Black and Yellow and Read All Over
I find it interesting to see how other media portray the Yellow Pages.
NewsAdvance.com, a product of The Lynchburg News & Advance, covered the planned introduction of Yellow Book into the Lynchburg area with the confusing headline, €œCompetitors Seeing Yellow.€ If I weren€™t in the industry, I€™m not sure I would have read any further.
It was a standard article with quotes from spokespeople from Yellow Book, Verizon Information Services and Data National€™s Community PhoneBook. Community PhoneBook €œdistributes directories in 12 states and often is informally referred to as the €˜Red Book€™.€ Everyone welcomed everybody into the marketplace, in other words, classic spin.
The reporter found the owner of Graves Mill Storage who takes out a half-page ad in Verizon SuperPages. The storage company owner says that 70-75 percent of her business comes from Yellow Pages. She said she was glad to see a competitor enter the market because it will drive prices down. She didn€™t mention Community PhoneBook, which distributes over 90,000 copies of its book to the Lynchburg area, already in the marketplace.
What is new is that three paragraphs are devoted to the Yellow Book/Verizon lawsuit in which the summary is as neutral as the results of the suit. What was left out was any mention of local search. Print and online Yellow Pages are still seen as being unaffected by other media, at least in Lynchburg, VA.
Following was listed in eLink:
Yellow Book USA, the fifth largest publisher in the USA, will be publishing a Pub Co 999 prototype directory for the Lynchburg, VA area in July, 2005. The Lynchburg, VA directory (104358) will be closing April 15, 2005. This directory will overlay four utility directories (see below). It will be delivered to 108,500 homes and businesses. All national advertisers currently advertising in one of the source directories will be offered the same unit of advertising “free†with no future obligation in this directory. This means if your client has a half page ad in one of the source directories, they are eligible for a half page ad in the Lynchburg Yellow Book, published by Yellow Book USA. Display, Space Listings, and Trademarks will convert to half price in year 2, and full rate in year 3. Listings and Trade Listings convert to full rate in year 2. You will need to transmit the order and send the appropriate artwork on disk.
This prototype offer is NOT available under the “Attorneys†heading.
This is a National-only prototype. Local advertising will be paid. Ad seniority dates will be set based on this first issue. Free prototype ads will appear after paid advertising (local or national). If you would like to secure the best space positioning for your client, please use standard item codes on your orders (no F prefix). All paid item codes and rates appear in Rates & Data. Paid orders will be billed upon publication. We ask that all orders for this directory contain an advice line indicating whether the order is a “free prototype order†or a “paid order.â€