Telstra-owned Sensis announced on Tuesday that it has been forced to axe a total of 120 staff working on its Melbourne and Sydney offices, which the Yellow Pages company was largely caused by declining revenues on its traditional printed directory business.

A statement issued by the union representing the employees, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU), said that most of the retrenchment would affect Melbourne-based workers as it added that the notice of their separations have been sent out on the same day.

A Sensis representative told BusinesDay that the company is mulling ways to re-assign the affected workers to other operations within the firm, which currently counts a total workforce number of 3800 staff.

According to its latest financial report, Sensis took a hit on its external income during the last six months of 2010, which retreated by 17.6 percent to $696 million as compared to the figures recorded in the prior corresponding period.

The company said that the decline came as its revenues for Telstra jumped by 0.2 percent to $12.4 billion over the same period.

Also, Sensis has admitted that basing on its half-year results, further income declines could be expected in light of "the reduction in the revenue from traditional Yellow Pages print."

Sensis general manager for corporate affairs Prue Deniz said that the company is refocusing its business strategy to give more weight on possible digital growths, which is in line with the company's long-term goal of "evolving to align with the way Australian businesses are now promoting their products and services, and the way consumers are searching for local business information."

Deniz acknowledged that specific job roles in the company would be rendered obsolete "as Sensis continues to evolve our strategic direction to meet these changing dynamics, fuelled by the explosion in digital marketing channels and devices."

Technology experts said that Sensis and its print business operations represent the growing casualties of the digital evolution, wherein consumers consistently shy away from the traditional print-based media in favour of the conveniences offered by electronic publications and online search technology.