Physical Yellow Pages Molder While Online Yellow Pages Blossom

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  1

  daveingram

  08/01/08 | Reported as spam

  RE: Physical Yellow Pages Molder While Online Yellow Pages Blossom

  You make some good points, and I think that there is also another 'layer' to consider here also. Printed directories have been around for ages - I spent almost 15 years in various directory companies in the UK (Thompson, BT, Freepages), and most recently I got behind The Brownbook (www.brownbook.net) which is right at the other end of the spectrum. What I see is - and I dont say this flippantly - a new business model emerging. That is, more and more of us expect more and more for free, thats what the Internet has taught us, and although print companies are migrating sales forces to new online products you have to question whether the directory of the future even HAS a salesforce. Now, as always, the real situation will be not at either extreme, but somewhere in between, so I expect that print companies will go through a transition that involves falling prices for traditional advertising, gradual migration to online advertising, then the building of increased value into online products such that the revenue is sufficient to make having an expensive salesforce viable. The business model remains the same, just the numbers in the boxes are different.
  
  Meanwhile you have new entrants like Yelp and Trusted Places, who proclaim to be a new business model, "disruptive" is a phrase I hear a lot, but they aren't really all that different. The features they offer (largely marketed as Local Review sites) will sooner or later become part of any directory's offering, and then the question is whether, after burning all that VC money, they end up with a truly sustainable (and novel) business. Think about it, they still have sales forces on the ground, they all do conventional marketing, again, same business model, just different numbers.
  
  What I'm seeking in Brownbook.net is a different model that doesn't involve a sales force, doesn't involve marketing in its traditional sense, and allows for total business self service - from adding listings, to updating them, to paying for enhanced value-added services. This IS a different model. I sometimes liken it to making a fire: traditionally you have to keep stacking on fuel to get a corresponding output of heat; but the true heroes of the web today don't do that (think hotmail, YouTube, MySpace, facebook, etc, etc) they have created a fire that gives off more heat than the input of fuel - self sustaining, self service, low cost (of free) and giving great value to their users. AND sustainable.
  
  Jeez, i never intended to waffle so much, did I get carried away? I had the pleasure of being interviewed on Intruders.TV last week, you can hear more about my thoughts (if you have the energy!!!) here - (http://uk.intruders.tv/Dave-Ingram-of-brownbook-net-the-open-business-directory_a447.html).
  Out.
  D.

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  Edsahara

  08/06/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Much worse than this.

  I spent 18 years in Yellow Pages marketing. What's really burdening the YP publishers are two things: 1) a lot fewer people are using the printed books these days; and 2) they still have the cost of producing and delivering those books. How do you compete against the myriad number of new on-line competitors while carrying this huge cost burden around your neck.
  
  Their plight is much more serious than the article paints it.

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  brittany1

  08/06/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Physical Yellow Pages Molder While Online Yellow Pages Blossom

  There is another element to this equation besides people turning to websites...The cost of placing a yellow pages ad! There are no incentives to stay with the physical book. The price for your ad continues to increase each year and this is not just a small increase. I intended on placing the same size ad in the exact same sections as the year before and was going to be spending $8000 more...there is something wrong with this strategy.

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  ptryan123

  08/15/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Physical Yellow Pages Molder While Online Yellow Pages Blossom

  This is a great article, because it surfaces the most critical aspect of this debate. It's not that the Yellow Pages are dead or dying - they're evolving.
  
  Those of us in the local advertising community are often mesmerized by the staggering adoption rates of new media and steady percentage market declines for traditional media. Frenzy is compounded by the meteoric rise of sites like Facebook, MySpace, and even Google. Consequently, we completely fail to take in the bigger picture. Yes -- traditional media is shrinking as ad spend shifts online, but for a myriad of reasons (another discussion in itself) the belief that the Print Yellow Pages share the fate of the milk bottle is no less short-sighted than the belief the online advertising will never grow beyond a fringe channel. As with most evolutions, a hybrid will emerge.
  
  "Yellow pages publishers have spent the past three years transforming their massive on-the-ground sales forces into marketing consultants..." That's code for the Yellow Pages turning itself into a multi-channel, multi-media marketing solution for local advertisers.
  
  Of course, the death of any giant makes for great headlines - regardless of its accuracy:
  July 2008. Real Estate Marketing Blog, Yellow Pages Dead? http://www.houseblogger.com/houseblogger/2008/07/yellow-pages-de.html
  May 2008. Landscape Juice, Why Yellow Pages is Dead, http://www.landscapejuice.com/2008/05/why-yellow-page.html
  March 2008. CNBC, Are The Yellow Pages Dead?, http://www.cnbc.com/id/23502950/
  July 2007. Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog, When Will The Yellow Pages Die?! http://jwikert.typepad.com/the_average_joe/2007/07/when-will-the-y.html
  October 2006. Pseudofish, The Death of Yellow Pages, http://pseudofish.com/blog/2006/10/20/the-death-of-yellow-pages/
  October 2004. Michael Cage, Sure, The Yellow Pages Are Dead, http://www.entrepreneurslife.com/thoughts/entry/sure-the-yellow-pages-are-dead/
  
  The Yellow Pages was a significant innovation in advertising at its beginning and remains a dominant force today for two primary reasons: exposure and the low involvement requirement of the business owner. Yes, AdWords and other online marketing platforms rival the exposure rates of the Yellow Pages - I think we all can agree on that. However, how many local plumbers can you imagine building a keyword search strategy, and then launching and optimizing a campaign? Virtually all of these guys couldn't care less, they strongly prefer to fill out a form, or approve an ad, and then have their phones ring.
  
  So why don't we reposition our discussion, letting go of declaring traditional media dead. Rather, let's focus on the key to future success (which involved product simplicity and multi-channel marketing), and lift our heads up to realize that we are not experiencing a death, but a transformation.

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  tomnettom

  08/16/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Physical Yellow Pages Molder While Online Yellow Pages Blossom

  I don't think Borrell has a clue about Yellow Pages companies. Most have been involved in Internet Yellow Pages since the late nineties - he states three years. A much better source for how the Yellow Pages industry is doing would be Dr. Fromholzer. All he does is study Yellow Pages usage.

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  AlexIreland

  08/18/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Physical Yellow Pages Molder While Online Yellow Pages Blossom

  The search engines, Internet, and a technologically advanced younger generation will be the death of the printed Yellow Pages. The cost for ads and the knowledge that they are static and cannot be changed for one year will be a huge hindrance. Yahoo and Google are primed to capture the advertising dollars. Do not downplay the "going green" movement. This is something the Yellow Page industry downplays and stresses that they are green because they recycle. But how many of the 500 million printed books are thrown in the trash? Too many. Local governments have started to pass laws to stop the delivery of telephone books to people that do not want them. An ???opt out??? application has been developed at www.YellowPagesGoesGreen.org. The industry has to change are they will be dead.

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  woodsmit@...

  10/23/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Physical Yellow Pages Molder While Online Yellow Pages Blossom

  I would be interested in knowing what percentages of businesses actually advertise in the printed Yellow Pages and what percentage of businesses actually advertise in the Internet Yellow Pages

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  jimmy050974

  10/29/08 | Report as spam

  RE: Physical Yellow Pages Molder While Online Yellow Pages Blossom

  I think the YELLOW PAGES surely requires a new image and adoption into technology to allow a transformation and change in the entire publication industry. Going into completely blogging, internet yellow pages and mobile advertising is surelt the future. But really, there is always a missing link between now and then. The missing link is basically the missing opportunity.
  
  Publishing directory companies surely need to find a solution to address this missing opportunity that will fulfill the managing change of consumer behaviour and advertiser expectation.
  
  Question here is how many publication companies really have that solution and answer? I do.
  
  Jimmy Yong, Malaysia

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  davebarnes

  01/20/09 | Report as spam

  Delusional

  Some of you people are completely delusional.
  
  My 22-year old daughter has never used the Yellow Pages in her life. She does not have a copy in her apartment.
  
  She goes online to search for things and would not even consider using Dexonline (our local online yp).
  
  Printed Yellow Pages are dead. Dead.

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  grace yce

  06/08/09 | Report as spam

  RE: Physical Yellow Pages Molder While Online Yellow Pages Blossom

  The 22 year-olds are probably searching online because there is no better alternative.
  For yellow pages to survive, it must assess what its value-add is and what channels it can use to make that value-add accessible.
  Here in Denmark, despite 90% of the population being online, their version of yellow pages is still the most reliable source. By this, I mean the webpages krak.dk, aok.dk and rejseplanen.dk
  
  With krak.dk, you can find telephone numbers and addresses of people. Of course, people have the option to not register but it is by default that they are listed. Also through this website, you can find maps to the addresses and send flowers via recognized florists.
  
  The aok.dk is like white pages. It lists the shops, restaurants and has a profile on each. Users can log in to rate these places and comment on them. Most people in Denmark use this to choose a restaurant when they are out.
  
  The value-add of these websites means that they provide information which google cannot.