $3.8 million profit last year, annual revenue decreased to $94.1 million, from $103.3 million 2003. The company attributed the loss to Yellow Pages directories closing--a trend it expected to continue through this year--and fewer Yellow Pages ad placements.

Monster also reported Tuesday that first-quarter profits rose to 17 cents a share on total revenue of $246.9 million, up from 11 cents on revenue of $182.4 million a year ago.