Yellow Pages is shrinking faster than expected
Telstra CEO, David Thodey, has announced that the Yellow Pages is shrinking much faster than they expected. It was anticipated that the directory would take a hit this year, but it would appear that advertisers are abandoning Yellow Pages with gusto.
Whilst in March this year David Thodey stated that he expected Yellow Pages’ revenue to drop by 5% this year as advertisers abandon their age old print directories. Now the CEO of Telstra has reported to the market that the advertisers have been abandoning their Yellow Pages advertising much faster than expected and that they are anticipating that the drop in revenues will be three to four times worse than previously reported.
Yellow Pages are now preparing for a drop in revenues of up to 18% from their print directories. This represents $322 million drop in profits for Yellow Pages. Yellow Pages have reacted to this bad news with an aggressive cost-cutting campaign. They have already laid off about 100 employees, and have indicated that they may let more staff go.
Another way that Yellow Pages are cutting back their expenses is by reducing the size of the printed directory. With less advertisers, Yellow Pages will be reducing the height and width of their directories by 15%. They have reported that they chose to do this as part of a “customer satisfaction survey”, however the 15% size reduction does seem remarkably similar to the % of advertising revenue that they have lost over the last 12 months.
There is also an unsubstantiated rumour that next years Yellow Pages books in Melbourne and Sydney will reduce from 2 books per household (A-K, L-Z) to a single book.
With the Yellow Pages shrinking up to four times faster than they expected, it begs the question “How much longer will the Yellow Pages last?”
Sources
Have your say - tell us how much longer you think the Yellow Pages will last in the comments below.
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I truly believe that printing a publication like this should either be illegal or optional to receive. I personally received a copy on the weekend and threw it straight in the bin. With the technology we have these days it seems silly to name your cleaning business or driving school AAA driving or A A cleaning haha. Silly people.
over a year ago by Matthew Johnson -
advertising in the yellow pages has always been too expensive, i havent advertised in it for over ten years
over a year ago by rick
for that very reason, some states in the usa have banned the yellow pages because it creates too much rubish, the sooner it happens here the better -
I totally agree with Matthew. Get rid of it.
over a year ago by Alan Davidson -
I was told that it takes a litre of water to make one A4 page so when you think about how much water it takes to make the yellow pages, it is no wonder we have water restrictions! The yellow pages is a very expensive form of advertising both to the environment and the companies with ads. I always use the online version of yellow pages but I know my parents prefer the hard copy. It should be our choice as a consumer!
over a year ago by Lea Pierre-Humbert -
They are far too expensive and are on the dinosaur path. I switched to Google and my business went up by 300%
over a year ago by DAVE STEPHEN -
I remember a while ago the guys in myth busters checked how strong the yellow pages book is and put an army tank in either side and pulled in a different direction. Unbelievable the book stayed in one piece... It looks like it'll make more money as a towing device. ;))
over a year ago by Pini @ Aqua Fountains -
only thing we use yellow pages books for is to prop up my computer screen ... I never look in it.
over a year ago by Kerry -
Yellow pages has been too expensive for to long. They treated customers with contempt because they were running a monopoly. Not today. Goodbye yellow pages. Yellow pages is junk. and expensive junk at that. Mine goes in the bin along with the white pages.
over a year ago by Art
If they want to save some money they should issue it to those who request it. Find out who reads it or who needs the yellow pages. -
After more than 40 years on family businesses advertising in yellow pages print, I,ve had enough of their terrible atitude in the past 2 years thinking they are GOD for small business!
over a year ago by Colin
After looking at this years pathetic excuse for a yellow pages I now realise it has a terminal disease and I won,t go into it again ever! -
That asshole of a company known as yellow pages have ripped into small business for years, (when they knew that they had the market cornered they made the most of it) at last they get to see the results of ripping us, soon very soon i hope to see them disappear off the planet and better for the world too.
over a year ago by ward
p.s. they must be hard up for money now got a phone call an hour ago chasing a $130 account only week over due.
