Discussion

By Thomas D. Greer on Jul 05, 2007

The old adage about railroads (if they'd seen themselves as being in the "transportation" business, they'd own the airlines) holds true. If phone directory publishers had seen themselves as being in the information retrieval business instead of the ad sales business, they'd be the search engines.

Likewise, if more printers saw themselves as being in the communication business instead of the "printing" business, they'd be the leaders in eCommerce. I loved working for Printing Inc in Wichita, KS for 10 years. That was one of the owner's favorite sayings, and he was very innovative with his business ventures and vision of the company. Of course, Consolidated Graphics purchased them, and shelved my eCommerce print procurement system (the industry's first) for two years. Instead of working on innovative combinations of printing and technology, I had to endure jokes from Joe Davis about how "at Printing Inc, why even the pressman had computers!"

The head-in-the-sand, let's just keep on doing what we've always done mentality so prevalent in the printing industry will be its death.

By Ken C on Jul 06, 2007

Wow. You are way off base. The VCR didn’t replace movie theaters, TV didn’t replace radio, and the Internet will NOT be replacing the printed Yellow Pages. It will supplement it. US adults referenced them over 15 billion times last year. 90% of all adults reference them at least once a year, 75% in a typical month, and 50+% on average month. How about on average 1.4X each week? And let’s remember that not everyone has Internet access to reference those websites you think are suppose to bring nirvana to the masses.

There is no other directional media that can provide buyers the information they need when they need it about local businesses than the print Yellow Pages. It is truly the original local search engine….

But if you insist that the Internet is the way to go, who do you think is going to get all that neat stuff that is in those print books on to the Net so your Google search actually yields the results you really want??? It’s going be that same Yellow Pages sales rep also has a complete portfolio of local search and Internet based products that they can help small businesses get on the Net…..

By RT on Jul 13, 2007

Those that don't have money, don't have Internet access, it's as simple as that. Are these the kind of customers you're looking for? Past association with a decent business is first, word of mouth is 2nd, the Internet is third, and then whatever crumbs are left over everyone else gets. I can change my internet site in a moments notice, but I'm stuck with the same ad for 12 months. Will the phone book die? No. Is the phone book the first place to look for goods and service. Absolutely not. Newspapers advertising is down as well. Will newspapers wither and die no.
It's not scientific, but in my area, I would guess that there are 10% of space advertisers in our phone book compared to what it was 10 years ago.
The only real value of a phone book is to look up a number from someone you already know you want to call, and that's if your in the kitchen and don't have a computer handy. It takes longer to find the phone book in my household, than it does to type Joe's Pizza Parlor, my city. Bang done, 5 seconds

By joe e on Jul 13, 2007

If you need to call a cab one doesn't fire up the computer and go to a search engine. Local search egines on the net are still very clunky. If you don't get the name exactly right it doesn't show up. It's very difficult to view a complete category at a glance. Something the net does better other thing the yellow pages will always do better.

By Jim Daly on Jul 13, 2007

There is a fundamental flaw in Adam Dewitz' argument regarding the demise of the Yellow Pages that all budding economists must come to terms with early in their careers. People often behave "irrationally" in the minds of "experts" because their evaluation criteria don't always match those of the purchaser.

Taking nautical charts for instance, I use both the print version and the electronic versions (and pay for both). I use the electronic version for convenience and integration with other navigation equipment. I use paper because I can write on it, take it any place on the boat or on land, it is always visible and available (it doesn't need to be switched on and booted up).

Conversely, understanding the utility that your customers derive from your product is essential to survival. When I was a typographer, my entire industry disappeared very quickly. However, my customers still needed to communicate with their customers via distinctive design.

In the real world, the shortest distance between two points is not always a straight line. The continuous drive to only provide "optimal" products is a slippery path.

Using common analysis techniques, one might conclude that if 20% of the items in a catalog constituted 80% of the orders, that the catalog could be more cost effective if it included only the higher-volume products. In fact, eliminating 80% of products can eliminate the sale of nearly all of the high-volume products as well. The reason; "You didn't provide a large enough selection for me to choose from." is typically expressed by customers.

So let us all be cautious about making broad-stroke predictions based on optimization logic or we will too often be surprised by actual consumer behavior.

By Mike on Jul 13, 2007

Jim - I am not sure that Adam is really arguing anything. He's giving an "example where printers could help clients implement cross-media campaigns that utilize new media along side print media." He is stating that this is an area where printers need to provide a larger selection for customers to choose from, not a smaller one. Many universities have already phased out printed directories in favor of online directories. I haven't had a phone book in my house since 2003. They all end up instantly in the recycle bin. With services like free-411 and goog-411, I always have a detailed local phone book with me. The phone book may die someday and electronic solutions have surpassed it. Perhaps the death of the phone book would be a good http://www.longbets.org/" rel="nofollow">long-term wager. http://printceoblog.com/2007/07/are-the-yellow-pages-still-relevant#comment-1270" rel="nofollow">Thomas said it right. "The head-in-the-sand, let’s just keep on doing what we’ve always done mentality so prevalent in the printing industry will be its death."