USA Today Article - Print Directories Bite Dust

Headline – USA Today Nation Section 4/29/2009

Printed White Pages Start To Bite The Dust

Did you happen to read the article in the USA Today dated April 29, 2009 about print White Pages? It appears several of the major directory publishers are meeting with their local public service commissions and requesting that delivery of White Page directories be by request only. Seems customers in major market areas such as, Atlanta, Georgia & Cincinnati, Ohio no longer have any interest in receiving print directories.

Cincinnati Bell spokesperson Lisa McLaughlin says the company has also been approved for request only delivery in Kentucky. AT&T has requested and been approved for request only delivery in Ohio, Atlanta, Georgia and has additional requests pending in Missouri, Florida, and North Carolina. One could make the assumption that either Cincinnati Bell & AT&T are trying to save a lot of money or they truly believe that the general public no longer needs or wants the print directories. The answer was provided in comments provided by AT&T spokesperson Fletcher Cook. He indicated to USA Today that less than 3% of the public in their test market areas had requested a White Page book. Folks, that means 97% of the general public isn’t using, nor wants to use phone books!

The implications of these research findings are a huge wake up call for AT&T, Cincinnati Bell and the rest of the directory publishing Industry. We believe that the findings will also serve as a huge wake up call for all those advertisers who have been steadily pouring advertising dollars into the printed directories. Message to phone book advertisers, read the article in the USA Today. Only 3% of the public wants the print product. Even though the publishers are trying to focus all the negative press on White Pages, many of their directories contain both White and Yellow pages bound together. One could certainly make a reasonable argument that if 97% of the buying public doesn't want your White page product, they probably feel the same about your Yellow Pages.

We believe the message may have already landed with many print directory advertisers. Recent bankruptcy filings by Idearc (Publisher For Verizon) sent shivers through the print directory publishing community. If you "Google Idearc Bankruptcy Filing" you will find the search query result below.

Idearc Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - DealBook Blog - NYTimes.com
Idearc Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. March 31, 2009, 12:45 pm ... It sought Chapter 11 protection in Federal Bankruptcy Court in Dallas where it is based ...dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/idearc-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/ - 53k -

Advertisers are quickly waking up to the fact that print directories no longer deliver the strong call volume that they once were capable of producing. In today’s world, if you aren’t the first ad in the heading, you are likely are feeling the pain of the diminishing return on your investment from print Yellow Pages. Flyline Search Marketing is encouraging all of our clients to migrate their advertising spend away from print directories in favor of increased presence on the major search engines. For more information on how our clients are doing, give us a call at 1-866-258-5511 or visit our web site at (www.flylinesearchmarketing.com). You can read through the testimonials that appear on each page of our web site. Internet has become "The New Yellow Pages"

You can also follow us at: (www.myflyline.blogspot.com), (www.flylinesearchmarketing.com) & (www.flyline.multiply.com)