tJP

“Yellow Pages Books used by 4.6m each week” according to @SteveatSensis via Twitter.

That is a really big number, we would all like 4.6m customers using our services weekly, or that much free cash in the bank(AUS dollars please).

But its  a false number - it means that around half the nations households use the book once every week. Still a good number but balanced by data such as “75% of people have not used Yellow Pages in last 12 months” ( often quoted by Tim Pethick from other sources).

So when a copy of the Yellow Pages arrived on my doorstep this week, I just recycled it(all 3 volumes that came). I use Google search and other search before I think about Yellow Pages. I only use Yellow Pages for people and businesses that do not yet have a website - tradespeople as an example.

Maybe the only people advertising in the Yellow Pages are tradespeople without a website? But there’s online Yellow Pages, so why bother printing it, because it cannot be:

• Economical to print based on usage
• Environmentally sound

So there’s the need to provide a service to people without computers which is valid, but just as likely that the trades-person who pays for his listing wants to see something tangible - and that is the printed form.