Seems that the Yellow Pages, contrary to popular belief, are continuing to take the same path as newspapers had to take a few years back.  Dwindling usage and interest is forcing them to either stay innovative or eventually go out of business.

It’s a wonder that my small-town newspaper is still in existence.  Most likely its only because there are plenty of old-timers still in this town.  But not forever.

Enter the new Yellow Pages opt-out proposal? A genius idea, considering more and more people are going green as well as using them less and less.

While many people are saying this is a new idea, it’s actually not.  Years ago, Southwestern Bell started sending me a CD called LitePages.  It was the entire Saint Louis yellow and white pages on a CD.  I could load the CD onto my server and place an icon on everyone’s PC desktop.  They’d click the icon, and up would pop a virtual yellow pages.  From there they could search and read listings and ads just as if they had an actual phone book in front of them.

And what did I have to do to get the CD?  Simply sign a statement that said we’d order X number fewer books than we had in years past.  It was a win-win.  The environment won, and Bell didn’t really lose any of their usage.  At least in theory.

But still I wonder if my kids, when sitting around the Christmas tree reminiscing twenty years from now, will mention some new techno way to find a local business.  I’ll respond by looking at my beautiful bride of forty years and say “Remember when we had to look up phone numbers in a book?  Those were the days…” as my mind drifts back to thoughts of Pong and amber-colored screens.

Those days are numbered, for sure.  Several of my clients are scaling back on their YP spending and instead putting that money into online efforts.  These efforts can pay long-term, something the current print Yellow Pages can’t promise.

Along these lines, I’ve also heard rumors that some of the smaller Yellow Page companies (print) are even changing their tactics to keep advertisers.  In the past, businesses could list just business name, phone number and URL.  Now, in order to do that,  they are being asked to ‘upgrade’ their current ad so that they can ‘keep’ the URL mention in the print version.  Sounds to me like instead of embracing the future, these YPs are isolating their customers (and losing plenty along the way).