Verizon still publishes Yellow Pages
August 20, 2019
A few weeks ago, I arrived at my main employment locale to discover 12 copies of the Yellow Pages in shrink wrap had been delivered that day. For the record, we need to have a new phone system installed in the building, and phones have been slowly failing one by one. But I think at its peak, we never had 12 phones installed!
“This is 2019, ” I shrieked to myself, “this is what Google is for!” Others who walked into my certain-days-of-the-week–office made the same comment. We agreed that we would do the responsible thing and recycle those books. You probably did the same.
Before I took them to the bin where they were supposedly sent to be recycled for next year’s books, I noticed the note on the cover that said, “OPT OUT To stop delivery of future directories, visit yellowpagesoptout.com”
“Aha,” said I, “I will opt out before they deliver one to my house!” I proceeded to do so and laughed in a Sylvester Pussycat like sinister laugh thinking I had pulled the wool over their eyes.
That afternoon as I cut the grass, a white van of creeper variety began circulating in the neighborhood with, you guessed it, my own copy of said Yellow Pages.
I will admit, I still have a landline. That number is there for the purpose of my health and a few loved ones who still frequently call it. So I am entitled to a book. But I will bet that any neighbor who has moved in over the last 10 years has not had a landline activated. Why are they still getting such books? Are landline customers footing the bill for these books?
I’m sure there are a few folks left who would still like to feel the pages as they look up the number for a plumber or dentist. But let them opt IN to receiving the Yellow Pages. Apparently this is what happened with the White Pages.
Verizon Communications and, likely, other former Ma Bell companies need to get with the times and realize that it’s time to retire the “walking fingers” and stop printing Yellow Pages books – at least en masse. We’ll see next year if my “opt outs” took.
It’s all about selling ads. If you are selling space in the YP you have to convince your prospects that you can deliver a certain number of eyeballs. More people opting out of receiving them does not help you to make this case. It’s not unlike the newspapers that were handing out large numbers of free copies to get their circulation numbers up so as to impress advertisers (a practice which landed them in legal trouble by the way). Telling prospects that your book is in 93,000 homes is one of the few arguments you can make anymore.
But is it really in 93,000 homes if they drop it in their recycling bin on the way back inside?
Are you really a newspaper subscriber if the free paper they toss on your lawn goes immediately to the trash? Advertisers will never know. Which was the genesis of the lawsuits.