Thread: Yellow Pages Banned

The city of Seattle was first to ban the outright distribution of Yellow Pages directories. It passed an ordinance whereby residence had to opt-out if they didn’t want to receive the Yellow Pages book.

The city of San Francisco was the second city to ban the Yellow Pages distribution. On May 10th, 2011 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed the opt-in ordinance, whereby residents will have to deliberately opt-in to receiving a copy of the Yellow Pages book. The ordinance was passed with a vote of 10 to 1. As you can imagine, the Yellow Pages industry is concerned that very few people would actually opt-in to receive the book. The San Francisco ordinance is positioned as a “three-year pilot program” that will commence in 2012. The ordinance was proposed based on environmental concerns as well as concerns over the cost of disposing of unwanted phone books.

The Yellow Pages industry is now bracing for an opt-in domino effect with cities throughout the world now considering applying similar bans. For example, the San Diego Union-Tribune recently printed an article about the spread of the ban. In it, Pauline Martinson, head of the nonprofit waste-prevention group, I Love A Clean San Diego, told the Union-Tribune, “To most of us, they are no longer necessary.” The Union Tribune article also suggested major cities like San Diego and Chicago may jump on the bandwagon if the San Francisco ordinance survives court challenges from the industry.

As you can imagine, the Yellow Pages industry is fighting vigorously to uphold its right be allowed to continue distributing its outdated and obsolete directories. They have launched appeals against both the Seattle and San Francisco ordinances, in one case claiming that this breaches their “right to free speech” which is a constitutional right in the USA. We eagerly await how the US courts find on matter, however it is obvious that the people have spoken and the distribution of Yellow Pages directories is in a very rapid decline.

In Australia, Sensis distributes millions of printed Yellow Pages directories to homes and businesses each year. The use of Yellow Pages printed directories has been in dramatic decline in Australia, down from 4.5 million medium level users in 2002 to just 2.5 million medium level users in 2009. This year Sensis retrenched 120 of its employees in response to its declining print directories business. Sensis CEO Bruce Akhurst has also publicly announced that it expects at least another three years of continuing declines in revenue as a result of the dying Yellow Pages print directory business. In the announcement, Akhurst also stated that Sensis had an 18 per cent fall in adjusted revenue from its Yellow Pages print operations in the six months to December 31, 2010. He also admitted that the number of consumers using the print version of Yellow Pages was falling and businesses were reducing the size of their print ads.

That said, Sensis continues to bombard Australians with these unwanted Yellow Pages directories. In fact, Sensis has recently increased the distribution of printed directories through the introduction of more directories such as Yellow Pages In The Car. This is placing an increased burden on the environment, as well as local councils who are charged with the responsibility of disposing of these unwanted directories, all at a time when Sensis CEO is openly announcing to the market that consumers are using their printed Yellow Pages less.

About time i say. Slightly off topic, i remember the aussie version making me chuckle with its "A" section taking up 90% of the book because virtually every company there is prefixed with "Aussie" or "Australian".
Don't believe me? take a look here
http://www.yellowpages.com.au/search...ates&x=43&y=13

and here

http://www.yellowpages.com.au/search/listings?clue=aussie&locationClue=All+States&x=41& y=10

LOL I never thought of it like that but it's true, in the UK everyone tried calling themselves AArdvark.
The Yellow Pages is a waste of print but then they can't forget the older generation who don't have access or know how to use computers.

I thought about the silver tops but the text is so small they wouldn't be able to read it anyway.

Very true x

They are a complete waste of paper, I never use them and always find places through the Internet.