It’s hard to imagine that the public might not use an information resource that’s been strong since the late 1800s when it was first introduced - fifteen years ago, no one would’ve ever believed that these hugely profitable companies could ever falter. In my view, the leadership in some, but not all, of the YP companies has been in a bit of denial about the usage reduction of print YP. The YPA’s industry usage statistics studies showed a drop of 7.6 % in usage in 2006, and although their studies claimed to show that no significant drop occurred in 2007, I showed that there’s really good reasons to not believe the drop didn’t continue further in 2007 and into 2008. This is simply incontrovertible, despite how the industry has strenuously tried to deny it, or deflect attention from it. Print usage has indisputably been falling off. So, what’s to be done? Is extinction, as described by the Wall Street Journal, a foregone conclusion? Or can something be done to change course? I’m of the opinion that the yellow pages companies can survive and come out well on the other side, and I’ve come up with ten suggestions as to what they need to change to accomplish survival. The car industry can expect major bailout dollars to buoy them through these stormy economic waters, but the venerable old yellow pages cannot. Donnelley appears to be about to follow them. Economic pressures are hitting many businesses, and a lot of them have slashed some advertising spending, adding to revenue pressures at YP companies.Īnd to add insult to injury, Wall Street has abruptly lost its love for the venerable old companies in the last year, causing their stock prices to fall through the floor - Idearc Media got delisted from the NYSE a few weeks back, and R.H. With consumers using YP printed books less, they’re now facing irritation from the environmentally-conscious throughout the country where people no longer see a reason for having big, paper-heavy books dropped on their porches. Not only has the usage of print yellow pages books declined in recent years, but they’re also facing heavy competition in the online space from each other in addition to other local business directory providers and the big search engines.

It’s something of a “perfect storm” for the embattled yellow pages companies right now.

Local yellow pages