Why is the phone book still printed?

Submitted by Corey Smith on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 16:39

dex phone book On my door step today is the "current" edition of the Qwest phone book. I find it interesting that this is even printed anymore.

Oh, I know that people use it. I know that some people actually don't have the internet. Not those in the circle I roll with, mind you, but I know they exist.

But still, I question the relevance of a phone book. I especially question the relevance of a phone book from one company.

You see, I have been so unhappy with Qwest, that I haven't been a customer of theirs in three years. I know many people who have phones that aren't Qwest customers. With wireless providers offering unlimited minutes, Cable getting in to VoIP (at a ridiculously high price, mind you) and all of the real VoIP providers like Packet8, Vonage, Phone.com and VoIP.com the percentage of customers that companies, like Qwest, have to put in the phone book is dwindling.

Because I haven't been all that happy with VoIP providers, I have opted to use my cell phone with unlimited minutes for my communication. (I have to admit that my home phone is still a VoIP provider... no plugs because they aren't great).

Here is what I am getting at. More and more customers are leaving traditional phone companies for other forms of communication. Not only that, phone numbers change. As fast the book gets printed, there are already changes.

I thought, maybe, the online form of the "phone book" at http://www.dexknows.com would have more data than just for Qwest. I am not listed because I am not their customer. So, I thought that I would check at http://www.yellowpages.com/ but, the same Corey Smiths show up on their list for Idaho. I thought that I would try out http://www.yellowbook.com/... they have two more listings for Corey Smith, but I am still not on the list. I wonder if, for the most part, they are just using the same database... could be.

At least I am on the first page at Google.

So, the phone book becomes obsolete the moment it is printed and even their online services don't contain the phone number for people that aren't their customer (not to mention people that opt out).

So, what is the purpose? Why does it exist? Why do people still use it?

At least I have some free fire kindling now.



Corey Smith is the president of Tribute Media a web development firm providing high performing, industry specific websites. He is a businessman, writer, technology fanatic, graphic designer and web developer. His greatest passion is teaching, consulting and speaking.

You can find him on Twitter, FaceBook, FriendFeed, and LinkedIn.

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Submitted by Joshua James (not verified) on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 20:32.
I'm right there with you. Mind boggling. Add to that the environmental impact.

Submitted by Chris Green (not verified) on Mon, 07/21/2008 - 21:56.
Corey your absolutely correct. Presumably the option of charging for phone books has been tossed around by the carriers and they calculated that it would impact on customer retention or maybe even reduce the volume of calls (revenue). Either way as Joshua points out it demonstrates contempt for the environment. Slightly off the subject I travel to Singapore and Hong Kong quite regularly on business. Something I notice is that corporate customers receive "paper" bills on a monthly basis. In the case of large corporates a monthly bill can run to several boxes of paper as they list all the calls. They're then split them up and give sections of the bill to dept heads who stack them under their desks. Go figure that.

Submitted by kenc (not verified) on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 02:51.
Why? Because they were used over 13 BILLION times last year, because millions of small businesses know that ads in them make their phone ring, and it uses no power, requires no special connections, and is often quicker to use than an online search. That's why.

Submitted by Corey Smith (not verified) on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 04:18.
Kenc, 13 Billion times they were used? How is that quantified? How do we know they are actually used? There may be 13 Billion in circulation, but they are, as Chris points out, free. Distribution does not equate to usage. I would love to hear an ROI story on a phone book ad. I don't know how much they cost, but I would bet that if someone did an ROI for a phone book ad (outside the highpriced ambulance chasers on the back cover).

Submitted by kenc (not verified) on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 04:52.
The 13 billion referneces comes from a respected independent market research group (KNI/SRI) that does these kinds of studies for a range of media. The data is based on some 9,000 annual surveys. The research has been going on for some 10 years. Yes, print has leveled off recently as the number of IYP searches has grown. ROI is exactly how YP is sold. The industry has detailed data by heading which it shares with advertisers. It is a simple discussion -- for every X number of calls an advertisers gets they convert Y in to customers at an average sales of $Z -- that informaiton comes from the advertisers. The publishers then help them on a program which based on the number, size and other features of ads that will drive the number of calls the advertiser gets (bigger adds get more calls than just a listing). One other item, specific to Joshua's comments, you should note that while the popular myth is that this industry is responsible for the neutering of forests, the reality is the Yellow Pages industry doesn’t knock down any trees for its paper!!! Let me repeat that – they don’t need to cut any trees for their paper supply. Currently, on average, most publishers are using about 40% recycled material (from the newspapers and magazines you are recycling curbside), and the other 60% comes from wood chips and waste products of the lumber industry. If you take a round tree and make square or rectangular lumber from it, you get plenty of chips and other waste. Those by-products make up the other 60% of the raw material needed. Note that these waste products created in lumber milling would normally end up in landfills. Not only that, as wood chips decompose, they emit methane, a greenhouse gas closely associated with global warming. Paper manufacturing thus puts these chips to good use. Many paper providers will also use 5% or less of recycled directories in their paper creation.

Submitted by Mike (not verified) on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 05:10.
Corey, Chris, Kenc- It is amazing that you can write comments like this with no background info. The phone books are mostly for business use and not for finding a name like Smith. But, I guess you can find an issue with anything if you dig deep enough. Yellow Pages have been around since 1878 and are still the best place to find what you need at the time you need it. I hope you can be responsible enough to acknowledge the facts.

Submitted by Corey Smith (not verified) on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 05:14.
Kenc. (Mike, this one is for you, too) Seems to me that you are a phone book industry guy. Obviously very passionate about the phone book. I am not a believer in the thought that printing books destroys forests. Even in books that aren't from recycled material, most books are printed from trees specifically grown for that purpose. I talk to my customers all the time. They tell me two things about phone books. 1. They are a waste of money and effort. They are overpriced and underused. 2. They feel obligated to have some sort of presense in a phone book and many of them are cutting their budgets for phone book advertising. I don't believe the stats coming from 9,000 annual surveys. The type of person that will complete a survey will never represent the customer base of every single company out there... especially when the population is over 300,000,000. I know how sales work. The salesman is going to use any stat he can get to sell his product. Stats never lie, but liars use stats. I want to see some real numbers. I want to see someone say, "I bought a phone book ad for $10,000 but I can directly quantify $20,000 worth of sales." I have never seen anyone be able to say that. It is the same issue with billboards. My challenge to you is prove me wrong.

Submitted by kenc (not verified) on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 05:56.
Wow. You seem to have lots of issues. Where do I start: You don't believe what I'm telling you about the source of fiber used in the paper, and insist the tress are grown just for that purpose. Sorry to inform you that you are not correct -- here's more on how paper is made unless you have already fixed in your mind that the industry is knocking down trees every where: http://www.yptalk.com/archive.cfm?ID=322&CatID=3 Your customers done like or use YP advertising -- let's match that with the MILLIONS of advertisers that do use it, find it works for them. What you also are probably not aware of is that many of the phone numbers in those print ads are unique to that ad -- so when they do call, the advertiser knows exactly where the source for the number was -- it only appeared in that ad in that book. that's how the ROI value of print YP is verified, day after day after day. You want a real example of an advertiser that does spend money on print YP -- ok, ServiceMaster spends MILLIONS on YP print ads for their various businesses. They track each and every ad. they have a high ROI requirement for each and every ad. Yet because of the results it brings then they are still spending more each year even as they evaluate other media. Maybe your little gingle should be "Stats never lie, and neither do buyers calling you to do business because they found your ad in the Yellow Pages." You don't believe the research that a respected, established company like KNI does -- maybe you should visit their website to see what else they do: http://www.knowledgenetworks.com/index3.html To your last comment -- The key thing you fail to see is I don't have to prove you wrong. The nearly $18 billion that company's spend on print and online YP speaks for it self. Peace be with you

Submitted by Corey Smith (not verified) on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 07:05.
kenc, You must not have read my comment about trees to try and prove me wrong... you are proving my point. As to your other points... new blog post coming.

Submitted by Corey Smith’s Business and Technology Blog » A Story Like Th (not verified) on Tue, 07/22/2008 - 07:07.
[...] I wrote my post on phone books, I didn’t expect to get some passionate responses in the comments area. I didn’t expect [...]
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